Sorry I didn’t know which other community to post this on😅. So let me take example of my country, Well so what most people don’t know, is that India is a socialist democracy by the constitution, and I must admit before I start that yes, there’s plenty of problems with this country, but I was surprised by how deep socialist roots go in this country, so I thought a few of India’s policies would make an excellent case study.
Firstly, a subtle one, existence of MRP, maximum retail price, on everything you buy. Packet of lays, coke, medicine, everything has an MRP, over which you cannot sell the product for. Enforcement had been weak historically, but even then you would only see people selling above MRP in amusement parks or movie theatres, for everyday shopping, you are almost always likely to pay the MRP price. I was surprised to know that such law doesn’t exist in the west, though feel free to correct me.
Second, India’s medicine patent laws. India has strict ‘non evergreening’ laws, which means a patent of a medicine cannot be extended unless you made the medicine better. Also government can give orders to bypass medicine patents if deemed necessary.
Third the farming in India. A nice rabbithole to dig in, but I am picking one example, Amul, the most popular brand of milk in India, is less like a company and more like a co-operative society, where they co-operate with regional dairy farms. Most of the money made by selling the milk actually goes back to the farmers.
Plenty of examples, but just these few I could think of. Infact MRP does not even exist in China, so in that policy, India is literally more left than China.
Yeah again, Indian laws in practice are riddled with corruption, but I think the template they work in are interesting, and I think west would tackle those problems a lot better.
Any more examples of socialist democracies?
India is not a socialist democracy, the working classes do not control the state and private ownership is the principal aspect of the economy, rather than public. Modern socialist states include the PRC, Cuba, DPRK, Vietnam, Laos, and partially Venezuela. Former socialist states include the USSR, and the various Warsaw Pact countries. Thinking about “left vs. right” in terms of single economic policies, rather than the dynamics of class struggle in a given society, is an error.
I don’t think the PRC falls into the bracket of socialist countries. If you apply for jobs, nine out of ten times you will end up working for a compamy owned by one boss or a board, and that makes the principal aspect of economy owned privately. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
That’s not what I mean by “principal.” The principal aspect of something is that which is rising, dominant, and determines the character of a system. In China, the commanding heights of industry are overwhelmingly publicly owned. Private ownership is largely of the petty type, or in secondary/high competition categories, with more state oversight the larger and more important the industry is.
As these firms grow, they are gradually folded into the public sector. Capital exists in a birdcage that the CPC can gradually tighten as they please, thanks to the political power they have, and they allow capital to serve the purpose of building up the productive forces to service the future economy that is more publicly planned.