Someone may object to being called a socialist or, for that matter, a capitalist! In the face of these concerns, the author helpfully reminds us that few on either side approve of the terms-at least the term applied to their own position. We’ll take each point in turn, before ending with some concluding remarks.įirst, consider the terms themselves. Finally, recognizing that something may be appealing in theory even if horrible in practice, he offers a sustained moral critique of socialism, showing it to be as unattractive on the philosophical drawing board as it is in a political regime. Second, he demonstrates socialism’s practical problems, its failure to deliver the promised goods. First, Otteson articulates what socialism is and isn’t by highlighting its differences with capitalism, its archrival. To my mind, The End of Socialism makes three distinct claims, all important. In this new book, Otteson charts socialism’s end, in both senses of that word: the goals it fails to realize as well as its inevitable collapse. Hayek raises the specter of state collectivism in his classic work from 1944. Otteson’s The End of Socialism as bookends on an era. Future students of our age may well treat Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and James R.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |