I was wondering why Marxism was still a thing and this placed seemed to be filled with Marxists. So, why? Didn’t the fall of USSR teach us anything? Do today’s Marxists think that USSR did something wrong? In other words, will they do anything different than the dictators of the soviet union? Also, some here seem to admire Stalin. I would really have to try hard to find a community that would admire Hitler but apparently admiring Stalin, another mass murder seems to be perfectly fine!
Since capitalism has been the most common economic system since its rise in the 19th century, it’s the majority of the countries that have fallen since then, and a bunch of sovereign states before. It’s a large (and probably contested, based on definitions) list. I am confident, for one example, to list the British Empire in the 1800s onward which embraced free trade, liberalism and a market economy [wikipedia]. It’s not a country, but a capitalist empire and the “first global economic superpower” that shrank from this in 1921 to these current 14 overseas territories. I realize it’s not strictly a country but it demonstrates the point of a big capitalist system falling. If you don’t consider fascism to be capitalist (debatable based on definitions: socialists generally consider them capitalist), then I believe liberal Kingdom of Italy and the Weimar Republic (Germany) before the '20/'30s count too.
A different (IMO better) question is whether capitalism itself was the cause, or how it influenced their downfall. And that’s obviously a complex question. Merely being capitalist/socialist/etc. and falling (even for economic reasons) isn’t a solid reason to abandon those economic theories, especially when these systems were new and being trialed for the first times.
Since capitalism has been the most common economic system since its rise in the 19th century, it’s the majority of the countries that have fallen since then, and a bunch of sovereign states before. It’s a large (and probably contested, based on definitions) list. I am confident, for one example, to list the British Empire in the 1800s onward which embraced free trade, liberalism and a market economy [wikipedia]. It’s not a country, but a capitalist empire and the “first global economic superpower” that shrank from this in 1921 to these current 14 overseas territories. I realize it’s not strictly a country but it demonstrates the point of a big capitalist system falling. If you don’t consider fascism to be capitalist (debatable based on definitions: socialists generally consider them capitalist), then I believe liberal Kingdom of Italy and the Weimar Republic (Germany) before the '20/'30s count too.
A different (IMO better) question is whether capitalism itself was the cause, or how it influenced their downfall. And that’s obviously a complex question. Merely being capitalist/socialist/etc. and falling (even for economic reasons) isn’t a solid reason to abandon those economic theories, especially when these systems were new and being trialed for the first times.