Can Capitalism exist in one isolated country?

[Blanquist]

If property is socialized everyone but one isolated country, can that country survive with capitalism?

For example, if all those who support capitalism would be sent to Australia, could they have capitalism there while everyone has socialism everywhere else?

[Raúl Duke]

They might have trade issues with the rest of the world...

Also, I believe they would be influenced by the socialist nations around them in some way, perhaps becoming increasingly social democratic like Scandinavia or something.

The situation for them may even be untenable...if the socialist nations around them are increasingly successful they would probably have to deal with a rebellious working class that knows that socialism works and capitalism and the bourgeoisie is unnecessary. This may lead to revolution or a descent into some very repressive dictatorship perhaps like North Korea (except totally capitalist).

This idea reminds me of what a Soviet leader, I think Khruschev, one said...he mentioned something about if the whole world was to be socialist they would leave Switzerland as the sole capitalist country.

[Lee Van Cleef]

An interesting question. I'd argue that in the long-term it would prove unsustainable due to the need for capital to always expand and find new markets. As markets saturated more quickly within the confined borders of Australia, crises of overproduction would become more frequent and damaging. The only way to stall this accelerated boom-bust cycle would be for the establishment of a supreme monopoly or cartel that would ensure stability. Even so, this would just be delaying the inevitable.

EDIT: Though as Raul Duke just pointed out, an extremely repressive state apparatus could enforce capitalist rule even in this volatile and depressed economic situation.

[ArseCynic]

If you mean one country is not socialist while the rest are, then I'd have to say that the opposite will happen: The socialist countries will collapse.

but If you mean a trully capitalist planet except one capitalist country, then I'd have to say the capitalist country might cause some problems(like the ferengi in star trek) but would eventually erode away.

[Shakey_Jake33]

The issue isn't so much if capitalism can exist in one country (because a certain scale of capitalism certainly can exist within one country depending on the available resources), but the fact that the growth of capitalism demands an ever-growing manufacture-base that will do more for less, and a growing consumer base that want more for less. Hence, the phenomena of globalisation and the rapid expansion of multinational corporations.

You can see domestic reactions to the globally-expansive nature of capitalism across the world, one example being the domestic resistance to opening up markets to domestic competition through protectivism and resistence to FTAs. Ironically, these same domestic markets would love to see their own markets accessible to the globe, which takes us back to the fact that capitalism demands perceptual, wasteful growth in order to sustain itself.

[Rafiq]

No, it can't.