A Socialist Empire

Book excerpt: 2011 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Many social scientists have attempted to lump the unique Inca society into modern political and economic categories. Louis Baudin argued that Incan society was socialistic. He claimed that the ayllu system is what classified the Inca as a system of state socialism. Baudin defines state socialism as being based on the idea of the regulative action of a central power in social relations. According to Baudin, the idea of private property in Europe had been in existence for centuries, but no such idea existed at the times of the Incas. He claims, that society in Peru rested on a foundation of collective ownership which, to a certain extent, facilitated its establishment, because the effacement of the individual within a group prepared him to allow himself to be absorbed. Baudin argued that the higher ranking Incas tried, and succeeded to an extent, to force a degree of uniformity on the common Inca. The Inca were forced to dress similarly, eat the same food, practice the same religion, and speak the same language, Quechua.