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GEORGE LlCHTHEIM
much of its present acuteness, at any rate so far as Russia is concerned
(China is a different, and probably more intractable, problem). Until
this happens--either through political changes in the USSR or
through a gradual lessening of tension consequent upon the discovery
that neither side can "win"-keep one's powder dry. Unfortunately
there is little hope of effective disarmament.
3) Take it for granted that all, or nearly all, the backward
("underdeveloped") countries will establish national-socialist, or
soi–
disant
communist, regimes. The term "national-socialist" (which
need not carry pejorative meanings)
is
to be preferred because in
fact the problem facing the political elites of these countries is how
to marry "socialism" and nationalism. Every national movement
needs a philosophy, or
Weltanschauung.
In the 19th century, na–
tionalists invariably described themselves as liberals; today they de–
scribe themselves as socialists. This state of affairs cannot be altered,
and need not frighten anyone. In all probability its practical signi–
ficance is small.
4) Do not make a panacea of liberal democracy on the Western
model: a form of government only appropriate to highly civilized
and very wealthy countries. The basic problem of all backward
societies is to establish effective authority and to associate the people
with the workings of the state. The latter may eventually "wither
away" in the most highly developed Western countries; it cannot
be expected to do so in the rest. This is not an excuse for totalitarian–
ism, which in fact is only an extreme case of over-all control by a
revolutionary party with utopian or irrational aims. There are num–
erous intermediate forms; under fortunate circumstances even a
totalitarian regime can find a road back halfway to normal, as was
the case in Yugoslavia and Poland.
5) Democratic socialism (which by its nature is limited to
civilized industrial democracies with highly developed labor move–
ments) has little to offer the majority of backward areas, but may
act as a link between them and the wealthy industrial countries. The
latter are anyhow all tending to adopt planned ("mixed") economies,
so that socialist practices are gradually being built into their structures,
even if the official ideology remains resolutely liberal (in the 19th
century sense of the term). The classical case is Britain, but the
United States is probably about to follow suit.
