Saints and Soviets Again — Inventing the ‘New Man’ by American Capitalism and Soviet Socialism Revisited

Abstract

The paper argues and demonstrates that American capitalism, or conservatism, and Soviet communism show a convergence on the invention of the ‘new man’ as a novel human type. It then elaborates and specifies the main characteristics of the invented type. The paper constructs an index of the American and Soviet ‘new man’ composed of certain indicators of the latter as its components. It presents the results of an empirical analysis consisting of numerical ‘new man’ indexes for American capitalism and Soviet communism or the US and Russia, as well as other comparable societies such as countries belonging to The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It discusses the empirical results, notably the shared complete failure of American capitalism or conservatism and Soviet communism, to invent a new human type. It concludes, draws theoretical implications, and suggests directions for further research.