Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Communist regimes emerged as the twentieth century’s most resilient type of dictatorship. China, Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, and Cuba even survived the “collapse” of communism at the end of the Cold War. When they first came to power, however, non-European communist regimes were relatively weak, with small communist parties, few resources, and underdeveloped economies. How did these regimes strengthen their communist parties and states? The Enduring Power of Communism argues that foreign aid played a critical role in state building. The Cold War witnessed the longest and most successful campaign of authoritarian promotion in history, as the Eastern Bloc sent armies of advisors and massive amounts of aid to fledgling communist regimes. Advisors promoted authoritarian learning by helping regimes set up central planning institutions. Aid built state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that established state control of the economy. SOEs subsequently increased fiscal capacity by providing tax revenues. SOEs also became sites of societal domination, enmeshing workers in webs of dependency. It explains the divergent trajectories of non-European communist regimes, showing why Soviet-style state building prompted radical backlashes in North Korea, Cuba, and China. Yet Soviet aid also had its limits: while economic aid was critical to the durability of communist regimes, it undermined the stability of non-communist regimes, making them more vulnerable to military coups. In Ghana, for example, Soviet aid contributed to the downfall of the Nkrumah regime. Aid also proved a double-edged sword at the end of the Cold War, contributing to the collapse of communism in Mongolia and Cambodia.</jats:p>