Why do you think that specific forms of government, such as socialism, anarchy, and theocracies, are viewed to the negative extreme?
I believe there are two main reasons various political, economic, and social systems are thought of in a negative light. The first is the timeline and history of these systems. I specifically will mention Socialism and Communism since they are the 2 other main systems along with Capitalism. The context in which these systems have occurred in history is extremely important. The major times in which Socialism and communism have occurred were in times of war, poverty, or when capitalism has seemingly failed. Powell specifically mentions the reign of Mao Zedong when mentioning socialism. Zedong is known as one of the worst dictators in human history killing at least 48 million people through is “reforms” in an attempt to make China one of the leading industrial nations in the world. Russia is also mentioned within the context of Lenin and Stalin of Russia. Again both of these men were dictators and enforced a strong authoritarian government. They also like Zedong, attempted to be highly industrialized through forced labor that ended up killing millions of people. Russia’s time as a communist nation also occurred in a time of war which lead to an even worse outcome as the nation drained its resources in its fight for power. Both of these nations lost millions of people namely in labor camps where each nation pushed their industries for maximum profit. While both nations never actually achieved their respective goals, the leaders during the time had strong beliefs in their economic systems. These are the 2 main examples we have within our history of an alternative to capitalism. Since the ideas of Socialism and Communism only emerged within the last 200 or so years, there is not much time in history where it could be implemented for long periods of time. The systems also have only emerged in times of crisis and with an authoritative regime.
The second is the perspective of which these systems are taught, the United States is a very capitalist and unregulated society compared to other nations. While of course, the history of socialism and communism are horrible, the teaching of these systems is also taught in a negative light. In today's society, many view Venezuela as socialist and equate the countries economic downturn to the socialist system, yet they fail to realize that the main reason for Venezuela's collapse was due to the authoritative government and an economy that relied solely on oil. Maduro, the current president of Venezuela and leader of the Venezuelan Socialist Party, shows once again how the goal of socialism is corrupted by a dictatorship. So while many people bring up
Venezuela when speaking on socialism, many people don’t bring up Sweden, Denmark, or Norway. While for those who have the knowledge, it may be because none of the nations are truly socialist, each nation has a free market economy. However, these nations are not capitalist in the same way as the United States, rather each country taxes high amounts to fund healthcare, education, social security, unemployment, and other safety nets. So while these nations are not economically socialist, politically and socially they typically are. My point being of bringing up both these examples is because in both scenarios of Venezuela vs Sweden neither are socialist, but when people are taught about the subject in schools or is talked about on the news, the socialist ideals of the Venezuelan government are always mentioned over Swedens socialist political party. Overall, I believe that is the capitalist view of our educators and news sources that always show alternative economic systems in a negative light.
[Image Source]Communism