Periodically, debate rages over the question of whether the Nazis were socialists.
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Nazis → rag → question
As a general rule, conservatives (and some libertarians) make this accusation, while left-wingers indignantly deny it.
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wingers → make → it
This question has returned to prominence in recent months, and it remains worth addressing.
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it → return → months
The right answer is that the Nazis were similar to socialists in backing sweeping government control over the economy, yet different from them in rejecting racial and ethnic equality.
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Nazis → back → equality
When socialists come to power, they often engage in persecution of minority groups, even though this is inimical to their ideology.
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this → come → ideology
There are systematic reasons for this pattern, which go beyond the idiosyncracies of individual leaders.
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which → be → leaders
All of this has significant implications for current political debates, at a time when "democratic socialism" is a growing movement and much of the right has embraced statist nationalist economics.
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much → have → economics
It is difficult to deny that the Nazis (and other similar right-wing nationalist movements) embraced sweeping economic statism, including socialist-style central planning.
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Nazis → deny → planning
The movement wasn't called the National Socialist Party for nothing.
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movement → call → nothing
I summarized some of the evidence in a 2007 post, relying on then-recent academic research (later research has not changed these conclusions):
The idea that Nazism was an extreme form of "capitalism" and Hitler primarily a tool serving the interests of "big business" is a longstanding myth that even now retains a measure of popularity in some quarters.
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that → summarize → quarters
This, despite the fact that the full name of the Nazi Party was the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and that Nazi political strategy was explicitly based on combining the appeal of socialism with that of nationalism (thus the choice of name).
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strategy → base → name
Once in power, the Nazis even went so far as to institute a Four Year Plan for running the German economy, modeled in large part on the Soviet Union's Five Year Plans….
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Nazis → go → Plans
Two recent books further explain the socialist elements of Nazi economic policy, and will hopefully put the final nails in the coffin of the myth that the Nazis were "capitalists" or free marketeers.
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Nazis → explain → myth
In The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy, historian Adam Tooze describes the statist nature of Nazi economic policy in great detail, and concludes that the Nazis imposed greater government control over the economy than any other noncommunist regime in modern history.
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Nazis → describe → history
Tooze notes that, even before the outbreak of World War II, government military spending accounted for some 20% of the GDP, while much of the rest of the economy came under government control as a result of the Four Year Plan and other similar measures.
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much → note → Plan
In Hitler's Beneficiaries: : Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State, Gotz Aly argues on the basis of extensive evidence, that German support for Nazi rule was maintained by the creation of a massive welfare state funded in large part by plunder captured in Hitler's foreign conquests, but also partly by means of "soak the rich" taxation within Germany itself.
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support → argue → Germany
Some nonetheless persist in viewing the Nazi economic system as "capitalist" because 1) some big businessmen (such as the Krupps) supported the Nazi regime, and 2) most of the means of production remained under private rather than state ownership.
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most → persist → ownership
It is certainly true that much industrial capital remained formally under private ownership under the Nazis.
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capital → remain → Nazis
However, under the Four Year Plan and other similar policies, it was primarily the government that determined what goods would be produced, what prices would be charged, and (in many cases) who would be the consumers.
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who → determine → cases
"Capitalist" private firms in Nazi Germany played a role far more similar to that of socialist managers of enterprises in the Soviet Union than that of actual capitalists in a market system.
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firms → play → system
The Krupps and others certainly profited greatly under the Nazis, but so too did high-ranking Communist Party enterprise managers in the Soviet Union.
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managers → profit → Union
Neither, however, detracted from the state's ultimate control over economic production…..
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Neither → detract → production
These two new books are useful complements to Avraham Barkai's 1990 work Nazi Economics, which explored the ideological origins of Nazi economic policy and showed how Nazi economic theorists explicitly advocated statism, while rejecting free markets.
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theorists → explore → markets
Like some modern opponents of globalization and free trade, the Nazis viewed economics as a zero-sum game between nations, where increasing wealth for one country could, in the long run, only be achieved by impoverishing or conquering others.
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increasing → view → others
More recently, economist Bryan Caplan has surveyed the data on Nazi economic policy, indicating extensive and rapidly growing government control of the economy.
But government control of the economy was not the only element of Nazi ideology.
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control → survey → ideology
The Nazis believed the state should serve the interest of "Aryan" Germans.
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state → believe → Germans
Other groups were at best second-class citizens, and at worst slated for slavery (as in the case of Slavic peoples), or outright extermination (as in the case of the Jews).
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groups → slat → Jews
The slogan "Workers of the World Unite" urges proletarians of all ethnic and national backgrounds to come together.
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slogan → urge → backgrounds
Marx famously regarded nationalism as a form of "false consciousness."
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Marx → regard → consciousness
Not all socialists reject nationalism so completely.
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socialists → reject → nationalism
But, as a general rule, they support racial and ethnic equality and condemn discrimination.
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they → support → discrimination
In part for this reason, historically oppressed racial and ethnic minorities have often played a role in nascent socialist movements.
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minorities → oppress → movements
But it is true that Jews (and a number of other ethnic minorities) were disproportionately represented among pre-1917 Russian communists.
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Jews → represent → communists
That was in part because the communists promised ethnic equality and an end to the Russian Empire's egregious anti-Semitic discrimination.
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communists → promise → discrimination
Jews were similarly overrepresented in other movements promoting ethnic equality at that time, including the Constitutional Democratic Party, which sought to make Russia a liberal democracy.
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Russia → overrepresente → Party
Left-wingers who argue that the Nazis were not socialist like to emphasize this egalitarian dimension of socialist ideology.
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Nazis → argue → ideology
They have a point.
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They → have → point
But, sadly, socialist governments often fail to live up to these principles.
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governments → fail → principles
Despite promising equality, the Soviet government ultimately engaged in massive persecution of minority groups.
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government → promise → groups
Stalin deported and partially exterminated various groups, such as the Crimean Tartars.
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Stalin → deport → Tartars
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
