In a speech in the Strasbourg Parliament Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) today compared the EU with the USSR. On the surface this comparison may appear to be far-fetched. State Capitalism 'works' (upto a point), while Communism does not. But in many other respects the two institutions are not that far apart.
Oct 27, 2015 European Parliament Strasbourg, Nigel Farage: "The Modern-Day Implementation of the Brezhnev Doctrine".
The Brezhnev Doctrine states, that when forces that are hostile to Socialism try to turn the development of a Socialist country towards Capitalism, it becomes a common concern of all Socialist countries. This doctrine retroactively justified the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and Hungary in 1956. (Wiki) Communism was an economic system -- the 'social ownership' of the means of production -- and it didn't work. The economic system of the European Union is known as the third way, the Rhineland model, or the mixed economy, a middle of the road mix of Capitalism and Socialism. It's a compromise between two systems that are at core incompatible. In the Capitalist system the Government is the hand maiden of Liberty. In Communism the economy is the servant of the State. The Chinese also devised a third way. It's called State Capitalism. And that is increasingly also the EU's economic system.