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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (97857)	5/10/2003 10:09:34 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I think there's also been a real underestimation of the degree to which extended pervasive dictatorship distorts the economy as a whole... Those are really good points also, and correspond exactly with what my Parisian ex-Soviet bloc country expatriates told me it was like living under those regimes (Roumania and Bulgaria are two I'm familiar with.) It becomes a very real part of the ambient culture, and we know how hard culture shock is to deal with and how resilient cultures are to change. On the other hand, this also shows why fears of global "americanisation" are off the mark; it takes a lot more than McDonald's on the corner or satellite TV to make a dent in inbred cultural differences.