Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that with the collapse of Communism the theoretical project of Marxism and its critique of capitalism is more timely and important than ever. In this book she sets out to renew the critical program of historical materialism by redefining its basic concepts and its theory of history in original and imaginative ways, using them to identify the specificity of capitalism as a system of social relations and political power. She goes on to explore the concept of democracy in both the ancient and modern world, examining the concept's relation to capitalism.

What configuration of institutions and policies is most conducive to human flourishing? The historical and comparative evidence suggests that the answer is social democratic capitalism - a democratic political system, a capitalist economy, good elementary and secondary schooling, a big welfare state, pro-employment public services, and moderate regulation of product and labor markets. In Social Democratic Capitalism, Lane Kenworthy shows that this system improves living standards for the least well-off, enhances economic security, and boosts equality of opportunity. And it does so without sacrificing other things we want in a good society, from liberty to economic growth to health and happiness. Its chief practitioners have been the Nordic nations. The Nordics have gone farther than other rich democratic countries in coupling a big welfare state with public services that promote high employment and modest product- and labor-market regulations. Many believe this system isn't transferable beyond Scandinavia, but Kenworthy shows that social democratic capitalism and its successes can be replicated in other affluent nations, including the United States. Today, the U.S. lags behind other countries in economic security, opportunity, and shared prosperity. If the U.S. were to expand its existing social programs and add some additional ones, many ordinary Americans would have better lives. Kenworthy argues that, despite formidable political obstacles, the U.S. is likely to move toward social democratic capitalism in coming decades. As a country gets richer, he explains, it becomes more willing to spend more in order to safeguard against risk and enhance fairness. With social democratic capitalism as his blueprint, he lays out a detailed policy agenda that could alleviate many of America's problems.

Jurgen Habermas has come to be viewed as the unofficial philosopher laureate of the European Union. But why have his contributions to contemporary political theory commanded such attention? This book brings to life the ideas of a unique thinker, an heir to the Enlightenment legacy, a champion of reason and democracy, a social theorist of unusual sophistication and an astute commentator on contemporary politics. Unified by a central focus on the theme of power, the book guides its readers through the sociological and philosophical perspectives that are essential to Habermas's political theory. It situates the philosopher's political thinking in relation to key Continental theorists such as Carl Schmitt and Michel Foucault as well as current debates in contemporary Anglo-American political philosophy.

This book explains the contrasting strategies of social democratic parties and their electoral fortunes in the major European democracies in the 1970s and 1980s. Going beyond approaches that focus on the influence of class structures and political economic institutions, Herbert Kitschelt analyzes a party's competitive situation in the electoral arena, the constraints and opportunities of party organization, and ideological legacies to explain the strategic choices made by social democratic parties and their electoral results. Social democracy is far from being doomed to decline, but its success depends on its ability to transform its political message and construct new electoral coalitions.

This 1994 collection of Gramsci's pre-prison writings, translated and including a number of pieces not previously available in English, covers the whole gamut of his journalistic activity, ranging from general cultural criticism to commentaries on local, national and international events. These early articles reveal the genesis of many of the themes of the Prison Notebooks, such as the function of intellectuals, the importance of cultural hegemony in holding societies together, and the role of the party in organising a revolutionary consciousness. In particular, the collection highlights the specifically Italian political, cultural and social origins and relevance of much of Gramsci's innovatory reworking of certain central concepts of Marxist thought. It will be of interest to a broad range of scholars and students concerned with the history of political, social and cultural thought in the twentieth century.

This book mainly reads the three works of early Baudrillard, and challenges the current research findings on his philosophical journey. Zhang Yibing also reads Baudrillard's other works to fully situate him theoretically. He asserts that Baudrillard's texts cannot be classified as postmodernist or neo-Marxist in any period. Zhang belongs to the third generation of Marxist philosophers in China and is renowned for his textological researches, having developed a unique reading methodology. Since the end of 1960s, Baudrillard wrote three important works: For a Critique of Political Economy of the Sign, The Mirror of Production and Symbolic Exchange and Death, which furiously attacked Marx, aiming to refute historical materialism and deconstruct Marx's theory of labour value. The Mirror of Production in particular was intended to demolish the logic of Marxist theories from within, by deconstructing and disordering them. This was ignored by many Marxist researchers. What was real thinking behind, and historical context of, the shift in his critique, and how was symbolic exchange combined with death? The author with his sharp insight shows that the Early Baudrillard's thought is trapped in the logic of symbolic exchange, based on the grassroots' romanticism (radicalism) of Mauss-Bataille. He then keenly follows the secret of Baudrillard's transformation process in his critical logic, his passage from the dissolution of the ideographic material to the symbolic value of coding structure, then to quasi-real existence without a model, until finally his symbolic miscoding of death becomes a hopeless waiting for Baudrillard's tentative salvation of the world. This is indeed a death trilogy, which occurs in Baudrillard's academic scenery and in which the real existence is murdered. The thinking of late Baudrillard is a discourse like virus and paranoia. This kind of logical violence of theoretical terrorism has become an absurd modern academic caricature of excessive rational interpretation. In this book the reader will also find Zhang's innovative interpretation and updating of Marx's historical materialism.

This is the first complete new translation of Eduard Bernstein's (1850-1932) famous and influential work. It will provide students with an accurate and unabridged edition of the classic defense of democratic socialism and the first significant critique of revolutionary Marxism from within the socialist movement. First published in 1899, at the height of the Revisionist Debate, it argued that capitalism was not heading for the major crisis predicted by Marx, and that socialism could be achieved by piecemeal reform within a democratic constitutional framework. Bernstein's work is the focal point of one of the most important political debates of modern times, and crucial for the light it casts on "the crisis of Communism."

This 1993 book was the first complete new translation of Bernstein's famous and influential work. It will provide students with an accurate and unabridged edition of the classic defence of democratic socialism and the first significant critique of revolutionary Marxism from within the socialist movement. First published in 1899, at the height of the Revisionist Debate, it argued that capitalism was not heading for the major crisis predicted by Marx, and that socialism could be achieved by piece-meal reform within a democratic constitutional framework. Bernstein's work is the focal point of one of the most important political debates of modern times, and crucial for the light it casts on 'the crisis of Communism'. The introduction sites Bernstein's work in its historical and intellectual context, and this edition also provides students with all the necessary reference material for understanding this important text.

"Socialism in America" is a thematic presentation of the various types of socialism, such as Communitarian, Christian, Marxist, and Anarcho-Communist, that have existed in the United States from the time of the Revolutionary War to 1919. The documents included demonstrate how socialism wsa an integral part of the American past: because its ideals were embedded in the birth of America, it authentically expressed the American egalitarian norm.

The documents demonstrate that each type of socialism has a counterpart in a broadly based contemporary social movement: for example, religious communities were linked to revivalism and millenarianism. Ultimately, the collapse of socialism in America was tied to the country's conservative mood in the 1890s and World War I.

This new edition of Donald Sassoon's magisterial history of the Left in the twentieth century includes a substantial new introduction by the author. With unique authority and unparalleled scholarship, Sassoon traces the fortunes of the political parties of the left in Western Europe across 14 countries, covering the fortunes of socialism from the rise of the Bolsheviks through two World Wars to the revival of feminism and the arrival of "green" politics.

Many of Australia's first Fabians are known as legislators, priests, jurists, men and women of letters, diplomats, feminists and educators, yet few are recognised as Fabians. Until this book, little attention has been given to Australian Fabian thinkers, activists and organisations, and their long-term influence on Australian political and intellectual life. This book recreates the lives of the first Fabians in Australia, their political ideas and strategies, and presents their visions for society in a lively and entertaining way. It also explores the similarities between the Fabian Society's development in Britain and Australia. The book will fill a long-standing gap in Australian intellectual history and the history of early socialist movements in Australia.

Who belongs to the Labour Party and why? What are their opinions about politics and society, or about the 'new model' party of Neil Kinnock? After the electoral debacle of 1983 the Labour leadership embarked on a strategy of modernization in order to win back some of their lost support. The leadership has consistently tried to empower the party members at the expense of the trade unions and the party activists. But this strategy has been a 'leap in the dark', since the leadership has had no idea what views party members hold on matters of policy or internal organization. This book publishes the results of the first comprehensive study of party members, examining who they are, why they joined the Labour Party, and discussing their views on activism, the party, and society as a whole. Journalistic accounts of party membership abound with images of unrepresentative extremists and eccentrics. This book replaces journalistic hunches with accurate information on a significant group of actors in the British political process.

This promising addition to the growing literature on the history of late socialism charts the development of youth culture and politics in socialist Yugoslavia, focusing on the 1980s. Rather than examining the 1980s as a mere prelude to the violent collapse of the country in the 1990s, the book recovers the multiplicity of political visions and cultural developments that evolved at the time and that have been largely forgotten in subsequent discussion. The youth of this generation, the author convincingly argues, sought to rearticulate the Yugoslav socialist framework in order to reinvigorate it and 'democratise' it, rather than destroy it altogether. -- .

The well-known historian and political scientist Zeev Sternhell here advances a radically new interpretation of the founding of modern Israel. The founders claimed that they intended to create both a landed state for the Jewish people and a socialist society. However, according to Sternhell, socialism served the leaders of the influential labor movement more as a rhetorical resource for the legitimation of the national project of establishing a Jewish state than as a blueprint for a just society. In this thought-provoking book, Sternhell demonstrates how socialist principles were consistently subverted in practice by the nationalist goals to which socialist Zionism was committed.

Sternhell explains how the avowedly socialist leaders of the dominant labor party, Mapai, especially David Ben Gurion and Berl Katznelson, never really believed in the prospects of realizing the "dream" of a new society, even though many of their working-class supporters were self-identified socialists. The founders of the state understood, from the very beginning, that not only socialism but also other universalistic ideologies like liberalism, were incompatible with cultural, historical, and territorial nationalism. Because nationalism took precedence over universal values, argues Sternhell, Israel has not evolved a constitution or a Bill of Rights, has not moved to separate state and religion, has failed to develop a liberal concept of citizenship, and, until the Oslo accords of 1993, did not recognize the rights of the Palestinians to independence.

This is a controversial and timely book, which not only provides useful historical background to Israel's ongoing struggle to mobilize its citizenry to support a shared vision of nationhood, but also raises a question of general significance: is a national movement whose aim is a political and cultural revolution capable of coexisting with the universal values of secularism, individualism, and social justice? This bold critical reevaluation will unsettle long-standing myths as it contributes to a fresh new historiography of Zionism and Israel. At the same time, while it examines the past, "The Founding Myths of Israel" reflects profoundly on the future of the Jewish State.

Why did so many Latin American leftists believe they could replicate the Cuban Revolution in their own countries, and why did so many rightists fear the spread of Communism? Cognitive-psychological insights about people's distorted inferences and skewed interest calculations explain why the left held exaggerated hopes and why the right experienced excessive dread. The resulting polarization provoked a powerful backlash in which the right uniformly defeated the left. To forestall the feared spread of revolution, the military in many countries imposed authoritarian regimes and brutally suppressed left-wingers. Overly worried about the advance of Cuban-inspired radicalism as well, the United States condoned and supported the installation of dictatorship, but Latin American elites took the main initiative in these regressive regime changes. With a large number of primary and secondary sources, this book documents how the misperceptions on both sides of the ideological divide thus played a crucial role in the frequent destruction of democracy.

aToday MA(c)szArosas theoretical insights are becoming a material force, gripping the masses through various world-historical including Venezuelan President Hugo ChAvez.a
--John Bellamy Foster, editor, "Monthly Review"

An extraordinary new work by the leading Marxian philosopher of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, The Challenge and Burden of Historical Time represents a breakthrough in the development of socialist thought. It can be seen both as a companion volume to his earlier pathbreaking "Beyond Capital" and a major theoretical contribution in its own right. Its focus is on the adecapitation of historical timea in todayas capitalism and the necessity of a new asocialist time accountancya as a revolutionary response to the debilitating present.

Extending MA(c)szArosas earlier analysis of capitalism as a social-metabolic system caught in an irreversible structural crisis, it represents a crushing refutation of the view that athere is no alternativea to the current social order. MA(c)szArosas wide-ranging analysis explores the forces behind the expansion of world inequality, the return of imperial interventionism, the growing structural crisis of the capitalist state, and the widening planetary ecological crisis--along with the new hope offered by the reemergence of concrete socialist alternatives.

At the heart of his book is an examination of the preconditions of Latin Americaas historic Bolivarian journey, which is producing new revolutionary transformations in Venezuela, Bolivia and elsewhere. The Challenge and Burden of Historical Time is a work of great political as well as philosophical importance, one that defines the challenges and burdens facingall those who are committed to a more rational, more egalitarian future.

Looks at the history of American participation in politic, explains the reasons for public apathy, and assesses the ability of Left to reestablish political influence in the U.S.

This study examines the spread of socialism in late-Victorian and Edwardian Wales, paying particular attention to the relationship between socialism and Welsh national identity. Welsh opponents of socialism often claimed it to be a foreign import, whereas socialists often asserted that the Welsh were socialist by nature. This study - the first full-scale study of the influence of early socialism across all of Wales - demonstrates that the reality was more complex than either assertion would admit. Rather than focusing on the structural growth of socialism, the topic is discussed in terms of the spread of ideas and the development of a political culture. The study culminates in a discussion of attempts, in the period before the Great War, to create a specifically Welsh socialist tradition. In approaching the topic from this angle, this study restores a part of the lost diversity of British socialism that is of striking contemporary relevance.

Professor Roemer's goal in this book is to give a rigorous view of classical Marxian economic theory by presenting specific analytic models. The theory is not extended to deal with new problems, but it is deepened: Marxian theory is given micro-foundations and upon those foundations the author begins to rebuild a tightly constructed Marxian economics. The book begins, after a methodological introduction, with an examination of the Marxian notion of equilibrium and the theory of exploitation, and goes on to deal with the theory of the falling rate of profit. The next section explores one of the points made in the first section of the book, that the Marxian theory of exploitation can be constructed completely independently of the labor theory of value as a theory of exchange. Technical study of this problem allows comment on various issues, such as the relative importance of "marginal utilities" and "class struggle" in determining relative prices. The final part examines models of various Marxian concepts.

Human dignity: social movements invoke it, several national constitutions enshrine it, and it features prominently in international human rights documents. But what is it, why is it important, and what is its relationship to human rights and social justice? Pablo Gilabert offers a systematic defense of the view that human dignity is the moral heart of justice. In Human Dignity and Human Rights (OUP 2019), he advanced an account of human dignity for the context of human rights discourse, which covers the most urgent, basic claims of dignity. This book extends the dignitarian approach to more ambitious claims of maximal dignity of the kind encoded in democratic socialist conceptions of social justice. In particular, this book focuses on the just organization of working practices. It recasts in a dignitarian format the critique of capitalist society as involving exploitation, alienation, and domination of workers, and revamps a neglected but inspiring socialist principle. In its dignitarian interpretation, the Abilities/Needs Principle ("From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs!") yields reasonable and feasible requirements on social cooperation so that it solidaristically empowers each human being to lead a flourishing life. While Human Dignity and Human Rights offered the first systematic account of human dignity in human rights discourse, Human Dignity and Social Justice presents the first systematic application of the dignitarian framework to the core ideals of democratic socialism.

This book is an important contribution to the theory of democracy and socialism. The underlying question it poses is: how, if at all, can one have both socialism and democracy? In posing an answer to this question, Professor Cunningham addresses the following topics: the definition of democracy and whether socialism is necessary to its progress: the socialist retrieval of liberal democracy associated with the work of C. B. Macpherson: the political consciousness that Gramsci placed at the center of socialist politics: and attempts by those in women's and national liberation movements to go beyond 'class reductionism' in socialist theory and practice. Unlike other works on this topic, the book devotes much attention to defining key terms and drawing politically relevant conclusions. It will therefore be fully accessible to undergraduates as well as graduates and teachers of philosophy and political science.

Antonio Gramsci (1891--1937) was one of the most original political thinkers in Western Marxism and an exceptional intellectual. Arrested and imprisoned by the Italian Fascist regime in 1926, Gramsci died before fully regaining his freedom, yet he wrote extensive letters while incarcerated, rich with insight into the physical and psychological tortures of prison. In meticulous detail, Gramsci records how political prisoners, himself included, contend with the fear of illness and death and the rules and regulations that threaten to efface their individuality. Forming an incomparable link between Gramsci's intellectual passion and his emotional vulnerability, "Letters from Prison" shows a man reconstructing his life while being separated from it, struggling to recapture the primary relationships that once defined his identity. Frank Rosengarten divides more than four hundred Gramsci letters into two companion volumes, complete with a chronology of the thinker's crucial life experiences, an introduction that sheds light on the main experiences and themes in the letters, biographical notes on his correspondents, and a bibliography of works cited in his letters.

Proudhon's most famous declaration that "property is theft" comes from this, his most famous work, published in French in 1840; the English translation dates from 1890. According to Proudhon, only that which is being used is real property. Land must be lived on or farmed to be property, and goods must have been made by one's own labor to be owned. These new definitions challenge the very basis of capitalist systems, and Proudhon used them as the foundation for his writings in support of anarchy. Activists, historians, and philosophers will find themselves pondering his arguments long after they have finished reading. PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON (1809-1865) was a French political philosopher who wrote extensively on anarchy and was the first person known to have referred to himself as an anarchist. His most famous writings include The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century (1852) and System of Economic Contradictions; or The Philosophy of Poverty (1846).

A critical introduction to Marx's social, political and economic thought that stresses the relevance and importance of many of the philosopher's theories. It can be considered a standard basic reference work for the study of Marx in conjunction with the author's companion selection of Marx's writings, Karl Marx: A Reader.

Unfinished Utopia is a social and cultural history of Nowa Huta, dubbed Poland's "first socialist city" by Communist propaganda of the 1950s. Work began on the new town, located on the banks of the Vistula River just a few miles from the historic city of Krakow, in 1949. By contrast to its older neighbor, Nowa Huta was intended to model a new kind of socialist modernity and to be peopled with "new men," themselves both the builders and the beneficiaries of this project of socialist construction. Nowa Huta was the largest and politically most significant of the socialist cities built in East Central Europe after World War II; home to the massive Lenin Steelworks, it epitomized the Stalinist program of forced industrialization that opened the cities to rural migrants and sought fundamentally to transform the structures of Polish society.Focusing on Nowa Huta's construction and steel workers, youth brigade volunteers, housewives, activists, and architects, Katherine Lebow explores their various encounters with the ideology and practice of Stalinist mobilization by seeking out their voices in memoirs, oral history interviews, and archival records, juxtaposing these against both the official and unofficial transcripts of Stalinism. Far from the gray and regimented landscape we imagine Stalinism to have been, the fledgling city was a colorful and anarchic place where the formerly disenfranchised (peasants, youth, women) hastened to assert their leading role in "building socialism"-but rarely in ways that authorities had anticipated.