Jonathon P Sine
@JonathonPSine
"The refusal of one decent man outweighs the acquiescence of the multitude."
The Soviet reform experience is a repository of ostensible lessons. But are we learning the right ones? My new essay assesses one debate: the role of "entrenched interests" in the failure of Soviet economic reform and the USSR's ultimate demise.
New: the second episode of my ChinaTalk conversation with @jordanschnyc and @JonathonPSine about my biography of Xi Zhongxun, father of Xi Jinping chinatalk.media/p/xi-zhongxuns…
new Stephen Kotkin interview just dropped, interviewed by Dan Wang no less m.youtube.com/watch?v=myi0FW…
Many come at the Party's role in China's economic growth with more of an ideological axe to grind than well-rounded analytical point to make. Developmental states have been central to many late industrializers. The post-Mao Party-state played that role competently—it mattered.
One thing I tried to push Stephen Kotkin on: Okay, you say that China saw decades of double-digit growth not thanks to the CCP, but because of the hard work and entrepreneurialism of the Chinese people. But India also has lots of hard working entrepreneurial people. Why does…
In 2014, a judge dismissed the 26th lawsuit against Cape Wind and commented "There comes a point at which the right to litigate can become a vexatious abuse of the democratic process." Lol en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Wind