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Whenever socialism goes awry there’s this True Scotsman argument: “Well, that’s not true socialism.” According to those standards there probably hasn’t been a
by BjoernKW 9y ago
Whenever socialism goes awry there’s this True Scotsman argument: “Well, that’s not true socialism.”
According to those standards there probably hasn’t been a true socialist society or state yet.
The often mentioned Nordic model isn’t socialism by any narrow definition because it still involves free market capitalism and private ownership of the means of production.
- dwaltrip 9y agoWell, clearly, there is something going on very differently in the European socialist democracies, at the very least. Hmm, I just did a quick google search... this Quora question [1] seems to have some consensus that Venezuela is actually closer to a dictatorship that has some socialist aspects and some capitalist aspects. I don't know many details about the Venezuela situation, so I can't say too much more at this time. [1] https://www.quora.com/Is-Venezuela-a-socialist-or-communist-country https://www.quora.com/Is-Venezuela-a-socialist-or-communist-...
- BjoernKW 9y agoOne definition of communism or socialism in its more extreme varieties is that the state becomes the only remaining capitalist. So, having some capitalist aspects doesn't necessarily preclude socialism. Every real-world implementation of socialism (in the true sense of the word, not the Nordic / social democracy kind of system) to this day seems to either have had some features of a dictatorship right from the start or devolved into a dictatorship over time. The only instance of socialism I can think of where this wasn't the case is the Allende government in Chile and that unfortunately didn't last long enough (less than 3 years) to see how it would've evolved in the long run.