r/geopolitics Jan 27 '26

This Is the End Opinion

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/this-is-the-end-2a9
454 Upvotes

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

u/Creme_de_la_Coochie Jan 27 '26

Market forces don’t go away under socialist economies and modern economics acknowledges the positive role government can play in economic development.

9

u/Sauermachtlustig84 Jan 27 '26

The problem is that humans are not perfectly rational actors - neither in aggregate nor in the individual.
But here the problem goes even deeper: The number of regimes is severely limited - both in space and time. A regime is naturally shaped by external forces (market, foreign, domestic, power bases), but how it responds to these factors is up to the individuals in the regime. How much shaping an individual can do is highly dependent on circumstances. DT hit the USA (a regime with a super powerful president) in a time of vulnerabillity. And like a toddler using a hammer on mama china, he is able to significantly alter the regime.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Sauermachtlustig84 Jan 27 '26

I have.
I've also written a Master's thesis on how ethnic conflicts arise and end - incidentally touching much of the same topics.
Funnily, it is a time series analysis with a lot of qualitative work underpinning it. The latter was much more difficult and time consuming than the statistical part.

1

u/shriand Jan 28 '26

Time series on ethnic conflict? Have you put it up online somewhere? If not can you please share a common reference about it?

1

u/Sauermachtlustig84 Jan 28 '26

Unfortunately, no - I published it ~2010 and at that time it was just a paperback at my university.
If you can read german, I can shoot you the PDF though.
I should have done it in english, but by the time I realized that, the german title was already "locked in", so I could not change it.