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PARTISAN REVIEW
a te interests of the industria l wor kin g cl ass. It never has.
In
fact, an y
time that even sli ghtl y organi zed industri a l workers get a chance,
they rebel aga in st that civili zati ona l mode l.
T he second q uesti on is whether the struct u ra l cond iti ons of
Wes tern European cap ita li sm a t th e present moment a ll ow an ything
like the Eas t European civili za ti o na l mode l. Whi ch one coul d call
sta ti sm , one could call parochi a ll y coll ect ivism , one could call , as
some friends of min e now ca ll it, ra ti ona l red istributi on . But
whatever one call s it, if one actua ll y ana lyzes it, o ne will see tha t it is
no longer terribl y useful even in a p ragma ti c economi c sense fo r the
mo re developed countri es of the Eas tern Eu ro pean bloc. How could
it be very useful fo r a France or an Ita ly?
I think tha t the Ita li an Communi st pa rty's po li cy on na ti o na li–
za tion refl ects tha t. T hey still beli eve, I think , in stati sm. I think tha t
theirs is a stati st pa rty. Its fo rm of organi za ti on is a pseudo-sta ti st
o rgani za ti on , a sta ti st o rgani za ti on in adva nce, but they a lso have
come
to
understand tha t the model by whi ch a pa rt y becomes a sta te,
ma inl y largely on nati ona li za ti on , is no t a terribl y relevant on e a t
tha t stage of development.
One would still want to examine wha t th e poss ibl e instituti o na l
fo rms of a mixed economy wou ld be in such a society. T ha t wo uld
have to be in ves ti ga ted in deta il , and with rega rds to the poss ibl e
cri sis tendencies of technocra ti c and semi-bureaucra ti c fo rms o f rul e,
whi ch I think a re very, very rea l. And Eas tern Eu ropea n countri es
escape them onl y because they do have Russ ian troops there a fter a ll.
But it is no t so easy to escape prec ise ly those tendenc ies in Ita ly o r
France. So a party woul d have to lea rn from p ract ice very soon th a t
the Soviet-type soluti on to mi xed economi es-because I think they
are a ll going to face mi xed economi es of one kind o r ano ther in the
long run-i s a ra ther diffi cult o ne, a lthough it is no t im poss ibl e.
T hen , fin a ll y, I mi ssed the most impo rtant ques ti on fo r me.
It
is
to wha t extent thi s type of bureaucra ti c organi za ti on is still the same
o rgani za ti onal form tha t has been developed out o f the Russ iani zing
o f Ma rxism. We have to remember th at communi sm is a very specifi c
Ru ss ian and Eastern Euro pean thin g.
If
one even looks a t a map o f Europe, where those soc ia l
conditi ons exi st, one can a lso trace o ut the hi sto ry of the Romano ff ,
Hohen zoll ern , and Hapsburg emp ires, and you don 't have tha t
particul ar socia l conditi on an ywhere else, a t least in Eu rope.
William Ph illips:
T hank you. You ra ised some int eresting questi o ns. I
forgot to menti on tha t And rew Ara to teaches sociology a t the New
