Capitalism, Socialism and Wealth Distribution

After World War II

Regarding conflicts in economic and political philosophy, Francis Fukuyama pointed out in 1989 in an article entitled "The End of History," that in the 20th century there were two major challenges to traditional liberalism: fascism and communism. About fascism Fukuyama wrote:

The former [fascism] saw the political weakness, materialism, anomie, and lack of community of the West as fundamental contradictions in liberal societies that could only be resolved by a strong state that forged a new "people" on the basis of national exclusiveness.

As for Communism, in his "End of History" article, Fukuyama detailed the decline in appeal of the Soviet Union's brand of socialism -- a couple of years before the Soviet Union collapsed. And he wrote of the decline of collectivism in China. He wrote of China's Communist Party in 1978 deciding to decollectivize agriculture, reducing the role of the state in agriculture "to that of a tax collector." China had been taking what Mao derisively called the "capitalist road," and China began collaborating with international capitalism in trade and accepting investments within its borders -- a major shift in the Communist Party's view of the world.

In 1989, Fukuyama wrote that "ideological grounds for major conflict between nations" were passing away. Fukuyama had in mind the ideology of Karl Marx, which embodied a history of struggle between economic classes culminating in a classless society -- an end of history of sorts. Fukuyama saw a different end of this kind of history: the ideological triumph of economic liberalism and democracy.

In Europe were welfare states that were essentially capitalist. Germany had recovered from World War II and was united. Japan had recovered economically and was a democracy. And the capitalist model was pursued by most other Asian nations. Going into the 21st century, a belief in democracy, the rule of law and the tolerance that allowed order was overwhelmingly dominant in the world.

Nobody in power was speaking against democracy, including the five Communist powers that remained: China, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea and Cuba. Democracy had been a part of the political ideology of Marxist-Leninists, as reflected in the use of "democracy" in the official title of communist states: the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, for example, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

And monarchical or dictatorial authoritarianism was passé. Authoritarian rulers remained -- in Burma, Iraq and Africa. But they were not bragging about the authoritarian nature of their rule. There were rulers who were pretending to be democratic, and there were states that were far from being mature democracies. But authoritarian rule, and empire, had become dirty words across the globe -- empire because it was authoritarian.

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