SOCIALISM AND COLD WAR
717
-an independent judiciary, an independent civil service, independ–
ent organs of public opinion and truly voluntary organizations, in–
cluding trade unions. Those who imagine that Russian Communism
would be weakened if Khrushchev succeeds in liberalizing the sys–
tem and encourages the growth of these free institutions are under
a grave delusion.
If
the Russian Communists could really add these
democratic strengths to the strength of a Socialist State which has
already conquered irresponsible economic power and subjected it to
public control, they would make their system irresistible.
What enables the Communist States to achieve their successes
-despite all the inefficiencies and brutalities perpetrated by their
totalitarian rulers-is the fact that their governments possess (1)
the power to take vital decisions and the knowledge on which to
base them, and (2) the political and social instruments.by means of
which those vital decisions can be put into effect. A Communist
government, for example, can allocate the national resources ac–
cording to a system of priorities, allotting so much to produce
goods, so much to consumer goods, so much to health, education,
defense, thereby reducing the hazards of investment and accelerat–
ing development. In contrast, the government of a Western democ–
racy, even under the post-war system of managed capitalism, can–
not even begin to draw up a national resources budget of this kind,
far less put it into effect. Whereas it can impose its will on the small
public sector of the economy, it has only the crudest instruments for
regulating the development of the dominant private sector. This is
the reason why growth is retarded in comparison with that achieved
by the Communists.
But the difference goes even further. The motive forces which
regulate the development of a Communist economy are the five–
year plan and the instruments for putting it into practice. The mo–
tive force which drives a modern capitalist economy is neither the
Government nor the Government Departments but the decisions of
those who direct the great combines which now dominate the pri–
vate sector. In dealing with the oligopolists, the Government in Brit–
ain today is in a position not unlike that of the luckless King John,
when confronted with his feudal barons. Like him, our modern
Executive has been constrained to concede a Magna Carta, which
