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But Chile was not a communist country. The dream of a "mechanical centralized control" was shared by a lot of people in the XX century. It's strongly featured

• Kadin 14y ago
  While Allende's formal affiliation was with the Socialist party, he was also endorsed by the Communist party at the time of his election. (WP says it was as an alternate, their primary choice being Pablo Neruda, but he then turned around and supported Allende.) And Allende's government was apparently perceived by some as being to the left of the Socialist party after the election. Exactly where the government was on the spectrum is open to debate, but I don't think you can say that they "weren't Communist" as though that's a boolean flag that's either true or false. But I think arguing over where exactly they were politically misses the point; you can have varying political philosophies alongside different economic ones. I'd argue that the two are basically orthogonal. Regardless of where the Allende government falls on the political-philosophy spectrum, they certainly had a fascination with national industries, economies of scale, and central planning.
  • demian 14y ago
    > Exactly where the government was on the spectrum is open to debate, but I don't think you can say that they "weren't Communist" as though that's a boolean flag that's either true or false. Of course I can't. My comment was a reply. My point was that Chile was not a "communist country" as in "USSR's brand of Communism".