Cuba and Vietnam present us with two interesting and fascinating countries trying to follow the socialist path to development.

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Compare and contrast the socialist path to development with reference to any two third world countries.

Cuba and Vietnam present us with two interesting and fascinating countries trying to follow the socialist path to development. The socialist path to development can be contrasted with the capitalist path to development. The first can be defined as economic development without capital, the second as economic development with capital, where capital is money and products which can be consumed. Although this is perhaps an oversimplification, it provides a neat heuristic tool by which we can compare and contrast the paths taken by Cuba and Vietnam.

A problem presents itself at the outset in using this definition of development A popular measure of development is usually gross domestic product per capita (GDP) of population, which is a measure of capital, and therefore not suitable as a socialist measure. In the absence of another measure, however, we will adopt this measure, but with an explicitly historical bias. Comparison and contrast can then be made over time, with references to historical events in each country, stating when they happened.

The socialist path to development has its origins in the work of Karl Marx, a German philosopher whose principal contribution was probable the labour theory of value, which states that economic value is derived not from capital, but from the labour required to create the capital. Failure to measure capital in this way leads to alienation of labour, he says, and ultimately socialist revolution.

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In Cuba the socialist revolution happened in 1959, led by Fidel Castro, who introduced socialism from 1960 onwards. His first actions were to nationalise all large farms, or bring then under public ownership, and remove all foreign ownership of property, mostly US property. In 1991 Cuba had a GDP per capita of US$1580, which is has not yet surpassed, because of the decline in economic activity with other socialist countries. The effect of nationalising all large farms was to centralise production and to spread it equally amongst all Cubans. By doing so, Castro removed competition amongst farmers, who now had ...

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