Yoshie wrote, "A question may be asked: what can the Bill of Rights mean in a socialist country where the judiciary is not independent, all lawyers are state employees, and the means of production, including the means of cultural production such as the media, are all directly or indirectly owned by the government?"
The exact relations of lawyers and judicial bodies in a state that does not yet exist is probably a bit more fluid. In any event, the entire question of socialism is, obviously, not just a matter of government control and ownership but one of which class controls and owns the government. In short, a genuinely socialist society requires a genuinely socialist civic culture. In such a society, just as in this one, the real meaning of something like the Bill of Rights will depend on what the people insist on having. Unlike in this society, a socialist civic culture is going to be much more demanding of rights and protective of the rights of all. To the extent that it isn't, it won't be fully socialist. ML
