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Comment by selestify | Hacker News Reader

The less authoritarian states, such as Allende's Chile, did not end up surviving for long. Can't help but wonder if there is a survivorship bias, wherein only the most vicious and brutal communist states could survive external interference.

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>The less authoritarian states, such as Allende's Chile, did not end up surviving for long.

Wasn't Allende's Chile pretty much brought down by external forces, i.e. CIA? Calling it survivorship bias is a bit premature if the said countries are antagonised by the most powerful nation on the planet :)

No. The U.S. was definitely for Pinochet's coup, but on the ground it was all Pinochet. (If anything, Pinochet was less bloody than others because of U.S. pressure.)

As evidenced by the fact that the most successful modern socialist states are in Europe, I believe this is the case. Those who could make their social welfare programs coexist with aggressive Western attitudes have thrived.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_socialist_states

As far as I can see, there are two countries in Europe on that list: Portugal and Greece.

If you use a definition of socialism that excludes the notion of a mixed system, yes. I would say that precisely that is the form of authoritarian socialism that doesn’t work.

Which states in Europe do you think are socialist?

I think if you use a broad enough definition of socialist, you'd have most of Europe. In France the socialist party was in power until last year, for example.

By such a definition then the U.S. is socialist too, just a bit less. Good news socialists!

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