There are few socialist countries in existence. The social democratic countries of Scandinavia and Western Europe are preferable to Western capitalism, true, but they are not socialist countries inasmuch as socialism is constituted by the public ownership and egalitarian distribution of the means of production.
It is a similar fallacy that mixed market capitalism, (the only variety of capitalism that has ever existed, incidentally), is a "mix of capitalism and socialism." It's merely a different variety of capitalism from the social democratic.
As for legitimately socialist countries, Robin Hahnel speaks wisely when he notes the progressive economic reforms in Venezuela, for instance. "Like most Latin American economies, the Venezuelan economy deteriorated during the 1980s and most of the 1990s. From 1998 to 2003 real per capita GDP continued to stagnate while the Chavez government survived two general strikes by the largest Venezuelan business association, a military coup, and finally a devastating two month strike by the state owned oil company. However, after Chavez survived the opposition sponsored recall election, annual economic growth was 18.3% in 2004, 10.3% in 2005, and 10.3% in 2006, and the unemployment rate fell from 18.4 % in June 2003 to 8.3% in June 2007. Moreover, most of the growth was in the non-oil sectors of the economy, as the oil sector barely grew during 2005 and 2006. While this impressive growth would not have been possible without the rise in international oil prices, it also would not have been possible had the Chavez government not ignored the warnings of neoliberal critics and pursued aggressive expansionary fiscal and monetary policies.
At the height of the oil strike the poverty rate rose to 55.1% of households and a startling 62.1% of the population. However, by the end of 2006 the poverty rate had declined dramatically to 30.6% of households and 36.3% of the population, which compares favorably with a pre-Chavez rate of poverty in 1997 for households of 55.6% and for individuals of 60.9%. While much of this decrease in poverty was due to strong economic growth, it was also due to a dramatic increase in social spending by the Chavez government. Social spending per person by the central government increased by an average of 19% per year from 1998 to 2007. However, this does not include social spending by the state-owned oil company. If social spending by PDVSA is included, there was an increase of 35% per person per year since 1998. The most dramatic increase in social spending was in the area of health care. In 1998 there were over 14,000 Venezuelans for each primary healthcare physician, and few physicians worked in rural or poor urban areas. By 2007 there was one primary healthcare physician for every 1,300 Venezuelans, and many of the new physicians were working in clinics in rural areas and poor barrios that had never had physicians before.2 There are also now 16,000 stores in poor areas throughout the country selling staples at a 30% discount on average."
This is what the natural legacy of socialism will be. As a result of its hierarchical nature, capitalism suffers from numerous inefficiencies that inhibit productivity. Socialism does not suffer from such inefficiencies, since a critical element of public ownership of the means of production is autogestion. (Workers' self-management.)
