ABSTRACT
Political liberties generally exist in late capitalist societies. The etatist environment is entirely different. The inability to admit the true nature of the system implies not only the necessity for lying, but also a need to accept certain socialist obligations. The economic superiority of etatism meant higher rates of growth. Political superiority meant monolithic international support. Western communist parties feel free to criticize the etatist camp. The paradoxical position of etatist countries leads to paradoxical consequences. A bureaucratized etatist society is socially atomized. Social ties are replaced by bureaucratic hierarchy. Worker management also has more direct corroding effects. Etatism ascends into socialism. Czechoslovakia demonstrated how this could happen. Because of the fundamental instability of the mature etatist system, the Prague Spring could have triggered a chain reaction. Etatism can survive only by undermining its own legitimacy and, consequently, its own survival.
