State Socialism in Communist States
The economic model adopted in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and other Communist states is often described as a form of state socialism, and in some cases, state capitalism. The ideology was based on Socialism in One Country; this system was based on state ownership of the means of production, and bureaucratic management over production and the workplace by state officials ultimately subordinate to an all-encompassing communist party. Rather than the producers controlling or managing production, the party controlled the government machinery which directed the national economy on behalf of the communist party and planned production and distribution of capital goods.
In the 20th century's so-called "communist states", the state did not in fact wither away. Some Marxists defend them and contend that the transitional period simply wasn't finished. Other Marxists denounce those "Communist" states as Stalinist, arguing that their leadership was corrupt and that it abandoned Marxism in all but name. In particular, some Trotskyist schools call those countries degenerated workers' states to contrast them with proper socialism (i.e. workers' states); other Trotskyist schools call them state capitalist, to emphasise the lack of true socialism and presence of defining capitalist characteristics (wage labor, commodity production, bureaucratic control over workers).
In the former Yugoslavia, the successor political parties to the League of Communists in Serbia and Montenegro, the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro have advocated progression towards a free-market economy but also advocated state economic planning of elements of the economy, maintaining social welfare and have advocated significant state influence in the media.
Read more about this topic: State Socialism
Famous quotes containing the words state, socialism, communist and/or states:
“The drama is complete poetry. The ode and the epic contain it only in germ; it contains both of them in a state of high development, and epitomizes both.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“Hermann Goering, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Albert Speer, Walther Frank, Julius Streicher and Robert Ley did pass under my inspection and interrogation in 1945 but they only proved that National Socialism was a gangster interlude at a rather low order of mental capacity and with a surprisingly high incidence of alcoholism.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“The one who first states a case seems right, until the other comes and cross-examines.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 18:17.