Failure of Socialism in Eastern Europe
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The failure of socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union has been apparent in the last three years or so with the breakup of the Soviet bloc and the attempt to shift the centrally planned economies of these countries to a free market system by fiat. What may be less obvious is the degree to which socialism has failed in Western Europe, a socialism that had existed within the parliamentary democracies of that region. Geoff Eley examines the issue of socialism and whether it can be considered in crisis and as a failure, and he finds that it depends on what is meant by socialism. The underlying idea of socialism he finds robust and potentially valuable, but he is not so accepting of the socialism that has actually been implemented, what he refers to as "the unimaginative statist traditions consolidated on either side of the Iron Curtain since the late-1940s." Eley's analysis points out two opposing conceptions of the failure of socialism, the first being that it is the socialism that was instituted that failed because it was "unimaginative," and the second that socialism failed because it is an inherently flawed system that could do little else. The idea that socialism was inherently flawed from the first is expressed by Max Eastman when he compares the socialist ideal to Marxian doctrine: The assumption common to these two dreams is that society can be made more free and equal, and incidentally more orderly and prosperous, by a state apparatus which takes char
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ys, has had difficulty grasping this because Western analysts have viewed the Soviet state as one organized along familiar lines, with government and citizenry coexisting in a certain balance. This, however, was not the case:
Whatever its theoretical claims and propagandistic slogans, the Communist regime in fact enforced in the most extreme form the principles of Muscovite "patrimonialism," depriving the citizenry of all rights, notably the right to form independent organizations and to own property. By shifting all political authority and property to the state, the Communist regime eliminated every semblance of an equilibrium between government and society.
In the mid-1980s, the Communist leadership decided to dilute its absolute authority and to bring society into a limited partnership to help it overcome problems of political and economic stagnation. Pipes says the leadership found that there was no society and thus no partner:
There were only millions of atomized individuals--some alienated and angry, the majority indifferent--whom 70 years of Communism had taught to take care of themselves and leave public affairs to their betters.
This points to one of the internal problems of the socialist form of governme
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Soviet Union, West Pipes, Eastern Europe, French Italian, Max Eastman, Canada Pacific, Eley Robert, Socialist Party, Western Europe, Geoff Eley, eastern europe, failure socialism, socialist parties, soviet union, idea socialism, western europe, soviet society, socialist party, planned economies, socialism europe,
Approximate Word count = 2297
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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