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help less in d ividual, and cri ti cism of th e inequa li ties of class and (in the
United Sta tes) race that were so intrin sic to the system. T hough mass
opinion in the United States was favorable to the economic system , it is
remarka bl e tha t throughout the g rea tes t prosperit y the workers o f
France and Italy h ave ever known , the majo rity of th em showed their
rejecti on by vo tin g Communi st, even when the ev il s of the Sov iet
regime were being made clear by Khru shchev's revela ti ons and by the
behavior of the regime in Hunga ry in 1956 and in Czechos lova ki a in
1968. Even the Labor party of G rea t Brita in has sh own its steady
anticapitalist views; and Sweden , as successful as a ny country in
Europe, rema ined until recentl y under Socia list leadershi p, a lbeit a
ra ther pragma tic on e.
Above and beyond these cultura l and socia l factors were two still
more dominant features of the worl d po lit y and econom y: th e exi stence
of a riva l economic and politi ca l system , under whi ch o ne third of the
world 's popul a tion opera ted , and th e decl ine of imperia lism , with th e
concomitant emergence of new na ti on s. T he first had two aspects: it
showed the reality, good and bad, of the a lt ern a ti ve socia li st sys tem
whi ch had been the idea l of mos t anti capita li st feelin g in the adva nced
capita li st n a ti ons, and the po liti ca l ri va lry p roduced a development of
grea t military and po liti cal power, exacerbated by a milita ry technol–
ogy whose des tructi ve powers far exceeded an y hithert o kn own . At the
height o f the Cold Wa r, the very hi gh growth ra tes o f the Sovi et Uni on
and such evidences of techno logical progress as Sputnik and arms
development created strong impress ions of fea r in thi s country a t the
Sovi et strength , of admira ti on elsewhere and espec ia ll y in the T hi rd
World , as exampl e to be foll owed . Slac kening of Soviet g row th ,
stagna tion in some of the sa tell ites, and th e genera l revul sion aga inst
the Sovi et po liti cal sys tem h ave virtua ll y erased these impress ion s.
Indeed, the reacti on may have gone too far. As in the 1930's, the steady
growth of the Soviet economy a t about 4 percent a yea r, un affected by
business cycl e or o i
I
cri sis, contras ts sharpl y with th e fe veri sh Wes tern
economy.
T he emergence of the Third Wor ld has been less important so far,
but has had one majo r impact on th e economy: the cartdiza ti on of o il ,
which , a t leas t in the sho rt run , has had mu ch
to
do with econom ic
retarda ti on in advanced capita li sm.
To conclude our littl e bit of currel1l hi story, it sho ul d be added
tha t there has after all been some improvement in the economy.
Infl a ti on has d ropped below 10 percen t vi
rt
ua ll y everywhere. In J apan
and the United States, economi c grow th has been renewed , if less
