[WikiEN-l] Label it as Marxist terminology

Thu Feb 12 17:06:08 UTC 2004

Fred complained that:

> We don't present all main views or even the predominant 
> view. We censor views we feel are incorrect and substitute 
> euphemisms; so East Germany becomes a "socialist country", 
> not a totalitarian Marxist-Leninist government imposed by 
> fiat on the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany.

One way to solve this problem is to identify the term "socialist" as
Marxist terminology. I finally managed to wedge into the [[Communist
state]] article the FACT that Marxists classify societies by their
economic system, while the West generally classify societies by the
political system.

So Marxists call various nations "Capitalist countries" or "Socialist
countries" (that's their main division, anyway).

Meanwhile, people like Fred and me call various nations "Democratic
countries" or "dictatorships" or "Totalitarian countries". 

Note that the categories overlap but do not entirely coincide!

There are two crucially different spectrums being used as classification
schemes here.

So, an article can say that:

* Marxists called East Germany a "socialist country", because its
economic system was blah blah blah.
* Prof. John Doe of XYZ University (or PDQ Thinktank) called East
Germany a "totalitarian country" because its political system was yadda
yadda yadda.

Fred, will this satisfy you?

Ed Poor
Professional Peacemaker