SOCIALISM IS rapidly losing its allure as an economic program even among sizeable segments of the left. A long-time socialist such as Robert Heilbroner now readily admits to the system’s failings. Yet most of the Western left remains unconvinced of the superiority, or even the workability, of capitalism. Since roughly 1983, when capitalist economies got back on track and stayed there, the left in the West has resorted largely to touting the noneconomic rewards of socialism, ironically making prima facie common cause with Russell Kirk and other classical conservatives.  Given the moribund state of socialist economies, non-economics is the only route that socialists can now travel without breaking with their faith.