Posted on 05/10/2015 1:08:52 PM PDT by MuttTheHoople
bmp for later
A factor you don’t mention is how the two ideologies were viewed by their contemporaries outside Germany and Russia. In every case that I know the Nazi imitators, sympathizers and hangers-on came from the political right, while Communist sympathizers and Nazi-haters came from the left. True in Spain, France, Britain, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.
By any reasonable definition of "Communism," both neither China nor Vietnam are Communist today in anything but name. The US (to say nothing of western Europe) has more of a welfare state than China does. The private sector fraction of China's GDP is greater than that of many European nations. So unless you're going to argue that all of Western Europe and possibly the US is Communist, that pretty much excludes China.
Otherwise, it seems to me that you're redefining "Communist" to mean "any country with an authoritarian government that I don't like."
Communism just ain’t what it used to be. China and Vietnam seem to have done well economically, by allowing capitalism to operate there.
North Korea and Cuba maybe not so well, and with little or no capitalism.
That's like saying "Those young people aren't what they used to be. 40 years later, they got old." If China and Vietnam "allow capitalism to operate there" they're obviously not communist in anything but their party name by any sensible definition of Communism.
Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela qualify. China and Vietnam do not.
“That’s like saying “Those young people aren’t what they used to be. 40 years later, they got old.” If China and Vietnam “allow capitalism to operate there” they’re obviously not communist in anything but their party name by any sensible definition of Communism.
Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela qualify. China and Vietnam do not.”
You are accurate in what you say. Yet we still have talked about China as a “communist” nation, from the era of state ownership and direction of an authoritarian command economy.
The state ownership has changed, but I suspect careful study would show the power of the state over just who gets to do what, when, how etc. E.g. authoritarian and command.
China and India are viewed by international businesses as their biggest opportunities for luxury consumer goods, by their growing middle classes.
Autos are an excellent example.
This is a very good point, and it highlights the fact that saying that a political system is "statist" tells us absolutely nothing about its ideological content or what factions it appeals to. In the 1930's, Fascist/Nazi sympathizers abroad generally included industrialists, the aristocracy (in Britain and Europe), and political nationalists. Communist sympathizers were made up of labor union leaders and student radicals.
If Fascism/Nazism and Communism were "the same," and if the real goal of the Fascists and Nazis were nationalizing all private property, you'd think that they would both have the same admirers and supporters.
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