Police State Systems

Mark Thoma has found an excellent atticle by Marcus Miller and Jennifer Smith. It revolves around the position of the Gulag of the Stalinist era, in relation to the economy. I agree with Skidelsky (1995) that it was an instrument of Police Power, but its success was rooted in the fact that it provided an economic solution to the Unemployment Problem endured by Capitalism at the time. The Stalinist economy could provide a subsistence level of Pay for All, through an inefficient draft of labor into the Gulag, their function totally dedicated to infrastructure construction. The implied inefficiency derives from the massive numbers of non-Workers associated with the program (social Spies, arresting officers, Camp Guards, etc.), combined with the low level of Productivity of the Gulag laborer. The Construct of the system, though, must lead to further economic contemplations.

The Gulag system can be maintained in a Scenario where competitive systems are suffering from an equal amount of economic distress, faced with the reality of the functional capacity of the Stalinist regime; it beginning after a Russian Civil War where the Soviet economy suffered from the same basic conditions later endured by the rest of the World by the Great Depression and WWII. It basically failed not simply because of Stalin’s death, but through the economic Recovery of the World from the distress of the disturbances. The Soviet regime had become an economic power through the regime, but was still structured by a Wage system of subsistence, while the World was racing ahead of it, both in economic performance and in Standard of Living. It begs the Question of whether such a system can exist when such economic competition exists. The Answer is that it can–consider post-War Albania and Romania, and currently North Korea; the principal criteria consisting primarily of interruption of Communications with the outside World, though other factors should be considered as well.

The entire Process to forestall creation of a Police State may be so simple as the widespread dissemination of both News and technological information; this View must be reconsidered by the rise of Police State regimes in Nazi Germany, militarists in Japan, and the Fascists of Italy, Spain, the Philippines, Argentina, etc., all of which had a high level of Information Spread expertise before these nations succumbed to their respective Police States. All Cases, though, reflect a previous Period of economic distress prior to development of the Police State; all eventually worked free of the regimes because of the low labor productivity entailed when comparison with other economic system was forced by the larger World. lgl