ABSTRACT
It is unnecessary to dwell yet again on the economic defects of the Soviet model. To these must be added important political and social shortcomings: privilege, a despotic relationship between rulers and ruled, the suppression of criticism, recruitment of the ruling oligarchy by co-option, the reduction of democratic processes to plebiscitary unanimity, and so on. The economic mechanism fails to respond to user requirements and generates far too much unintended and avoidable waste. Its centralisation faithfully reflects and reinforces political centralisation.
