Stephen Kotkin

The Soviets in the 70s and 80s were looking at the system and they didn't want to change the system Gorbachev style.

They didn't want to liberalize it politically.

They were willing to introduce some market economic liberalization, some market incentives.

They tried that in 65.

It actually didn't work.

And anyway, then the Prague Spring happened in 68 and scared the bejesus out of them.

Reform looked like the end of the system.

So they tried a little bit of economic liberalization.

It didn't work.

They didn't want to open up the system politically.

So what's left?

Technological fantasies.

Maybe technology can perfect planning so all the pathologies of the planned economy, all the inefficiencies of the planned economy can be overcome with computers.

Maybe if we invest heavily in tech, we don't have to do the hard choices of

of deep and fundamental structural change, which would end our party's monopoly, we can keep the party, we can keep the party's monopoly, we can even keep the state-owned economy, but we can just tweak it with the tech and supercharge it or even turbocharge it and make it work that way.

So computers, tech will save us from the hard choices of deep structural reform, which will threaten our power.

We know how that worked.

It didn't work.

Now you're looking at China today.

You have a Communist Party monopoly.