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North Korea is a straightforward feudal monarchy decorated with communist trimmings. While the USSR was effectively a dictatorship it had no mechanism for inhe
by TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
North Korea is a straightforward feudal monarchy decorated with communist trimmings.
While the USSR was effectively a dictatorship it had no mechanism for inherited leadership. It was actually more like Imperial Rome, with the nominally elected leader acting as Emperor until death, in charge of a semi-loyal but fractious Senate (Politburo).
Putin reinvented this recently, but without the friction.
The omens strongly imply that Trump would have followed the same playbook if he'd won the last election.
- int_19h 5y agoUSSR was something else, more akin to oligarchic theocracies: a state where the means of production are owned collectively by the ruling elites. So party functionaries enjoyed a significantly better standard of living - the higher in the hierarchy, the better - but all of that was strictly conditional on being in the party (and helping maintain that state of affairs). In comparison, Imperial Rome had full-fledged private property, and it was entirely possible to be rich outside of politics, or for a politician to retire and still make use of all the capital accumulated by their application of power. (One could also reasonably argue that this is why USSR was ultimately dismantled from the inside by the very bureacrats who ruled it: they all wanted to secure their slice of the pie.)
- anthk 5y agoNK is Japanese Fascism in practice with Communist propaganda as a showoff to "calm" China and make it their ally.