There is a very simple test of whether a society is a Socialist one; namely, a society is Socialist if its predominant mode of production is the Socialist one. The Socialist mode of production is distinguished from all others by the following:
* Communal (worker) ownership of the means of production (land and machinery used to make goods for society)
* Government composed entirely of the workers, making decisions in the interest of the workers
* Goods are produced to be used rather than exchanged on a market
* Wage labour is not dominant in the economy
* The functions of private property have been abolished and thus there is no more private property.
Venezuela fails all of these criteria. It's not "no true Scotsman", it's the truth.
Someone called Angus, who calls himself a Scotsman, but who doesn't have Scottish citizenship, nationality, lineage nor has he ever lived in Scotland is not a Scotsman.
>As far as Venezuela is concerned, the current government do see themselves as socialist (the Bolivarian revolution).
As I said, just because his name is Angus and he calls himself a Scotsman, it does not make him so. The DPRK calls itself democratic, too. Are we to hold it as the exemplar democracy, and claim that democracy is such a failure?
In this stateless society, who decides how the group gets what it needs, for instance food, clothing etc? And how do the group knows what is best for each member of that group?
* Communal (worker) ownership of the means of production (land and machinery used to make goods for society)
* Government composed entirely of the workers, making decisions in the interest of the workers
* Goods are produced to be used rather than exchanged on a market
* Wage labour is not dominant in the economy
* The functions of private property have been abolished and thus there is no more private property.
Venezuela fails all of these criteria. It's not "no true Scotsman", it's the truth.
Someone called Angus, who calls himself a Scotsman, but who doesn't have Scottish citizenship, nationality, lineage nor has he ever lived in Scotland is not a Scotsman.