The non‐capitalist road and Soviet development theory today: A critique of some recent accounts

Abstract

In this article, recent accounts of Soviet views on the non‐capitalist road of development and the prospects for socialist change in the Third World by Jerry F. Hough and Elizabeth Valkenier are challenged. It is argued that the typology of Soviet models of the revolutionary process in the developing countries elaborated by Hough in his book The Struggle for the Third World obscures, rather than clarifies, the real differences between Soviet analysts on this issue. On this basis, it is shown that the textual evidence adduced by Hough and Valkenier for the view that Soviet experts are increasingly sceptical about the possibility of socialist change in the Third World does not stand up to scrutiny.