‘State Capitalism’ in the Soviet Union

Global transformations and formation of new social systems

“…While the emergence of the Soviet Union as the world's first nominally socialist state led to socialism's widespread association with the Soviet economic model, several scholars posit that in practice, the model functioned as a form of state capitalism (Chomsky, 1986;Howard, King, 2001;Fitzgibbons, 2002) Several academics, political commentators, and scholars have noted that some Western European countries have been governed by socialist parties or have mixed economies that are sometimes called "democratic socialist" (Barrett, ed.,1978;Sanandaji, 2021b). Following the end of the Cold War and the revolutions of 1989, many of these countries have moved away from socialism as a neoliberal consensus replaced the social democratic consensus in the advanced capitalist world (Sanandaji, 2021b), while many former socialist politicians and political parties embraced "Third Way" politics, remaining committed to equality and welfare, while abandoning public ownership and classbased politics (Socialism, 2023e).…”

Global transformations and formation of new social systems

“…While the emergence of the Soviet Union as the world's first nominally socialist state led to socialism's widespread association with the Soviet economic model, several scholars posit that in practice, the model functioned as a form of state capitalism (Chomsky, 1986;Howard, King, 2001;Fitzgibbons, 2002) Several academics, political commentators, and scholars have noted that some Western European countries have been governed by socialist parties or have mixed economies that are sometimes called "democratic socialist" (Barrett, ed.,1978;Sanandaji, 2021b). Following the end of the Cold War and the revolutions of 1989, many of these countries have moved away from socialism as a neoliberal consensus replaced the social democratic consensus in the advanced capitalist world (Sanandaji, 2021b), while many former socialist politicians and political parties embraced "Third Way" politics, remaining committed to equality and welfare, while abandoning public ownership and classbased politics (Socialism, 2023e).…”

Economy Studies

“…There is a lot of debate on whether these so-called socialist economies are truly a different type of political-economic system. Some people contend that, although the goal of these systems was to break free from capitalism, they in fact remained stuck in the capitalist world system, and simply instituted a state-controlled version of capitalism (Howard & King, 2001). Others argue that these socialist economies are fundamentally different from capitalism, but that the systems in effect are tributary as they see hierarchical redistribution as the dominant mechanism (Chase-Dunn & Hall, 1997).…”