The Socialist Great Divergence. Why Mikhail Gorbachev Failed Where Deng Xiaoping Succeeded

Abstract

While Mikhail Gorbachev opened a door for a possible democratic transformation of the Soviet Union, the economic and financial policies of his Perestroika led to state collapse. Those who reproach him for not having a coherent concept of economic reform often point to Deng Xiaoping, whose ostensibly more clear-eyed vision led China to prosper. Yet on a conceptual level, Gorbachev’s economic and legal arrangements were very similar to Deng’s; both drew on the domestic and international intellectual repertoires of market socialism. It was their political implementation under fundamentally different political, economic and social conditions that led to economic catastrophe in the USSR and to economic growth in the People’s Republic. A ‘Chinese path’ in the Soviet Union, including the application of political violence, may have preserved one-party dictatorship – but would not have provided the basis for an economic upswing. Gorbachev should be given great credit for rejecting such authoritarian market reforms.