[lbo-talk] What is socialism?

[Wojtek S]

And one more point - viewing all Soviet satellites as being
essentially teh same is inaccurate.  There were significantly
different - and the difference can be explained in large part by their
historical origins (to use Barrington Moore's term.)  Bohemia,
Moravia, Hungary and partially Poland (western and southern part) did
better than others, because they were more developed prior to
imposition of Soviet communism.  E Germany also did better - which is
quite remarkable give the punitive measures imposed on it by the USSR
as war reparations.  Bulgaria, Romania Eastern Poland and Slovakia
were more backward, and did not as well under socialism and they are
still trailing behind, 20+ years after soviet communism is gone.

Wojtek

On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 11:42 AM, Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:
>
> On Oct 13, 2010, at 10:45 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
>>
>> Russia and its EE satellites were backward rural societies that never
>> experienced democracy or even a republican form of government in their
>> history or had a real economy.  This backwardness created dysfunctions
>> so ingrained in social fabric, that would persist regardless of what
>> political regime ("Reds" or "Whites") succeeded the tsar.
>
> East Germany was an industrial society that had experienced both bourgeois
> democracy (from repeal of the Antisocialist Laws until 1933) and a
> republican form of government (from 1919 to 1933).  So was Czechoslovakia
> for an even longer time. Yet the "ingrained dysfunctions" they experienced
> under Stalinism were essentially identical to those of the other satellites
> and distinctly worse than in "backward rural" Yugoslavia.
>
> Shane Mage
>
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
>  always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
>  kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
>  Herakleitos of Ephesos
>
>
>
>
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