Democracy cannot cure all failing world governments

Tuesday, March 10, 1998

Democracy cannot cure all failing world governments

CAPITALISM: Poverty, social ills of other countries shouldn’t be
directly correlated with communism

By Jacob Lee

Ryan Donlon and Matthew Gever, writers of "U.S. mustn’t emulate
socialism’s spotted record," and "Only capitalism upholds
individual rights," respectively, (March 5), clearly adopt overly
dogmatic, uncritical and naive arguments in their tirade against
communism and socialism. The lack of sophistication in their
perspectives and their rude criticisms of Michelle Oberman
disappoint me. In order to understand this issue we really have to
look at more than "communism" or "capitalism." Undeniably nearly
every communist nation in the world has failed or is failing. It is
also undeniable that the most powerful and prosperous nations of
the world are largely capitalist democracies. However, three often
overlooked facts are that these failures are not exclusively linked
with communism and socialism, that democracy and capitalism will
not necessarily cure the problems of communist and socialist
nations, and that all of the world’s communist governments were
built in conditions adverse to the establishment of a prosperous
and free nation.

Gross violations of human rights are not limited to
communist/socialist nations. These outrageous violations are not
characteristic of communism and socialism; they are characteristic
of communities and nations that are impoverished, unstable and
usually under the rule of the few. These violations occur in
capitalist, communist, democratic and dictatorial societies.
Brazil, for example, is a democratic capitalist nation. However,
democracy and capitalism have not brought the "American dream" to
the miserable multitudes in Brazil. In fact, capitalism and
industries such as sugar cane are important causes of this misery.
It becomes obvious that communism and socialism probably are not
the direct cause of the loss of freedom and meager standard of
living.

Eastern Europe has become the testing ground for U.S. claims of
the democratic-capitalist wonder drug. The painful truth is that
not only is the transition to democracy and capitalism a painful
and difficult process, but that the demo-capitalist system proposed
does not fit all Eastern-European societies and cultures. Many
people in Eastern Europe do not want these changes, nor are all of
these changes appropriate for these societies.

Finally, and most importantly, communism and socialism did not
necessarily fail because these systems are deficient, but because
these systems were superimposed over societies suffering from
unbelievable poverty, lack of opportunity or equality, and without
traditions of freedom, democracy and capitalism. Russia and China
were largely nations of peasant farmers used to, and routinely
subjected to, much suffering. The very conditions, experiences and
structures of these societies made it nearly impossible to create
fair, prosperous and terror-free states. Unfortunately, it is
doubtful that any government would ever have survived without
ironhanded, harsh and horrible violations of human rights. Nation
building is more than establishing a constitution and government.
If these nations had adopted democratic-capitalist systems, it is
probable that these systems would have survived.

Therefore, it is clear that communism has rarely, if ever, been
tested on an equal footing with our own U.S. democratic/capitalist
experiment. It is naive to suppose that communism and socialism led
to the loss of liberty from some innate deficiency. It is also
apparent that democracy and capitalism are not social wonder drugs.
Finally, if we are to understand and really appreciate reality, we
must try to look at the world objectively. Donlon and Gever fail
miserably.Lee is an anthropology student.