Essay: Convergence: The Uncertain Meeting of East and West

The only choice is either bourgeois or socialist ideology. There is no middle course.

—Lenin

SHOULD Lenin be taken at his word?

Some Western political theorists and even a few Russians think not, and in defense of their belief they have propagated what has become known as the convergence theory. In essence, the theory proposes that capitalism and Communism—driven by the irresistible scientific and technological forces that control modern industrial states—will eventually coalesce into a new form of society, blending the personal freedom and profit motive of Western democracies with the Communist system's...