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Why Did Communism Fail?
This answer to “why did Communism fail?” was given by Radu Nachita, who had an inside view. He writes about his childhood in communist Romania in an article on FEE.org [emphasis mine]:
Centrally planned and state-owned economies did not collapse in 1989 when the Berlin Wall was finally “torn down.” Actually, the failure of this economic system started in 1961 when the wall was built by the communist regimes to trap their own populations inside the “workers’ paradise.” The failure was already obvious in the eyes of people who endured it—far earlier than was acknowledged by Western academics or public opinion.
Communist regimes didn’t collapse solely because of general shortages of basic goods: Mankind has been confronted by that for millennia. People did not rise up against them just because of their oppressive policies: violence and abuse from political power have been the historical norm, and the rule of law is a very recent and rare exception.
Communism failed because comparisons with realistic alternatives were possible. Shortwave radios, satellite dishes, and videotapes were more successful than nuclear weapons. Communist regimes failed because their failure became obvious even to the privileged class.
Read the whole thing.
Published in General
You can’t be totalitarian unless you’re socialist first. And modern China is neither.
The ruling party is still calls itself communist, but it isn’t. It’s authoritarian: some people refer to China as the first successful fascist state. The Chinese “Communist” Party calls the economic system “socialism with Chinese characteristics“, but it’s actually capitalism with Chinese characteristics.
Some part of the communist party leader ship had paid attention to what was going on in the capitalist parts of China; i.e., Taiwan and Hong Kong. They saw mainland China being hopelessly outstripped, in terms of per capita income, and once Mao was gone, and the communist true believers set aside, the party leadership began to move China toward a market economy.
It is conceivable, though not that likely, that even as China gets rich by becoming capitalist, America will become poor by becoming socialist.