Communism, Revolution, and Optimism
[Originally written in 2011 during the Arab Spring.]
The worst thing you can say about a revolutionary situation is, “Things couldn’t possibly get worse.” Things can always get worse. If you have trouble imagining how, just wait for the revolution to unfold. Events will usually oblige you: see France in 1789, Russia in 1917, Germany in 1933, China in 1949, or Iran in 1979. I hope Egyptian policies improve when Mubarak goes, but I’m not optimistic.
That said, I have a confession: I never lost a moment’s sleep about the collapse of Communism – and nothing that’s happened in the ex-Communist world has given me second thoughts. Since I spurn the “Things couldn’t possibly get worse” sophism, it’s hard to articulate why I was so complacent. The least unconvincing story I can come up with is that the point of totalitarian regimes is to give people less freedom than the median voter wants, but the point of authoritarian regimes is often to give people more freedom than the median voter – or at least the median man of violence – wants.
Anyone got a better account?
The post appeared first on Econlib.
Huh?
The Union of Committee Socialist Republics was such an extreme case in European civilization that, although it was technically possible, it was pretty improbable that things would get worse.
I note in passing (well, for fun) that it was a union of republics in name only. It was a single elective despotism with polyglot tributaries, more fairly called the Russian Committee Empire. And, too, the committee (совет), though oppressive in its way, was only the third-most-characteristic social form of that unlamented polity. But I suppose it's poor salesmanship to call yourself the Union of Secret Police Socialist Republics or the Union of Prison Camp Socialist Republics.
It can be argued (and maybe was by Hayek) that in the long run all socialism is committee socialism, is secret police socialism, is prison camp socialism. If so, then any of the above names are redundant; it would have been sufficient to call it the Russian Socialist Empire.
"Russian" to distinguish it from anticipators (as in France) and contemporaries (as in China, North Korea, Cuba).