Client state

Client states

According to the notion of client states, just as a client of a corporation remains dependent on the corporation for a continued supply of products, and just as it is in the company's interest to make expendable products which need to be replaced regularly, client states of the two big superpowers of the second half of the 20th century remained dependent on their respective superpowers for the continued supply of products, and it was in the interests of the superpowers to make these products (or investments) only useful for the clients in the short term rather than the long term.

Neutral point of view comparison of the social, political and/or economical effects of the two superpowers on the client states, which mostly were newly decolonised states, requires comparing respective client states. Client states of the United States of America were most of the countries in Latin America, while client states of the Soviet Union were in Eastern Europe.

In general during the second half of the 20th century, most political and some economical freedoms were higher in the Latin American client states of the USA, except for the regular use of lethal violence (death squads, rape, disappearances) rather than imprisonment; while most social and some cultural and economical human rights were better protected in the Eastern European client states of the USSR.

During the collapse of the communist and capitalist superpowers which occurred during the decades before and after the turn of the century (2000), it was hoped that the client states of the two fallen superpowers could gain true social, political and economic independence.