20th Century Examples
Many countries experimented with socialist or communist systems (often involving central planning, state ownership of production, and suppression of markets) during the 20th century. Several experienced severe economic stagnation, humanitarian crises, or outright collapse, often attributed to inefficiencies in central planning, lack of incentives, corruption, and political repression.
- Soviet Union (1922–1991): The largest example; rapid early industrialization gave way to chronic shortages, stagnation (the "Era of Stagnation" under Brezhnev), and collapse in 1991 due to economic inefficiency, high military spending, and Gorbachev's failed reforms (perestroika and glasnost) unleashing nationalism and unrest.
- Eastern Bloc Countries (post-WWII to 1989–1991): Satellite states under Soviet influence, including East Germany (GDR), Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. These regimes collapsed in the Revolutions of 1989, leading to reunification (East Germany with West Germany) or transition to market economies amid economic backwardness and public discontent.
- Yugoslavia (1945–1992): A non-aligned socialist federation that disintegrated into violent wars in the 1990s after economic crises (high debt, inflation) eroded the unifying socialist ideology.
- Cambodia under Khmer Rouge (1975–1979): Extreme agrarian socialism led to forced collectivization, famine, and the deaths of ~2 million people; ended by Vietnamese intervention.
- Maoist China (1949–1976): Policies like the Great Leap Forward caused famine (tens of millions dead) and economic chaos; post-Mao reforms introduced markets, abandoning pure socialism for growth.
- Other African and Asian examples: Ethiopia (under Mengistu, 1974–1991), Somalia (under Barre, 1969–1991), and Angola/Mozambique faced famines, civil wars, and economic failure under Marxist-Leninist regimes, often abandoning socialism in the 1990s.
