Re: State capitalism?

[ROSSERJB@xxxxxxx]

To Louis:
    Your comments are well stated and well thought out (bet
you did not expect to read that out of me on this list, although
I have said similar thing in the past...occasionally, :-)).
    One problem would seem to be with this criterion that there
be no slipping back to market capitalism, no takeover by the (a)
national bourgeoisie.  But if that is the criterion, then what
distinguishes Egypt or Ghana from Russia or Albania or Hungary
or China?  In all of these, to varying degrees, a national bourgeoisie
is taking control, in some cases out of the former "state capitalist"
ruling class nomenklatura (or its children in the case of the PRC).
Heck, according to a recent study I saw, Syria is the most socialist
nation on earth, as measured by state control of the economy, although
the DPRK was not on that list.
     Another general question for everybody:  Is state capitalism
the same thing as market socialism?  Personally I think that they
overlap, but are not identical.
     I would warn those who insist on some purist definition of "socialism"
that you won't find that in Marx.  State rather than private ownership
was quite sufficient.  The pure workers' state was to be communism,
leading, of course supposedly to no classes and no state.
Barkley Rosser


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