Filuwaúrdjan
Realpolitik
Atlas Institution
Posts: 67,809
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« on: January 23, 2011, 05:06:51 PM » |
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The term 'socialist' within the context of Arab dictatorships meant/means very little other than that the regime is in favour of 'modernisation' (which used to mean 'the regime spends a lot of money on massive infrastructure projects' and isn't too keen on foreign companies and now means 'the regime likes the money that foreign companies can bring with them'), that the regime is not particularly keen on Islam in general and political Islam (in all its many and varied forms) in particular, that the regime used to believe in Arab Nationalism (no one does now, obviously) and that the regime used to buy weapons from Warsaw Pact countries.
As to why certain political parties that were (and are) neither Socialist or democratic ended up as members of the Socialist International in the 1970s,* it should probably not come as a great shock to learn that that had more to do with internal SI power struggles (particularly between Carlsson and Brandt) and Cold War 'realism' than a conviction that such parties were blood brothers of European Social Democracy. There are equally dodgy parties in other international groups of political parties and the reasons for their inclusion tend to be very similar.
*Mostly the 1970s anyway.
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