/286/ What Was Communism? ft. Branko Milanovic
Added 2022-09-06 06:01:01 +0000 UTCOn Communism's historic role.
We talk to renowned Serbian-American economist Branko Milanovic about growing up in Yugoslavia and how, in much of the world, History never ended. We then dedicate much of the episode to discussing Branko's claim that communism was essentially an engine of economic convergence, allowing developing countries to haul themselves into the industrial age.
We also talk about Branko's work on inequality and why growth still matters.
Readings:
- Capitalism, Alone, Branko Milanovic, Harvard UP
- The Aloofness of Pax Sinica, Branko Milanovic, Global Policy Journal
Comments
Also - really disagree with Phil on the China point. Ok, people will for the foreseeable future continue to buy into the American Dream and prefer that over what China is selling. But Phil is surely not arguing that desperately impoverished people under threat of imminent torture or even beheading would jump on whatever transport out of town they could secure? Sure, middle class Okinawans aren't sneaking onto US bases to try and catch a flight out of town, but we regularly see instances in the news of people sneaking into the wheel wells of planes leaving Lagos, Johannesburg, etc., without even knowing the destination. I get the point Phil is trying to make, but please think of a different scenario, because to my ear it simply sounds like a surprising lack of understanding, or a sad distance from the actual suffering in the world today. And if the point is that China is not "selling" their model well enough, then why is "The West" so worried about the rise of China? If it's an accepted fact that their model is a failure, or not as attractive, then why the rush to enact the TPP, and why was there such panic about the failure?I think that in fact there is a recognition that while it's not the model of choice at the moment, success breeds success, and success attracts admirers and copy cats. China is providing an alternative model that will indeed likely become desirable for countries. The collapse of the US covid response can't be solely attributed to Trump's poor leadership, there were horrific systemic failures galore and juxtaposed against China standing up entire hospitals in days or weeks, provided a more compelling story than a thousand slick press releases from any western source. Phil is pronouncing the winner before the race has been run.
Lionel Boyd Johnson
2022-09-10 15:00:19 +0000 UTCGreat episode, great guest. I don't understand one point in particular - the 1989 problem. The "Cold War" was resolving at this point, with the clear winner being the status quo liberal/capitalist order. Marx/Lenin/etc. all understood that there would be a reaction to any popular move towards communism. And I don't think there was an objective recognition that communism had been fully achieved in any country, let alone the world. So Branco's point that Marx thought that once communism was achieved it would become the new status quo/baseline and never regress - well that's making the assertion that "communism" has been achieved. I know it digresses into a "no true Scotsman" argument about what is communism that's a bit out of scope, but come on, no one can objectively argue that the USSR was actually the final stage of communism as Marx was gesturing towards. Otherwise, really got a lot out of the first episode, queuing up the second!
Lionel Boyd Johnson
2022-09-10 14:48:56 +0000 UTC
