Ideologies in Gerschenkron

1. Ideologies in Gerschenkron • “Laissez-faire” (p. 24) (Britain) • Allowing market forces free reign with minimal government intervention in the domestic economy and free trade internationally (associated with Adam Smith and David Ricardo) • Nationalism of Friedrich List (p. 25) (Germany) • Promoting state intervention (in the form of tariff protection) as necessary to promote the initial development of domestic infant industries in the face of global market dominance by earlier developers • Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism (p. 25) (Soviet Union) • *Gerschenkron refers to the Soviet government (p. 28-29) not to Lenin or Stalin explicitly • For Marx, presenting “capitalist industrialization of the country as the result of an iron law of historical development (p. 25).” (feudalism necessarily led to capitalism to socialism to communism) • For Lenin, promoting the leadership of a vanguard party as necessary to advance to socialism and communism • For Stalin, using the leadership of the vanguard party to establish state control of the economy and bring about rapid industrialization

2. Ideology • A system of beliefs about • how the political/economic/social world works • what the good polity/economy/society looks like • Ideologies have been referred to as “secular religions.” • Unlike social science theory, they are not entirely subject to evaluation based on evidence. • Ideologies are often espoused by politicians. • Social science theories are articulated by political scientists.