Critique the concept of Socialism using appropriate examples

Social Psychology (10th Edition)
10th Edition
ISBN:9780134641287
Author:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Publisher:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Chapter1: Introducing Social Psychology
Section: Chapter Questions
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Socialism
Socialists are fond of saying that socialism has never failed because it has never been tried. But in truth, socialism has 
failed in every country in which it has been tried, from the Soviet Union beginning a century ago to three modern countries 
that tried but ultimately rejected socialism—Israel, India, and the United Kingdom. While there were major political 
differences between the totalitarian rule of the Soviets and the democratic politics of Israel, India, and the U.K., all three of 
the latter countries adhered to socialist principles, nationalizing their major industries and placing economic decisionmaking 
in the hands of the government. The Soviet failure has been well documented by historians. In 1985, General Secretary 
Mikhail Gorbachev took command of a bankrupt disintegrating empire. After 70 years of Marxism, Soviet farms were unable 
to feed the people, factories failed to meet their quotas, people lined up for blocks in Moscow and other cities to buy bread 
and other necessities, and a war in Afghanistan dragged on with no end in sight of the body bags of young Soviet soldiers. 
The economies of the Communist nations behind the Iron Curtain were similarly enfeebled because they functioned in 
large measure as colonies of the Soviet Union. With no incentives to compete or modernize, the industrial sector of Eastern 
and Central Europe became a monument to bureaucratic inefficiency and waste, a “museum of the early industrial age.” 
As the New York Times pointed out at the time, Singapore, an Asian city-state of only 2 million people, exported 20 percent 
more machinery to the West in 1987 than all of Eastern Europe.
And yet, socialism still beguiled leading intellectuals and politicians of the West. They could not resist its siren song, of a 
world without strife because it was a world without private property. They were convinced that a bureaucracy could make 
more-informed decisions about the welfare of a people than the people themselves could. They believed, with John 
Maynard Keynes, that “the state is wise and the market is stupid”. Israel, India, and the United Kingdom all adopted 
socialism as an economic model following World War II. The preamble to India’s constitution, for example, begins, “We, 
the People of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic . 
. .” The original settlers of Israel were East European Jews of the Left who sought and built a socialist society. As soon as 
the guns of World War II fell silent, Britain’s Labour Party nationalized every major industry and acceded to every socialist
demand of the unions. At first, socialism seemed to work in these vastly dissimilar countries. For the first two decades of 
its existence, Israel’s economy grew at an annual rate of more than 10 percent, leading many to term Israel an “economic 
miracle.” The average GDP growth rate of India from its founding in 1947 into the 1970s was 3.5 percent, placing India 
among the more prosperous developing nations. GDP growth in Great Britain averaged 3 percent from 1950 to 1965, along 
with a 40 percent rise in average real wages, enabling Britain to become one of the world’s countries that are more affluent. 
However, the government planners were unable to keep pace with increasing population and overseas competition. After 
decades of ever-declining economic growth and ever rising unemployment, all three countries abandoned socialism and 
turned toward capitalism and the free market. The resulting prosperity in Israel, India, and the U.K. vindicated freemarketers 
who had predicted that socialism would inevitably fail to deliver the goods. As British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 
observed, “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” 

Critique the concept of Socialism using appropriate examples

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