Politically, while one-party states have been a common feature of Fascism and Communism, their political cultuire and economic systems have been quite different - in part reflecting the different circumstances in which these movements came to power. The fascists were funded by capitalists and landlords and acted as their shock troops against the left wing unions and political parties. In both Germany and Italy, the big bourgeoisie invited the fascists to participate in their parliaments and then accepted the fascist transformation of these feeble multi-party bourgeois democracies into fascist single party states. The Communist parties, on the other hand, engaged in an armed struggle against the capitalists and landlords, including their fascist detachments, and where the CP's came to power in the USSR, China, Yugoslavia, Albania and elsewhere, they stripped the propertied classes of their power and property.
Pressure from the more advanced Western capitalist economies ultimately forced a restoration of capitalism in the USSR, Yugoslavia and Albania, and some would also say, China. More on China below. The earliest retreat was the New Economic Policy in the infant Soviet republic under Lenin which restored a sphere of private property under the control of the “proletarian dictatorship” or workers’ state. Stalin reversed the NEP and was criticized by Trotsky's Left Opposition and Bukharin’s Right Opposition for the pace and harshness of his forced industrialization and agricultural collectivization drive. Bukharin, in particular, argued for a “long NEP” to allow for the steady development of the productive forces until the Soviet economy surpassed that in the more advanced West. It’s interesting to speculate whether a more capitalist-friendly Soviet Union would have been able to cement a sought-after alliance with the Western democracies against Hitler, but what we do know is that the forced industrialization drive was a major contributor to the defeat of the Nazi invasion. As for the People’s Republic of China today, many on the left consider that it has also undergone a process of capitalist restoration or that it have never abolished it after taking power in 1949 but instead installed a system of state capitalism. The Chinese party and state have argued that since Deng's domestic market reforms and opening up to foregin capital, they have been engaged in a “long NEP” in line with Bukharin’s prescription, otherwise known as building “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” With Michael Roberts and others, I think it is still too early to conclude that China is “transitioning” either to socialism or back to capitalism. However, I do believe there is a tendency on the list and the left more generally to exaggerate both the influence of the billionaire class of private entrepreneurs in contemporary China and the subordination of private capital to the fascist state in the 1930’s - for the purpose of demonstrsating that there is an equivalence between the two systems. A comparison of the public and private sectors in modern China and in the fascist states in the 30’s casts doubt on that proposition. Here is a listing showing the overwhelming preponderance of state-owned firms at the commanding heights of the Chinese economy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Chinese_companies And here is a listing of the top firms in the Nazi economy showing the opposite. You’ll have to click on on the links to identify which corporations areprivate or public. You’ll find that the post office, railway, and a very few other state-owed firms predate the coming to power of the Nazis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_companies_by_employees_in_1938 I wasn’t able to quickly find a comparable listing of top firms for fascist Italy, but I suspect it would generally show the domination of the economy by private corporations as in Germany. Another lengthy Wikipedia entry includes the following information about the economics of fascism (I’ve left the footnotes): "In the 1930s, Nazi Germany transferred many companies and services from state ownership into the private sector, while other Western capitalist countries were moving in the opposite direction and strove for increased state ownership of industry.[117] In most cases, this was a return to the private sector of firms which had been taken into state ownership by the democratic government of the Weimar Republic as a result of the Great Depression.[118] The firms returned to private ownership by the Nazi government "belonged to a wide range of sectors: steel, mining, banking, local public utilities, shipyards, ship-lines, railways, etc."[119] and in addition some public services began to be provided by semi-private entities that were connected to the Nazi Party rather than the German state.[120] "In Italy, during the first four years of the new regime under a multiparty coalition government (1922–1925) the Fascists had a generally laissez-faire economic policy under the Finance Minister Alberto De Stefani, a former stalwart leader in the Center Party.[70] Free competition was encouraged and De Stefani initially also reduced taxes, regulations and trade restrictions on the whole.[71]...this was a period when Fascist economic policy mostly followed classical liberal lines, with the added features of attempting to stimulate domestic production (rather than foreign trade) and balancing the budget.[74] This was also a period when the Italian Fascist government undertook a large-scale privatization policy, which was among the first such policies in the modern world.[75 "Following the deflation crisis which started in 1926, banks such as the Banco di Roma, the Banco di Napoli or the Banco di Sicilia were also assisted by the state.[87] In 1933, Mussolini created the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI) with the special aim of rescuing floundering companies. By 1939, the IRI controlled 20% of the Italian industry through government-linked companies (GLCs), including 75% of pig iron production and 90% of the shipbuilding industry.[88]...Italian Fascists soon began to pride themselves on this outcome, saying they had survived the Great Depression without infringing on private property. In 1934, the Fascist Minister of Agriculture said: "While nearly everywhere else private property was bearing the major burdens and suffering from the hardest blows of the depression, in Italy, thanks to the actions of this Fascist government, private property not only has been saved, but has also been strengthened".[83] "This economic model based on a partnership between government and business was soon extended to the political sphere in what came to be known as corporatism.[dubious – discuss]. From 1934 onwards, believing that Italy could have avoided the Great Depression if it had not been linked to international markets, Mussolini insisted that autarky should be one of the primary goals of his government's economic policy. "Italian Fascists also expressed great interest in the works of neoclassical economist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassical_economist> Vilfredo Pareto <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilfredo_Pareto>.[91] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_fascism#cite_note-91> Pareto had argued that democracy was an illusion and that a ruling class always emerged and enriched itself. For him, the key question was how actively the rulers ruled and for this reason he called for a drastic reduction of the state and welcomed Mussolini's rule as a transition to this minimal state so as to liberate the "pure" economic forces.[92] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_fascism#cite_note-92> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_fascism#:~:text=In 1933, Mussolini created the,90% of the shipbuilding industry. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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