Consistency and Viability of Socialism

The Soviet Union and the Central and Eastern European economies were socialist in the static sense because the predominant form of property of the nonlabor means of production was social and the party adhered to the socialist ideology. Up to 1985, the Soviet Union and Central and Eastern European economies were still functioning, with some limited modifications, on the same basic principles of the centrally administered socialist model. Although changes had taken place, they did not alter the economic system significantly. Thus, an analysis of the centrally administered socialist economic system produces a useful approximation of the economic, political, and ideological structure of the Soviet Union and of Central and Eastern Europe up to the Gorbachev reforms. It is very interesting to examine the economic, political, and ideological situation of the Soviet Union, which forced the leadership of the country to embark on revolutionary reform in 1985. Because we are not analyzing a country-specific economic system, we can only investigate the economic, political, and ideological elements of centrally administered socialism.