See through the East/West myth — permanently
Convergence Revisited gives you the analytical framework to prove that crony socialism quietly erodes the ideological distance between liberal democracies and statist regimes — and the writing skills to argue it with authority.
"The mechanisms of insider power don't respect the ideological labels we paste over them — and neither will this school."
— Val (Valdas) Samonis
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Articulate the convergence thesis — why crony socialism produces structurally similar political economies in both Western and Eastern systems
- Identify the defining mechanisms of insider cronyism: regulatory capture, revolving doors, state-adjacent oligarchies, and rent-seeking coalitions
- Compare landmark case studies from the EU, US, Russia, and China to map where and how insider networks consolidate power
- Critically evaluate mainstream narratives about 'free-market West vs. state-controlled East' and dismantle them with empirical evidence
- Apply a convergence lens to current events — trade policy, financial bailouts, tech regulation — to decode who actually benefits and why
- Construct original written arguments about systemic cronyism using the school's analytical framework, ready for publication or academic use
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 25 lessons
The Convergence Thesis: Rethinking the East/West Binary
Establishes the intellectual foundation by challenging the ideological divide between Western liberal democracies and Eastern statist regimes.
- 1.1The Myth of the Divide: Why the Binary Breaks DownIncluded
- 1.2Convergence Theory: A Brief Intellectual HistoryIncluded
- 1.3Defining Crony Socialism: A Precise Working ConceptIncluded
- 1.4The Structural Argument: How Insider Systems Reproduce ThemselvesIncluded
The Mechanisms of Insider Power
Dissects the specific institutional tools — regulatory capture, revolving doors, oligarchies, and rent-seeking — through which insiders consolidate control in any system.
- 2.1Regulatory Capture: When the Rules Serve the RuledIncluded
- 2.2The Revolving Door: Personnel as PolicyIncluded
- 2.3State-Adjacent Oligarchies: Private Power with Public BackingIncluded
- 2.4Rent-Seeking Coalitions: Organizing to Extract Rather Than CreateIncluded
- 2.5Informational Asymmetry and the Opacity PremiumIncluded
Western Case Studies: Cronyism in Liberal Democracies
Applies the convergence framework to landmark US and EU examples, demonstrating how insider networks operate inside formally democratic institutions.
- 3.1Wall Street and Washington: The 2008 Bailout ArchitectureIncluded
- 3.2The EU's Regulatory State: Insiders Writing the Rules in BrusselsIncluded
- 3.3Big Tech and the State: Regulatory Capture in the Digital EconomyIncluded
- 3.4Defense Procurement and the Permanent Contractor ClassIncluded
Eastern Case Studies: Cronyism in Statist Regimes
Maps the architecture of insider power in Russia and China, showing structural parallels to Western mechanisms despite different institutional facades.
- 4.1Putin's Political Economy: Oligarchy by DesignIncluded
- 4.2China's State Capitalism: The Party, the Market, and the InsiderIncluded
- 4.3SOEs, Champions, and Chosen Winners: Industrial Policy as Crony ToolIncluded
- 4.4Controlled Anticorruption: Prosecuting Rivals, Protecting AlliesIncluded
Mapping Convergence: Where East Meets West
Synthesizes Western and Eastern case studies into a unified comparative framework that makes structural similarities visible across systems.
- 5.1Side-by-Side: A Comparative Anatomy of Insider SystemsIncluded
- 5.2Trade Policy as Insider Theater: Protectionism Across RegimesIncluded
- 5.3Financial Flows and Elite Overlap: Where Eastern and Western Money Actually GoesIncluded
- 5.4Ideology as Camouflage: How Official Narratives Protect Insider ArrangementsIncluded
Applying the Convergence Lens: Analysis, Argument, and Publication
Equips students to deploy the school's analytical framework independently — decoding current events and producing original, publication-ready arguments.
- 6.1Reading Current Events Through a Convergence LensIncluded
- 6.2Identifying the Insider Coalition in Any StoryIncluded
- 6.3Dismantling Mainstream Narratives with Empirical EvidenceIncluded
- 6.4Constructing a Convergence Argument: From Thesis to PublicationIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
Political economists
He wants a rigorous comparative framework that cuts through ideology and names the structural logic insider systems actually share across regimes.
Investigative journalists
He needs a reliable analytical lens to identify the insider coalition behind any story — and the vocabulary to argue it in print without getting it wrong.
Graduate researchers
She's developing original work on comparative political economy and needs a well-sourced convergence framework to anchor her thesis and sharpen her arguments.
Policy analysts
She's read enough bailout post-mortems and trade policy briefs to know something structural is being left unsaid — and wants the framework to say it clearly.
Informed citizens
He's intellectually serious, deeply skeptical of official narratives, and determined to understand how power actually moves — not how governments say it does.
International affairs professionals
He works across both Eastern and Western institutional contexts and wants a comparative model that explains the insider dynamics he observes on the ground.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Val (Valdas) Samonis
If you've spent any serious time studying comparative political economy, you've probably felt a quiet frustration — the kind that builds when the frameworks you're given don't quite fit what the evidence actually shows. You read about regulatory capture in Washington and then read about Putin's oligarchs, and somewhere in the back of your mind a question forms that nobody in polite analytical circles wants to ask directly: how different is this, really?
That question is the starting point for everything in this school.
I built Convergence Revisited because the East/West binary is not just analytically lazy — it is actively misleading. It trains serious people to ask the wrong questions. When we frame Western cronyism as a market failure and Eastern cronyism as a feature of authoritarianism, we obscure the structural logic they share. Insider coalitions don't care about ideology. They care about access, opacity, and the ability to write the rules. The mechanisms are the same. The camouflage is different. Learning to strip away the camouflage is the entire project of this school.
What you'll find here is not a polemic. I have no interest in ideological hand-holding in either direction — this framework is as hard on Washington as it is on Beijing, as unsparing on Brussels as on Moscow. What I've tried to build is a rigorous, evidence-grounded analytical apparatus: precise definitions, well-chosen case studies, and a set of tools for reading any political economy story — current or historical — through a convergence lens. The goal is not to make you more cynical. It is to make you more precise.
The final section matters to me as much as the theoretical foundations. Understanding the convergence thesis is one thing. Being able to argue it — in print, in a policy memo, in an academic paper, in a long-form investigation — is another. I've structured the school so that by the end, you're not just a more sophisticated consumer of political economy analysis. You're a producer of it.
If you are a political analyst, economist, journalist, graduate student, or simply someone who refuses to accept the official story at face value, this school was designed with you specifically in mind. Come in skeptical. Leave equipped.
— Val (Valdas) Samonis
Start your journey today
Join 13 others and get instant access — learn at your own pace with an AI coach in your corner.
$50/mo
Recurring billing · cancel anytime
Secure checkout · Instant access
- 6 modules, 25 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed