Capitalism, socialism, and the physical quality of life
This study compared capitalist and socialist countries in measures of the physical quality of life (PQL), taking into account the level of economic development. The World Bank was the principal source of statistical data, which pertained to 123 countries and approximately 97 percent of the...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Abstract
This study compared capitalist and socialist countries in measures of the physical quality of life (PQL), taking into account the level of economic development. The World Bank was the principal source of statistical data, which pertained to 123 countries and approximately 97 percent of the world's population. PQL variables included indicators of health, health services, demographic conditions, and nutrition (infant mortality rate, child death rate, life expectancy, crude death rate, crude birth rate, population per physician, population per nursing person, and daily per capita calorie supply); measures of education (adult literacy rate, enrollment in secondary education, and enrollment in higher education); and a composite PQL index. All PQL measures improved as economic development increased. In 30 of 36 comparisons between countries at similar levels of economic development, socialist countries showed more favorable PQL outcomes (p less than .05 by two-tailed t-test). This work with the World Bank's raw data included cross-tabulations, analysis of variance, and regression techniques, which all confirmed the same conclusions.
The data indicated that the socialist countries generally have achieved better PQL outcomes than the capitalist countries at equivalent levels of economic development.
Baywood Publishing Company; SAGE Publications; SAGE Publications Inc.; Metapress (ISSN 0020-7314) International Journal of Health Services, #4, 16, pages 643-658, 1986 oct lgli/10.2190/AD12-7RYT-XVAR-3R2U.pdf
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snippet:
Historically, there is some evidence that the discrepancies between capitalist and socialist nations have emerged since World War I1 and have reflected varying social policies. All the socialist countries have initiated major public health efforts. These initiatives have aimed toward improved sanitation, immunization, maternal and child care, nutrition, and housing. In every case, the socialist countries also have reorganized their health care systems, to create national health services based on the principle of universal entitlement to care. These policies have led to greater accessibility of preventive and curative services for previously deprived groups. Expanded educational Physical Quality of Life / 655 opportunity also has been a major priority of the socialist nations, as publicly subsidized education has become more widely available. Literacy campaigns in these countries have brought educational benefits to sectors of the population that earlier had not gone to school. While capitalist countries at higher levels of economic developmen1 have enjoyed similar fruits of public health and educational improvements, poorer capitalist countries seldom have succeeded in implementing such drastic changes in policy. Even in the wealthier capitalist countries, public health and educational policies have not achieved equitable access for low-income groups, racial minorities, and geographically isolated communities (21, 22).
Profound differences in PQL between the capitalist and socialist systems have arisen in the less developed countries. There, the options in public health and education that a socialist political-economic system provides seem to overcome some of the grueling deprivations of poverty. Many of the recent postrevolutionary societies (which we treated as a separate category in the data analysis) have adopted socialist systems. Predictably, these countries may witness improvements in PQL during the next decade that will differentiate them from other countries at their level of economic developmen t. Whether they do will be an important question to study in subsequent research.
Meanwhile, the relationships between PQL and political-economic system deserve more serious attention than they have received in the past. Our findings indicate that countries with socialist political-economic systems can make great strides toward meeling basic human needs, even without extensive economic resources. When much of the world’s population suffers from disease, early death, malnutrition, and illiteracy, these observations take on a meaning that goes beyond cold statistics.