An autopsy of marxist socialism

Abstract

Is socialism dead? Common sense at the close of the 20th century suggests the answer is yes. The Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe has long disappeared, the Soviet Union has dissolved, Castro's Cuba is on the brink of collapse, and Chinese communism looks more and more like Singapore‐style authoritarianism with a decidedly capitalist face. The admired Third Way of Scandinavian social democracy has hit a dead end, abandoning its commendable goals of full employment, rising real wages, and large welfare transfers. Caught in a world‐wide transition from nationally organized to globally integrated capitalism, the nation state‐based “Keynesian socialism” of 20 years ago has found itself in a losing battle with the new internationalism of multinational corporations and expanding stock exchanges. The Western democratic Left of the 1990s has appropriated campaign slogans that barely differ from those of market liberals and conservatives.