Current and potential socialist countries

[punisa]

Hi comrades,

I was wondering which countries are considered socialist today. And I mean according to you ! - Googling and Wiki-ing for sources will most likely make you think China and North Korea are fine examples of socialism, which I strongly doubt.

We are very informed about Cuba, but what about Laos, Vietnam?
Is there any work/ambition/idea to bring these governments mutually together, an internationalism stance?

Another thing... there are many mild left parties all over Europe, majority are idealogical presented as "social democrats". Does potential success of this parties on the elections mean that there will be any movement towards socialist governing or is are they just a shady excuse to attract left oriented voters?

p.s. was planning to put the topic under "learning", but as its actually more dealing with current affairs, I've posted it in "politics", hope its ok.

[L.J.Solidarity]

I don't know much about Vietnam, but according to what I heard the Doi Moi policy introduced in 1986 has caused restoration of capitalism and Vietnam today is very similar to China (i.e. a de facto capitalist society firmly led by a "communist" party with no visible amount of any form of democracy).

[rednordman]

What about Nepal? They seemed to have a big maoist movement, and even a dominated government. I do not know how they are making the changes (if any) to suit though. I think Vietnam still deserves some credit, they come across as a nation that is trying to do the best for its people, despite rather dire circumstances. Funnily enough, I still think Cambodia has virtually the same government that they had from the vietnamese occupation (more like liberation actually) after the Khymer Rouge.
There are other places in Eastern Europe such as Albania (i think) where the Communist party are currently the ruling party, and Belarus, which from what i'v heard is run on a similar line to when it was part of the Soviet Union.
I must state that this info is most from wiki, so could well be outdated or fabricated.
I doubt that many of these countries still adopt a marxist based economy however, but have read somewhere that Veitnam is still doing the best it can to combine both.

[A New Era]

None.

And in regards to social democratic parties in Europe, I do not think they or the fact that a lot of people vote for them, is of much significance. If capitalism is ice cream, social democracy is strawberry. Just another flavor.

[Conquer or Die]

Nepal's situation is actually documented consistently on the web. After People's War, their leader Prachanda and the Communist Party Maoist formed constitutional democracy with other parties in Nepal and there appears to be a contest between a liberal economy and a socialist state. I believe that the People's Army is still in tact in Nepal - which is a positive to prevent coup attempts. If Prachanda can get democratic approval for socialist agendas - and they work; this will create quite a stir.

Moreover, the situation in India is also interesting. Maoists have been gaining ground there, too.

Type Kasama in google search and look for mikeely.wordpress

[Yazman]

From what I have heard much ground has been gained in India in recent years although there hasn't been much news in the past few months.. it has been very quiet on that front lately.