Marx, the “Asiatic Mode of Production,” and “Oriental Despotism” as “True” Socialism

Abstract

Abstract Marx believed that socialist revolution, i.e., the end of the private ownership of the “means of production”, would make the state weak in the long run: the state would “wither away”. He also believed that the despotic state is related to Oriental despotism, marked by general ossification. Here Marx followed the views of his contemporaries. The socialist revolutions in Russia and China demonstrate that Marx was wrong: the end of private ownership of the “means of production” creates a state similar to Oriental despotism, but it is a quite dynamic and economically viable regime. The USSR’s collapse was due to Gorbachev alone; at the same time, totalitarian socialist China would become an economic and geopolitical global force in the future.