This edited volume opening the new series Revisiting Communism: Collectivist Economic Thought in Historical Perspective focuses on the concepts of ownership, the cornerstone of political economy in Soviet-type societies. The authors' main objective is to contribute to the still unwritten chapter on collectivism in the history books of modern economic thought. They trace the lengthy evolution of economic ideas of property reform under communism leading from the doctrine of blanket nationalization to projects of moderate privatization in eight countries of Eastern Europe and China. The comparative analysis sheds light upon the tireless attempts of reform-minded economists in communist countries to populate the no man's land of "social property" with quasi-private economic actors such as bodies of workers' self-management and managers of state-owned companies. For a long time, these were expected to crowd out the communist nomenklatura from its actual ownership position without challenging the primacy of collective property rights. The fact that even the most radical reformers came to the conclusion that such surrogate owners would not be able to break the power of the ruling elite only on the eve of the 1989 revolutions demonstrates the immense strength of collectivist ideas. The authors coin the term "trap of collectivism" to warn those demanding nationalization or other forms of non-private ownership today: it is rather easy, even with the best intentions, to walk into this trap but it may take long decades to break out from it.

This major two volume reference work focuses on the works of contemporary Marxism which take as their inspiration the classical Marxian political economy, especially that of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Luxemburg and Gramsci. The authors reprinted here are engaged in the common enterprise of attempting to understand the world in a manner that might facilitate its transformation for the better, or at least help prevent the worst outcomes from predictable and inevitable changes. Committed to the critical, scientific and explanatory project of Marxism, the authors represented in these volumes tend to be structuralist and determinist but they also acknowledge the role of voluntarism, chance or untheorized circumstance. All have borrowed from the philosophical, political, and most importantly, political economic strands of the classical Marxist legacy to create a new and contemporary Marxian political economy. These authoritative volumes will be an essential reference point for an analysis of one of the most influential political ideologies of the 20th century.

The current political climate of uncompromising neoliberalism means that the need to study the logic of our culture-that is, the logic of the capitalist system-is compelling. Providing a rich philosophical analysis of democracy from a negative, non-identity, dialectical perspective, Vasilis Grollios encourages the reader not to think of democracy as a call for a more effective domination of the people or as a demand for the replacement of the elite that currently holds power. In doing so, he aspires to fill in a gap in the literature by offering an out-of-the-mainstream overview of the key concepts of totality, negativity, fetishization, contradiction, identity thinking, dialectics and corporeal materialism as they have been employed by the major thinkers of the critical theory tradition: Marx, Engels, Horkheimer, Lukacs, Adorno, Marcuse, Bloch and Holloway. Their thinking had the following common keywords: contradiction, fetishism as a process and the notion of spell and all its implications. The author makes an innovative attempt to bring these concepts to light in terms of their practical relevance for contemporary democratic theory.

What can contemporary activists and political theorists learn from the life and work of Rosa Luxemburg? Examining her contribution to radical democracy and revolutionary socialism, Jon Nixon shows why Red Rosa's legacy lives on. Luxemburg's political and intellectual formation was in itself a 'long revolution', conceived of over time and in response to world events; her groundbreaking ideas around internationalism and spontaneity were formulated in the context of revolution. Returning to her thinking on global capitalism, democratic renewal, state militarism, and the social question, Nixon draws out the enduring nature of her work, using her framework of ideas as a lens through which to view the contemporary debates. By establishing a rich and distinctive account of Luxemburg, Nixon makes the argument for why her struggle for democratic renewal is as relevant as ever.

This book examines the societal dynamics of memory politics in Russia. Since Vladimir Putin became president, the Russian central government has increasingly actively employed cultural memory to claim political legitimacy and discredit all forms of political opposition. The rhetorical use of the past has become a defining characteristic of Russian politics, creating a historical foundation for the regime's emphasis on a strong state and centralised leadership. Exploring memory politics, this book analyses a wide range of actors, from the central government and the Russian Orthodox Church, to filmmaker and cultural heavyweight Nikita Mikhalkov and radical thinkers such as Aleksandr Dugin. In addition, in view of the steady decline in media freedom since 2000, it critically examines the role of cinema and television in shaping and spreading these narratives. Thus, this book aims to gain a better understanding of the various means through which the Russian government practices its memory politics (e.g., the role of state media) and, on the other hand, to sufficiently value the existence of alternative and critical voices and criticism that existing studies tend to overlook. Contributing to current debates in the field of memory studies and of current affairs in Russia and Eastern Europe, this book will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of Russian Studies, Cultural Memory Studies, Nationalism and National Identity, Political Communication, Film, Television and Media Studies.

Marxism, Psychology and Social Science Analysis applies Marxist theory, psychology, and the work of Lucien Seve to specific research in the social sciences. It shows in practical terms what guidance can be offered for social scientific researchers wanting to incorporate Seve's view of personality into their work. Providing case studies drawn from different social sciences that give the book significant breadth of scope, Roche reviews the impact of "Taking Seve Seriously" across the study of international relations theory, economics, law, and moral philosophy. The book begins by placing the work of Lucien Seve in context and considers the development of psychology in relation to Marxism, before going on to summarise the work of Seve in relation to the psychology of personality. It considers the opportunities for refreshed research in social relations based on developments by Seve, before examining Marxist biography and the implications of Seve's views. The book also includes chapters on the social discount rate, on constructivism in international relations, on the concept of promising in moral philosophy and the Marxist conception of individual responsibility. It addresses not only how research should be carried out differently, but whether utilising the theoretical framework of other writers, even non-Marxists, can deliver a similar outcome. With its use of five distinct case studies to analyse the work of Lucien Seve, this unique book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of psychology, philosophy and social sciences.

Frank Pearce was the first scholar to use the term 'crimes of the powerful.' His ground-breaking book of the same name provided insightful critiques of liberal orthodox criminology, particularly in relation to labelling theory and symbolic interactionism, while making important contributions to Marxist understandings of the complex relations between crime, law and the state in the reproduction of the capitalist social order. Historically, crimes of the powerful were largely neglected in crime and deviance studies, but there is now an important and growing body of work addressing this gap. This book brings together leading international scholars to discuss the legacy of Frank Pearce's book and his work in this area, demonstrating the invaluable contributions a critical Marxist framework brings to studies of corporate and state crimes, nationally, internationally and on a global scale. This book is neither a hagiography, nor a review of random areas of social scientific interest. Instead, it draws together a collection of scholarly and original articles which draw upon and critically interrogate the continued significance of the approach pioneered in Crimes of the Powerful. The book traces the evolution of crimes of the powerful empirically and theoretically since 1976, shows how critical scholars have integrated new theoretical insights derived from post-structuralism, feminism and critical race studies and offers perspectives on how the crimes of the powerful - and the enormous, ongoing destruction they cause - can be addressed and resisted.

Thought reform is arguably China's most controversial social policy. If reeducation's critics and defenders agree on little else, they share the conviction that ideological remolding is inseparable from its Mao-era roots. This is the first major English-language study to explore one of the most important aspects of those origins, the essential relationship between thought reform and the "dangerous classes"-the prostitutes, beggars, petty criminals, and other "lumpenproletarians" that Communists saw as a threat to society and the revolution. Through formerly unavailable classified documents, as well as diaries, oral histories, and memoirs, Aminda Smith takes readers inside the early-PRC reformatories where the new state endeavored to transform socially marginalized "vagrants" into socially integrated members of the laboring masses. As sites where "the people" were literally created, these centers became testing grounds for rapidly changing discourses about the praxis of thought reform as well as the subjects it aimed to produce. Her book explores reformatories as institutions dedicated to molding new socialist citizens and as symbolic spaces through which internees, cadres, and the ordinary masses made sense of what it meant to be a member of the people in the People's Republic of China. She offers convincing new answers to much-debated questions about the nature of the crucial decade of the 1950s, especially with respect to the development and future of PRC political culture.

Is the Grand Old Man re-emerging? More than twenty years after the collapse of Communism, and in the midst of the crisis of Capitalism, Karl Marx's ideas, at least in part, are back in vogue. He is often invoked, yet often misunderstood. In this award-winning biography Rolf Hosfeld offers a new, transparent, and critical view of Marx's turbulent life. Linking the contradictory politician and revolutionary to his work-his errors and misjudgments as well as his pioneering ideas-Hosfeld presents a vivid account of Marx's life between Trier and London. At the same time, he renders accessible Marx's complex work, one of the world's most important contributions to the history of ideas.

This volume offers fresh perspectives on the representation of the recent past in museums of the Second World War and of communism in post-communist Eastern Europe. It does so against the background of recent European-wide debates on history, memory and politics. The contributors from across Europe focus comparatively on a wide variety of case studies, pointing out similarities and differences, and accounting for transnational patterns of remembrance at regional and European level. Occupation and Communism in Eastern European Museums argues that museums have a huge influence on the image of the communist past in Eastern Europe. It shows how they use a vast array of media tools, visual tactics and commercial strategies in order to substantiate ideological approaches to the past and to shape the attitude of public opinion.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to all three volumes of Karl Marx's 'Capital', with advice on further reading and points for further discussion. Recognizing the contemporary relevance of 'Capital' in the midst of the current financial crisis, Kenneth Smith has produced an essential guide to Marx's ideas, particularly on the subject of the circulation of money-capital. This guide uniquely presents the three volumes of 'Capital' in a different order of reading to that in which they were published, placing them instead in the order that Marx himself sometimes recommended as a more user-friendly way of reading. Dr Smith also argues that for most of the twentieth century, the full development of the capitalist mode of production (CMP) has been undermined by the existence of a non-capitalist 'third world', which has caused the CMP to take on the form of what Marx called a highly developed mercantile system, rather than one characterized by an uninterrupted circuit of industrial capital of the kind he expected. While the guide can be read as a book in its own right, it also contains detailed references to Volumes I-III so that students, seminars and discussion groups can easily make connections between Smith's explanations and the relevant parts of 'Capital'.

Originally published in 1981 Practice and Progress is a collection examining the changes that have occurred in the theories, methodologies and practices of sociology, in the institutional and educational setting of the subject, and in British society. The themes pursued include the professionalization of sociology its development and standing in the universities; the impact on it of Marxism and feminism and the major debates over positivism and empiricism, quantitative methods, linguistic analysis; and numerous other crucial methodological and theoretical concerns.

This book puts forward a new perspective on the planned economies of communist Eastern Europe, demonstrating in detail how economic practice in such countries was shaped by the interplay among planners, managers and Party apparatchiks. Based on extensive original research, including interviews with former employees of industrial enterprises, the book argues that shortages, chronic over-capacities and erroneous planning decisions were present from the very beginning, rather than the consequences of later plan mistakes. They were the natural outcome of a profound conflict between leaders' attempt to adapt the basic laws of economics to their ideology and interests, and the requirements for rational bureaucracy of an increasingly sophisticated economy. The book discusses the evolution of and debates about the planned economy, considers the practice of plan development and implementation, and provides very detailed examples of how the planned economy actually worked at the level of the factory, at the point where plans and managers interacted with workers and production.

What kind of role can the middle class play in potential democratization in such an undemocratic, late developing country as China? To answer this profound political as well as theoretical question, Jie Chen explores attitudinal and behavioral orientation of China's new middle class to democracy and democratization. Chen's work is based on a unique set of data collected from a probability-sample survey and in-depth interviews of residents in three major Chinese cities, Beijing, Chengdu and Xi'an-each of which represents a distinct level of economic development in urban China-in 2007 and 2008. The empirical findings derived from this data set confirm that (1) compared to other social classes, particularly lower classes, the new Chinese middle class-especially those employed in the state apparatus-tends to be more supportive of the current Party-state but less supportive of democratic values and institutions; (2) the new middle class's attitudes toward democracy may be accounted for by this class's close ideational and institutional ties with the state, and its perceived socioeconomic wellbeing, among other factors; (3) the lack of support for democracy among the middle class tends to cause this social class to act in favor of the current state but in opposition to democratic changes. The most important political implication is that while China's middle class is not likely to serve as the harbinger of democracy now, its current attitudes toward democracy may change in the future. Such a crucial shift in the middle class's orientation toward democracy can take place, especially when its dependence on the Party-state decreases and perception of its own social and economic statuses turns pessimistic. The key theoretical implication from the findings suggests that the attitudinal and behavioral orientations of the middle class-as a whole and as a part-toward democratic change in late developing countries are contingent upon its relationship with the incumbent state and its perceived social/economic wellbeing, and the middle class's support for democracy in these countries is far from inevitable.

In Red Hangover Kristen Ghodsee examines the legacies of twentieth-century communism twenty-five years after the Berlin Wall fell. Ghodsee's essays and short stories reflect on the lived experience of postsocialism and how many ordinary men and women across Eastern Europe suffered from the massive social and economic upheavals in their lives after 1989. Ghodsee shows how recent major crises-from the Russian annexation of Crimea and the Syrian Civil War to the rise of Islamic State and the influx of migrants in Europe-are linked to mistakes made after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc when fantasies about the triumph of free markets and liberal democracy blinded Western leaders to the human costs of "regime change." Just as the communist ideal has become permanently tainted by its association with the worst excesses of twentieth-century Eastern European regimes, today the democratic ideal is increasingly sullied by its links to the ravages of neoliberalism. An accessible introduction to the history of European state socialism and postcommunism, Red Hangover reveals how the events of 1989 continue to shape the world today.

Nearly half a century after his death, Ernesto "Che" Guevara remains a compelling and controversial figure. He was an original social theorist, and many of his writings attest to an innovative interpretation of various concepts and commitments central to Marxist thought. This is one of the first works to comprehensively consider his contribution to social and political theory for a student audience. Firstly, the book provides thorough and reliable accounts of the key theses, concepts and commitments that give Che Guevara's theoretical, and political, orientation its distinctive character. It addresses Guevara's views on topics such as work, morality in socialism, egalitarianism, prefigurative politics, internationalism, and the process of "disembourgeoisement". Secondly, the study situates Guevara's ideas within the context of the Marxist theoretical tradition and, on the other hand, twentieth-century Latin American social thought. To this end, it will explore both the affinities and dissimilarities between Guevara's views on certain fundamental questions and the views represented by such figures as Marx, Lenin, Herbert Marcuse and Jose Carlos Mariategui. Finally, The Political Thought of Che Guevara will provide critical assessments of Che's key ideas, many of which remain relevant to contemporary debates in socialist theory.

Nearly half a century after his death, Ernesto "Che" Guevara remains a compelling and controversial figure. He was an original social theorist, and many of his writings attest to an innovative interpretation of various concepts and commitments central to Marxist thought. This is one of the first works to comprehensively consider his contribution to social and political theory for a student audience. Firstly, the book provides thorough and reliable accounts of the key theses, concepts and commitments that give Che Guevara's theoretical, and political, orientation its distinctive character. It addresses Guevara's views on topics such as work, morality in socialism, egalitarianism, prefigurative politics, internationalism, and the process of "disembourgeoisement". Secondly, the study situates Guevara's ideas within the context of the Marxist theoretical tradition and, on the other hand, twentieth-century Latin American social thought. To this end, it will explore both the affinities and dissimilarities between Guevara's views on certain fundamental questions and the views represented by such figures as Marx, Lenin, Herbert Marcuse and Jose Carlos Mariategui. Finally, The Political Thought of Che Guevara will provide critical assessments of Che's key ideas, many of which remain relevant to contemporary debates in socialist theory.

This work on the decline of French radicalism was conceived after the fall of the Berlin Wall as an essay on the decline and decay of the revolutionary idea in European politics. The theme provided an organizing principle for Roger Kaplan's analysis of the evolution of the French left in the wake of events for which it was politically and intellectually unprepared. Kaplan provides a basis for understanding the performance of a French socialist regime in power, one more uncertain of its mission than at any other time in its history. The paradox of French radicalism is that when it was out of office, it was quite certain about its mission. When it attained power, it lost its sense of mission, and hence its confidence as to the proper uses of power. "Conservative Socialism" for Kaplan is not simply an invention of the Mitterand Era, but an ideology rooted in French history. Unwilling or unable to embrace the social democratic idea of the "third way," French socialism became a force to conserve particularism in French culture and nationalism in its foreign policies. While socialism had long become a force to inhibit the rise of capitalism and freedom in France, the decline of its radicalism was inevitable. This is because in a country as conservative as France it was necessary for socialists and their assorted allies, to project a conservative image to be trusted. In France, the Left has abandoned the idea of radicalism so as to exercise power. Kaplan's unique and imaginative reading of French political history will have a profound effect on how that nation is perceived in this new epoch of the European Union. He argues persuasively and fairly that the French Left is alive if not well. The Left rose to power in France despite its policy failures, embarrassments, because it transcended the "end" to which its political dogma would have consigned it. Conservative Socialism will have a stunning impact on how political theorists view political developments in France and Europe.

The end of the cold war and the fall of the Soviet empire have had major consequences for Italian politics. Leonard Weinberg explores some of those consequences, focusing on the transformation of the Italian Communist party from a Leninist to a democratic party. He also discusses the relationship between the end of communism and the unfolding of the entire Italian system.The Transformation of Italian Communism has two objectives. First, it calls the reader's attention to the role of international developments, an important but largely overlooked area involved in the study of European party politics. Traditional texts in this area emphasize domestic factors, but Weinberg focuses on the influence of international developments on domestic party politics in Italy. The implications for other nations are transparent.The second objective of this work is to examine how Italy's Communist party, the largest such party of its kind in the Western world, reacted to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Weinberg analyzes the meaning of these events for long-tune party members in Italy'as well as for Italian political and cultural life. The Transformation of Italian Communism offers an original, intimate, and unique assessment of how the end of the cold war has affected Italian political culture. It will be a valuable addition to those interested in the convulsions taking place in modem Italy, as well as to political scientists and theorists of political culture.

The idea that socialism could be established in a single country was adopted as an official doctrine by the Soviet Union in 1925, Stalin and Bukharin being the main formulators of the policy. Before this there had been much debate as to whether the only way to secure socialism would be as a result of socialist revolution on a much broader scale, across all Europe or wider still. This book traces the development of ideas about communist utopia from Plato onwards, paying particular attention to debates about universalist ideology versus the possibility for "socialism in one country". The book argues that although the prevailing view is that "socialism in one country" was a sharp break from a long tradition that tended to view socialism as only possible if universal, in fact the territorially confined socialist project had long roots, including in the writings of Marx and Engels.

Few thinkers have been declared irrelevant and out of date with such frequency as Karl Marx. Hardly a decade since his death has gone by in which establishment critics have not announced the death of his theory. Whole forests have been felled to produce the paper necessary to fuel this effort to marginalize the coauthor of The Communist Manifesto. And yet, despite their best efforts to bury him again and again, Marx's specter continues to haunt his detractors more than a century after his passing. As another international economic collapse pushes ever growing numbers out of work, and a renewed wave of popular revolt sweeps across the globe, a new generation is learning to ignore all the taboos and scorn piled upon Marx's ideas and rediscovering that the problems he addressed in his time are remarkably similar to those of our own. In this engaging and accessible introduction, Alex Callinicos demonstrates that Marx's ideas hold an enduring relevance for today's activists fighting against poverty, inequality, oppression, environmental destruction, and the numerous other injustices of the capitalist system.

Offering an alternative exploration of the subject, 'Marxism in Dark Times' anchors its investigation of Marxism in the conceptual spheres of humanism, democracy and pluralism. Its essays question the stereotyped, positivist notion of the theory as practised by the exponents of official Marxism, highlight the legacy of the suppressed voices in the Marxist tradition, and provide new insights into reading Marxism in the twenty-first century--affording new perspectives on Antonio Gramsci, Rosa Luxemburg, Nikolai Bukharin, David Ryazanov and the Frankfurt School. They seek to review the phenomenon of 'Perestroika, ' explore the new historiography on Comintern, and examine the relation between Marxism and postmodernism. With its wide-ranging provision of materials--some translated here into English from German and Russian for the first time--this collection offers a pioneering English assessment of some of the most debatable issues in contemporary Marxism.

This compelling book describes how everyday people courageously survived under repressive Communist regimes until the voices and actions of rebellious individuals resulted in the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe. Part of Greenwood's Daily Life through History series, Daily Life behind the Iron Curtain enables today's generations to understand what it was like for those living in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, particularly the period from 1961 to 1989, the era during which these people-East Germans in particular-lived in the imposing shadow of the Berlin Wall. An introductory chapter discusses the Russian Revolution, the end of World War II, and the establishment of the Socialist state, clarifying the reasons for the construction of the Berlin Wall. Many historical anecdotes bring these past experiences to life, covering all aspects of life behind the Iron Curtain, including separation of families and the effects on family life, diet, rationing, media, clothing and trends, strict travel restrictions, defection attempts, and the evolving political climate. The final chapter describes Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall and the slow assimilation of East into West, and examines Europe after Communism.

The collection, interpretation and display of art from the People's Republic of China, and particularly the art of the Cultural Revolution, have been problematic for museums. These objects challenge our perception of 'Chineseness' and their style, content and the means of their production question accepted notions of how we perceive art. This book links art history, museology and visual culture studies to examine how museums have attempted to reveal, discuss and resolve some of these issues. Amy Jane Barnes addresses a series of related issues associated with collection and display: how museums deal with difficult and controversial subjects; the role they play in mediating between the object and the audience; the role of the Other in the creation of Self and national identities; the nature, role and function of art in society; the museum as image-maker; the impact of communism (and Maoism) on the cultural history of the twentieth-century; and the appropriation of communist visual iconography. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of museology, visual and cultural studies as well as scholars of Chinese and revolutionary art.

This book examines the philosophical thought of the young Walter Benjamin and its development in his later work. Starting from his critique of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Hermann Cohen, the author traces the relationships among Benjamin's theories - developed in tandem with his friend Gershom Scholem - of knowledge, language, ethics, politics, the philosophy of history and aesthetics, all linked to the Judaic theme of messianism and language as a realm of redemption. She delineates a horizon in which the concept of experience as structure, philosophical system and "infinite task" (On the Program of the Coming Philosophy, 1917/18) evolves into a concept of the origin as monad (The Origin of German Tragic Drama, 1925), merging finally into the historical concept as monad and dialectical image (On the Concept of History, 1940). Tagliacozzo asserts that the concept of experience as structure and symbolic system, derived from his critical interpretation of Kant and Neo-Kantianism, develops into a conception of thought founded on a theological language of revelation.