This leads on to the question: Is not Socialism DEAD? Is this analysis relevant? Socialism is a theory based on equality. Equality has not prevailed anywhere. The practice of socialism has lead to increase of government power. Is socialism dead? It cannot die because it never existed anywhere. The fundamentally counter productive nature of socialism has been recognised in some communist countries. Even in those countries the pervasive influence of government control and regulations exists. The movement to change the extent of government control and power has only begun. Whether and in what direction it will continue is not clear.
There are many communist countries (North Korea, Cuba), former countries headed by ex-communists (Russia) and also democracies where there is no apparent recognition of the fundamentally counter productive nature of socialism.
The fundamentally counter-productive nature of democratic socialism (the practice of which is an ever increasing government influence, power and control at the behest of specially favoured interest groups) is not recognised in many "democratic" countries. The power of favoured interest groups is growing.
Economic factors in recent years and privatisation have slowed down the pace of growth, even if the size of government is not growing, governemnt controls are expanding.
Many democratic socialist governments have been falsely presented as pro-private enterprise governments. They have been good for some big private enterprises, but have presided over an unprecedented decline in small business and small farming.
Socialism in the sense of increasing government power and benefits to favoured groups (interest group politics) is very much alive. The theory of socialism in the sense of more power to government to deal with human problems is very much alive in Australia — government, business and academia.