Somebody: I agree. The psychological effect that the lack of a left-wing economic alternative has is so powerful that it becomes a material force. It's obvious that the perceived failure of socialism, the notion that's been tried already, is behind the weakness or even near absence of the left in East and South-east Asian countries, for example. On the other hand, the idealistic draw of Cuba and the survival of it's system after the Special Period helped keep left-wing ideology alive in Latin America. Conversely, there's been a vigorous class struggle in Egypt in recent years, but it's led to very little politically, with the opposition dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and liberal Kifaya. If there was a left-wing alternative in the Arab world, then the situation there would be very different.
The scholarly literature on comparative capitalist systems is quite extensive these days. Yet the left seems strangely uninterested in comparative socialist models. I'm not an economist, but it seems like a more thorough study of what works and what doesn't work could inform attempts to create new models today. The left can't afford more failures. For one thing, if the Bolivarian revolution stagnates and Cuba reforms it's way into post-communism, we can kiss the Latin American left goodbye.