Authoritarian Socialism

Not to be confused with Non-Libertarian Socialism

Authoritarian Socialism or State Socialism refers to an effort to build a socialist society that differs from libertarian socialists on four main areas:

• The state's role in history is viewed completely differently. For authoritarian socialists, the state was a product of class divisions which emerged alongside the development of agriculture and cannot be gotten rid of in the short run without having huge side effects which would destroy socialism. Whereas libertarian socialists view the state as an independent entity that accumulates power on its own will and predates class.
• Decisions are not to be made via popular assemblies and regional confederations, but instead through a one-party dictatorship with little to no input from the general public. According to authoritarian socialists, this is necessary to maintain the organizational efficiency necessary to defend socialism from counter-revolutionaries and warmongering capitalists.
• Industry is to be nationalized and operated according to the will of the state. Industry may have some degree of workers' self-management, as in Yugoslavia. This is done in order to ensure the most effective use of resources towards building socialism.
• Dissent is to be harshly punished in order to create a stable and harmonious society and to protect the gains made for workers.

History

Some have argued that several ancient societies like the Incan Empire followed an authoritarian socialist model. But its origins exist in the French Revolution (among the Jacobins) and the European working class movements that followed.

During the Revolutions of 1986 - 1995, 66% of authoritarian socialist governments collapsed across continents except in Latin America.

Applications

It is no secrete that authoritarian socialism has been tried many more times and on much larger scales than libertarian socialism, by continent, these are the results of their efforts:

• In Africa, authoritarian socialists took control of 16 states, none of them have survived until today.
• In Asia, authoritarian socialists took control of 16 states, 4 of them have survived until today.
• In Eastern Europe, authoritarian socialists took control of 9 states, none of them have survived until today.
• In Latin America authoritarian socialists took control of 4 states, 1 of them has survived until today.

Afghanistan

Following the Saur Revolution in 1978 to 1992, Afghanistan began to lean in an authoritarian socialist direction. It was embroiled in a civil war that acted as a Cold War proxy between the USA and USSR. Although nominally democratic, the government was dominated by Marxist-Leninists and political parties were only legal if they opposed colonialism, apartheid and zionism. The economy largely collapsed as a result of the war despite the governments efforts to build a private sector and encourage foreign investment into the country. In 1978, the government did manage to organise a highly successful education program, women's rights were expanded but land reform was a failure and repression of dissidents began to reach high levels.

Burkina Faso

From 1983 to 1987, Burkina Faso was led by the authoritarian socialist government of Thomas Sankara. The government had highly successful land reform, rail and road development, construction of hundreds of new medical clinics, mass reforestation, vaccinating millions, ending neo-colonial influence over the country, expanding women's rights massively and increasing agricultural production by 250%. However, his failures came from his repression of unions, failure to raise literacy and his murder in a military coup backed mainly by France and the USA.

China

China became the largest experiment in authoritarian socialism after their revolution in 1949.

Cuba

Cuba became one of the most famous and successful examples of authoritarian socialism in 1959, after the Cuban Revolution against US and Mafia-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Cuba's socialism is ongoing, and has since implemented a degree of direct democracy and is beginning to see the creation of worker cooperatives across the country.

Iraq

See Also: Ba'athist Iraq

USSR

Main Article: USSR

The second longest and most famous experiment with authoritarian socialism in history, the USSR had its origins in the Bolsheviks who launched the October Revolution in Russia. The USSR did a lot of things right and got many things horribly wrong.

Yugoslavia

During World War II, various groups resisting Nazi Germany in the Balkans formed a united front and created the socialist state of Yugoslavia which existed from 1945 to 1992. It broke with the USSR in 1948 and transitioned to a unique form of market socialism and began a foreign policy that tried to play off both sides of the Cold War. Yugoslavia enjoyed a smaller degree of repression compared to the USSR and a much greater degree of economic prosperity. In 1980, economic crisis broke out as inflation and unemployment soared, eventually leading massive ethnic tensions leading to a massive series of horrific civil wars;, the government collapsed in 1992.

Zambia

In 1964, Zambia was granted independence from the British Empire as part of decolonisation. The ideology of African Socialism was adopted, building an economy based around central planning and nationalisation modeled of Julius Nyerere's policies in Tanzania as well as building relations with China and Yugoslavia. In 1972 Zambia became a dictatorship, banning all political parties and firing dissidents in the government. The policies of import substitution worked until 1975, where the economy contracted by 30% between 1975 and 1990. This was because copper prices fell due to the USSR flooding the market, leading Zambia to take on loans from the IMF and World Bank, leading to the imposition of Structural Adjustments.

Zambia also allied itself with anti-colonial movements in Africa, allowing ANC members from South Africa to take shelter in the country, leading to occasional raids by South African special forces. The Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army had a military base in the country, and shot down two civilian airlines with USSR supplied heat-seeking missiles. This led to the closing of Zambia's borders, leading to electricity and food shortages as refugees poured into the country from Angola. Zambia abandoned its leftist outlook following an economic crisis in the 1980s and democratised in 1990.

Criticism

The main criticism of authoritarian socialism advanced by libertarian socialists are:

• The authoritarian socialist conception of the state is based on outdated or misleading historical data. More recent evidence shows that the state emerged long before class divisions, and is usually based on factors such as religious worship.
• If decision-making power is not distributed among the population, it will create a small elite isolated from the consequences of their actions who will quickly become consumed by greed and paranoia, violently maintaining their control over the population and ultimately reinstating capitalism to ensure their own wealth and power.
• The belief that hierarchical organizations are more efficient that non-hierarchical ones is conflicting with existing evidence, especially within the military, where decentralized forces frequently defeat centralized ones despite having access to inferior equipment, knowledge and army size.
• Nationalization of industry or limited workers' self-management only creates a bitter and alienated workforce, who may begin to sympathize strongly with far-right anti-communist ideas.