{"id":25157,"date":"2016-03-07T12:30:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T01:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=25157"},"modified":"2016-03-07T09:39:38","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T22:39:38","slug":"the-limits-of-capitalism-with-communist-characteristics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-limits-of-capitalism-with-communist-characteristics\/","title":{"rendered":"The limits of Capitalism with Communist characteristics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

As US President Barack Obama prepares to embark on an historic visit to Cuba, the future of the communist-ruled island is the subject of widespread speculation.<\/span> Some observers<\/span><\/a> are hoping that the ongoing shift toward\u00a0<\/span>capitalism, which has been occurring very gradually for five years under Ra\u00fal\u00a0<\/span>Castro\u2019s direction, will naturally lead Cuba toward democracy. Experience\u00a0<\/span>suggests otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, economic liberalization is far from a\u00a0<\/span>surefire route to democracy. Nothing better illustrates this than the world\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>largest and oldest autocracy, China, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)\u00a0<\/span>maintains its monopoly on power, even as pro-market reforms have enabled its\u00a0<\/span>economy to surge. (A key beneficiary of this process has been the Chinese\u00a0<\/span>military.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The belief that capitalism automatically brings\u00a0<\/span>democracy implies an ideological connection between the two. But the dominance\u00a0<\/span>of the CCP\u2014which currently boasts<\/span> 88 million<\/span><\/a> members, more than Germany\u2019s total population\u2014is\u00a0<\/span>no longer rooted in ideology. The Party, represented by a cloistered oligarchy,\u00a0<\/span>endures by employing a variety of instruments\u2014coercive, organizational, and<\/span>
\n<\/span>remunerative\u2014to preclude the emergence of organized opposition.<\/span><\/p>\n

A 2013 party<\/span> circular<\/span><\/a> known as \u2018Document No. 9\u2019 listed seven threats to\u00a0<\/span>the CCP\u2019s leadership that President Xi Jinping intends to eliminate. These\u00a0<\/span>include espousal of \u2018Western constitutional democracy,\u2019 promotion of \u2018universal\u00a0<\/span>values\u2019 of human rights, encouragement of \u2018civil society,\u2019 \u2018nihilist\u2019\u00a0<\/span>criticisms of the party\u2019s past, and endorsement of \u2018Western news values.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, communism is now focused less on what it\u00a0<\/span>is\u2014that is, its ideology\u2014and more on what it is not. Its representatives are\u00a0<\/span>committed, above all, to holding on to political power\u2014an effort that the\u00a0<\/span>economic prosperity brought by capitalism supports, by helping to stave off\u00a0<\/span>popular demands for change.<\/span><\/p>\n

The story is similar in Vietnam and Laos. Both began\u00a0<\/span>decentralizing economic control and encouraging private enterprise in the late\u00a0<\/span>1980s, and are now among Asia\u2019s fastest-growing economies. Vietnam is even a\u00a0<\/span>member of the incipient 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership. But the one-party\u00a0<\/span>state remains entrenched, and continues to engage in considerable<\/span> political repression<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Things do not seem set to change anytime soon. In\u00a0<\/span>Vietnam, Nguy\u1ec5n T\u1ea5n D\u0169ng, the reform-minded prime minister,\u00a0<\/span>recently failed in his bid to become General Secretary of the Communist Party\u00a0<\/span>(the country\u2019s supreme leader); the 12th National Congress reelected the\u00a0<\/span>incumbent, Nguy\u1ec5n Ph\u00fa Tr\u1ecdng.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond providing sufficient material gains to keep the\u00a0<\/span>population satisfied, capitalism strengthens a communist-ruled state\u2019s capacity\u00a0<\/span>to increase internal repression and control information. One example is the\u00a0<\/span>notorious \u2018Great Firewall of China,\u2019 a government operation that screens and\u00a0<\/span>blocks Internet content, creating a realm of politically sanitized information\u00a0<\/span>for citizens. China is the only major country in the world whose official\u00a0<\/span>internal-security budget is larger than its official national-defense budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the face of China\u2019s current economic turmoil,\u00a0<\/span>control of information has become more important than ever. In order to\u00a0<\/span>forestall potential challenges, China\u2019s leadership has increasingly muzzled the\u00a0<\/span>press, limiting, in particular, reporting or commentary that could adversely\u00a0<\/span>affect stock prices or the currency. Xi<\/span> has asked<\/span><\/a> journalists to pledge \u2018absolute loyalty\u2019 to the\u00a0<\/span>CCP, and closely follow its leadership in \u2018thought, politics, and action.\u2019 A\u00a0<\/span>state-run newspaper, warning that \u2018the legitimacy of the party might decline,\u2019<\/span> argued<\/span><\/a> that the \u2018nation\u2019s media outlets are essential to<\/span>
\n<\/span>political stability.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Clearly, where communists call the shots, the\u00a0<\/span>development of a free market for goods and services does not necessarily lead\u00a0<\/span>to the emergence of a marketplace of ideas. Even Nepal, a communist-dominated\u00a0<\/span>country that holds elections, has been unable to translate economic\u00a0<\/span>liberalization into a credible democratic transition. Instead, the country\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>politics remain in a state of flux, with political and constitutional crises\u00a0<\/span>undermining its reputation as a Shangri-La and threatening to turn it into a\u00a0<\/span>failed state.<\/span><\/p>\n

Democracy and communism are, it seems, mutually\u00a0<\/span>exclusive. But capitalism and communism clearly are not\u2014and that could be very\u00a0<\/span>dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the marriage of capitalism and communism,\u00a0<\/span>spearheaded by China, has spawned a new political model that represents the\u00a0<\/span>first direct challenge to liberal democracy since Fascism: authoritarian\u00a0<\/span>capitalism. With its spectacular rise to become a leading global power in\u00a0<\/span>little more than a single generation, China has convinced autocratic regimes\u00a0<\/span>everywhere that authoritarian capitalism\u2014or, as Chinese leaders call it, \u2018socialism\u00a0<\/span>with Chinese characteristics\u2019\u2014is the fastest and smoothest route to prosperity\u00a0<\/span>and stability, far superior to messy electoral politics. This may help to\u00a0<\/span>explain why the spread of democracy worldwide has lately stalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s impending Cuba visit should be welcomed as a\u00a0<\/span>sign of the end of America\u2019s inapt policy of isolation\u2014a development that could\u00a0<\/span>open the way to lifting the 55-year-old trade embargo against the country. But\u00a0<\/span>it would be a serious mistake to assume that Cuba\u2019s economic opening, advanced\u00a0<\/span>by the Obama-initiated rapprochement, will necessarily usher in a new political\u00a0<\/span>era in Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As US President Barack Obama prepares to embark on an historic visit to Cuba, the future of the communist-ruled island is the subject of widespread speculation. Some observers are hoping that the ongoing shift toward\u00a0capitalism, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":482,"featured_media":25160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1383,52,1648,1093,106,540,204],"class_list":["post-25157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-ccp","tag-china","tag-communism","tag-cuba","tag-democracy","tag-vietnam","tag-xi-jinping"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe limits of Capitalism with Communist characteristics | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-limits-of-capitalism-with-communist-characteristics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The limits of Capitalism with Communist characteristics | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As US President Barack Obama prepares to embark on an historic visit to Cuba, the future of the communist-ruled island is the subject of widespread speculation. 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