Communist Breakdown, Social Democratic Paralysis

Logically one should have expected that the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and its satellites would liberate ideas of democratic control of our economic destiny from the onus of association with the militarized despotism that the Soviets called “really existing socialism.” In fact the opposite has happened. Ideas of socialism even in its broadest sense of public control of economic activity have never been in such disrepute.

Why have things turned out like this? There are numerous recent developments that might contribute to an answer, both direct and indirect. By the direct discrediting of socialism and socialistic policies I have in mind two possible elements— naive or deliberate misrepresentation of the...