The most comprehensive and contemporary source available on socialist economic systems, this book employs economic data from eight East European countries and Russia to provide readers with a thorough, accurate picture of formerly Communist economies. J. Wilczynski carefully analyzes the major focal points of socialistic economics: planning and market, profit, production and growth, accumulation, consumption, labor, land, pricing, money and banking, fiscal policy and control, domestic and foreign trade, and international economics.

The treatment of the subject is objective and constructive; when comparisons are made with capitalist economies both the strengths and weaknesses of socialism are brought out. This is not, however, a book on comparative economic systems but rather a complete discourse on the actual principles of socialist economics. Controversial issues such as the role of planning and the market, profit, rates of growth, the consumer's place, labor incentives, pricing, and controls are particularly well done.

This book can be used as a guide to the economics of formerly communist regimes and as text for courses in developmental economics and comparative economic systems. It is well written by a scholar intimate with the plans, policies, and failures of communist economies from the close of The Second World War to the demise of Communist rule in Eastern Europe.

"J. Wilczynski" (1922-1984) was senior lecturer in Economics at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, Canberra. His published works include articles in American, Australian, British, Indian, Italian, and Norwegian journals. Two of his books are "From Lenin to Walesa and Beyond: Trade Unions and Strikes under Socialist Economic Planning in Evolution and "Profit, Risk and Incentives under Socialist Economic Planning.""

This book explores how intellectuals of the later Soviet decades - the 1970s and 1980s - sought to bring about the socialist utopian world. It argues that the last two decades of the Soviet Union were not characterised by state withdrawal and malaise, as some scholars have argued; attempts to envisage and enact Utopia remained as imaginative and creative as ever. The book considers what these utopian ideas looked like through housing schemes, layouts of districts and cities, design of objects and interiors, and proposals for the organisation of family and social life. Relating developments in the Soviet Union to evolving social theory and postmodernism more broadly, the book draws transnational parallels between the intellectual history of east and west in the late twentieth century.

With internationalist aspirations and wide-ranging historical perspectives, East German films about artists and their work became hotly contested spaces in which filmmakers could look beyond the GDR and debate the impact of contemporary cultural policy on the reception of their pre-war cultural heritage. Spanning newsreels, documentaries, and feature films, Screening Art is the first full-length investigation into a genre that has been largely overlooked in studies of DEFA, the state-owned Eastern German film studio. As it shows, "artist-films" played an essential role in the development of new paradigms of socialist art in postwar Europe.

The people of the Congo have suffered from a particularly brutal colonial rule, American interference after independence, decades of robbery at the hands of the dictator Mobutu and periodic warfare which continues even now in the East of the country. But, as this insightful political history makes clear, the Congolese people have not taken these multiple oppressions lying down and have fought over many years to establish democratic institutions at home and free themselves from foreign exploitation; indeed these are two aspects of a single project. Professor Nzongola-Ntalaja is one of his country's leading intellectuals and his panoramic understanding of the personalities and events, as well as class, ethnic and other factors, make his book a lucid, radical and utterly unromanticized account of his countrymen's struggle. His people's defeat and the state's post-colonial crisis are seen as resulting from a post-independence collapse of the anti-colonial alliance between the masses and the national leadership . This book is essential reading for understanding what is happening in the Congo and the Great Lakes region under the rule of the late President Kabila, and now his son. It will also stand as a milestone in how to write the modern political history of Africa.

The book traces the history of communist Bulgaria from 1944 to 1989. A detailed narrative-cum-study of the history of a political system, it provides a chronological overview of the building of the socialist state from the ground up, its entrenchment into the peaceful routine of everyday life, its inner crises, and its gradual decline and self-destruction. The book is the definitive and the most complete guide to Bulgaria under communism and how the communist system operates on a day-to-day level.

This compilation includes articles representing the school of analytical Marxism, a school of thought inaugurated by the publication of G.A. Cohen's Karl Marx's Theory of History in 1978. Since then, scholars in political philosophy, economics, sociology, political science, history and anthropology have contributed to it. This two-volume set of 31 articles (dating from 1977-1993) has been divided into seven parts: class, exploitation, power and domination, historical materialism, the state, market socialism, freedom and methodology. Contributors include P. Bardhan, A. Carling, G.A. Cohen, J. Cohen, J. Elster and J. Reiman.

Antonio Gramsci is one of the great European Marxists, hailed by Eric Hobsbawm as 'an extraordinary philosopher ... probably the most original communist thinker of twentieth-century Europe'. Gramsci developed Marx's ideas with an emphasis on culture rather than economics. This classic work reveals his thinking through letters to friends and family written whilst he was in prison. His primary contribution has been in his insistence on an understanding of popular culture in the battle to create a revolutionary consciousness. It is this humanitarian aspect of his thinking that illuminates the vivid personal testimony of his prison letters, written between 1926 and 1937.

Addressing the question of how neoliberal ideology has served to conflate the radical left with extremism, this book examines how the Arab left has asserted itself in the context of authoritarianism and Islamic extremism during and after the Arab uprisings. It examines how the Arab cultural left has offered a critique of the signifying practices of political hegemonies in the region and argues that though creative expression as constituted in the very language of the Arab uprisings, it has put forward its own alternatives Using a wide array of texts and sources, both Arab and non-Arab, the opening chapters of the book identify how ethical and radical values pertaining to sociality are co-opted by political leaders in the Middle East and turned into jargon. Later chapters outline resistance to this co-option through a poetics of inter-subjectivity that takes structures of feeling into account, ranging from disappointment, despair and distrust, to dignity, solidarity and reconfigured senses of the sacred. In showing how psychological and affective states relate to signifying practices, the book offers an original conceptual framework for differentiating 'radicalization' from the creative radicalism of the Arab avant-garde.

Wilhelm Liebknecht is little known today outside his native Germany. Yet, in the late 19th century, he was renowned throughout the industrialized world as a champion of working people and a prime mover in the emerging German Social Democratic Party. His speeches and pamphlets were translated into numerous languages and helped inspire generations of militant workers and socialist activists. This volume presents Liebknecht in his own words. He produced such a massive amount of material that it is doubtful a complete collection will ever be assembled; this is, however, a representative sampling of his most renowned and influential work. As much as possible, selections are presented unedited. Each piece is prefaced by a brief introduction to put the material in context. Most appear in English for the first time. In addition to the selection of his works, the volume contains a section of essays and observations by colleagues and others who knew his work firsthand. The book also contains a chronology, glossary, and other aids to facilitate an understanding of the man and the period. It is an important research tool for political and labor historians and others concerned with the development of mass movements in 19th- and 20th-century Europe.

Building a new platform for change, prominent social critic Stanley Aronowitz diagnoses America 's crisis of democracy and the dangers of the new authoritarianism. Aronowitz draws on his vast knowledge of history and political theory and from currents of political change around the globe, from the traditions of the European left to the newest political trends in Latin America that have challenged the death of socialism.Demonstrating why Democrats lose when they cling to centrism and compromise their core values, this book shows us what a new left party in America would look like in an era of globalization, terrorism, and a crisis of public confidence in government.Listen to Stanley Aronowitz's December 12th, 2007 interview with Against the Grain here: http: //www.againstthegrain.org/

Building a new platform for change, prominent social critic Stanley Aronowitz diagnoses America 's crisis of democracy and the dangers of the new authoritarianism. Aronowitz draws on his vast knowledge of history and political theory and from currents of political change around the globe, from the traditions of the European left to the newest political trends in Latin America that have challenged the death of socialism.Demonstrating why Democrats lose when they cling to centrism and compromise their core values, this book shows us what a new left party in America would look like in an era of globalization, terrorism, and a crisis of public confidence in government.Listen to Stanley Aronowitz's December 12th, 2007 interview with Against the Grain here: http: //www.againstthegrain.org/

This collection of essays from one of the major Austrian economists working in the world today brings together in one place some of his key writings on a variety of economic issues.

Does socialism have a future in the world of the twenty-first century? If not, what is the future for progressive politics?

This is a major contribution to contemporary social and political thought written by one of the world's leading critical historians. Gabriel Kolko ask the difficult questions about where the left can go in a post-Cold War world where neoliberal policies appear to have triumphed in both the West and the former Soviet bloc. In trying to answer this, he interrogates both the origins and development of socialist ideas and the contemporary dynamics of the globalized economy dominated by American military, cultural and political might.

While avoiding the temptations of either pessimism or utopianism, Kolko offers an original and practical solution about the way forward for a liberal politics.

Does socialism have a future in the world of the twenty-first century? If not, what is the future for progressive politics?

This is a major contribution to contemporary social and political thought written by one of the world's leading critical historians. Gabriel Kolko ask the difficult questions about where the left can go in a post-Cold War world where neoliberal policies appear to have triumphed in both the West and the former Soviet bloc. In trying to answer this, he interrogates both the origins and development of socialist ideas and the contemporary dynamics of the globalized economy dominated by American military, cultural and political might.

While avoiding the temptations of either pessimism or utopianism, Kolko offers an original and practical solution about the way forward for a liberal politics.

Is socialism morally superior to other systems of political economy, even if it faces practical difficulties? In The End of Socialism, James R. Otteson explores socialism as a system of political economy - that is, from the perspectives of both moral philosophy and economic theory. He examines the exact nature of the practical difficulties socialism faces, which turn out to be greater than one might initially suppose, and then asks whether the moral ideals it champions - equality, fairness, and community - are important enough to warrant attempts to overcome these difficulties nonetheless, especially in light of the alleged moral failings of capitalism. The result is an examination of the 'end of socialism', both in the sense of the moral goals it proposes and in the results of its unfolding logic.

This book is an excellent introduction to the ideas and arguments that have guided Labor's economic thinking from 1884 until the present day, and the influence these ideas have exerted over the formulation of economic policy. It provides clear and concise summaries of leading thinkers and schools, and clearly brings out the diverse nature of the economic thought that has characterized the Labour party.
This significantly revised edition brings the book up to the present day and provides a much needed analysis of the Blair government. It explores how the early thinking of the 1990s has been applied in government and, in addition to providing a more developed historical contextualization of ideas and thinkers, the new edition includes:
* A new introduction discussing the emergence of the Labor Party and the disparate elements of which it is comprised
* A chapter discussing the intellectual antecedents of, and influences on, New Labor. It also explores the impact of globalization and the shifting Labor position on the EU
* A chapter examining the ideological trajectory of New Labor and where its political economy now lies on the political spectrum. It also discusses Britain's economic performance since 1997
* A new conclusion discussing the themes that have guided and informed economic thinking within the labor party and also the methodologies and emphases that have characterized democratic socialist political economies in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
The book will be of great interest to students and scholars studying British politics, British history, economic and political thought.

This volume of essays constitutes the first history of Labour and left-wing politics in the decade when Margaret Thatcher reshaped modern Britain. Leading scholars explore aspects of left-wing culture, activities and ideas at a time when social democracy was in crisis. There are articles about political leadership, economic alternatives, gay rights, the miners' strike, the Militant Tendency and the politics of race. The book also situates the crisis of the left in international terms as the socialist world began to collapse. Tony Blair's New Labour disavowed the 1980s left, associating it with failure, but this volume argues for a more complex approach. Many of the causes it championed are now mainstream, suggesting that the time has come to reassess 1980s progressive politics, despite its undeniable electoral failures. With this in mind, the contributors offer ground-breaking research and penetrating arguments about the strange death of Labour Britain. -- .

This book is an excellent introduction to the ideas and arguments that have guided Labor's economic thinking from 1884 until the present day, and the influence these ideas have exerted over the formulation of economic policy. It provides clear and concise summaries of leading thinkers and schools, and clearly brings out the diverse nature of the economic thought that has characterized the Labour party.
This significantly revised edition brings the book up to the present day and provides a much needed analysis of the Blair government. It explores how the early thinking of the 1990s has been applied in government and, in addition to providing a more developed historical contextualization of ideas and thinkers, the new edition includes:
* A new introduction discussing the emergence of the Labor Party and the disparate elements of which it is comprised
* A chapter discussing the intellectual antecedents of, and influences on, New Labor. It also explores the impact of globalization and the shifting Labor position on the EU
* A chapter examining the ideological trajectory of New Labor and where its political economy now lies on the political spectrum. It also discusses Britain's economic performance since 1997
* A new conclusion discussing the themes that have guided and informed economic thinking within the labor party and also the methodologies and emphases that have characterized democratic socialist political economies in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
The book will be of great interest to students and scholars studying British politics, British history, economic and political thought.

First published in 1999, this volume why Europe's arguably most successful political party, the Swedish Social Democratic Party, become so divided over European integration. Why were its grass-roots so reluctant to embrace EU membership and why did a Social Democratic government decide to stand aside from the launch of the single European currency? What connection is there between Europe and the Swedish model of political economy? While much has been written in English on Swedish Social Democracy, little of this literature has dealt with its difficulties during the 1990s and especially with its acute problems over Europe. This book fills that gap. Using original, primary data, Nicholas Aylott addresses the topic from macro and micro-political perspectives, taking account of historical, cultural, geopolitical and economic constraints, but also the interests and calculations of key individuals at critical junctures. It places the experience of Swedish Social Democracy into a broad comparative framework, drawing especially from the experiences of its Scandinavian sister parties. Up-to-date analysis of the party's debate on EMU is included.

The substantial German colony in mid-19th century London included not only Karl Marx, but hundreds of less well-known exiles planning a revolution at home and hoping to introduce socialism. Revolutionary Refugees traces the developments of this German socialism in Britain from its origins in artisans' clubs, through the revolutionary movements of 1848, to the differing reactions to their failure. Often opposed to Marx and in competition with liberal radicalism, the migr s developed both an independant socialist strategy as well as internationalist ideas and activities. They cultivated contacts with English Chartists as well as French, Italian, Polish and other foreign exiles, and also contributed to a vibrant social life within their own ethnic community.

Was the Anglophone Caribbean condemned by its colonial history to permanent conditions of dependency and by Cold War geopolitical realities to international interventionism? In Dependency and Socialism in the Modern Caribbean Euclid Rose focuses upon the efforts made by the English-speaking Caribbean-through case studies that compare and contrast the political economies of Guyana, Jamaica, and Grenada-to break out of the legacy of colonial dependency and underdevelopment through the implementation of a Caribbean brand of socialism. The work considers the Caribbean's adoption of Fabian-style socialism as an alternative to capitalist development and how these socialist policies were impacted by differences in infrastructure capacity, economic and social resources and political agendas. It highlights the pivotal role of race and class, and the hitherto little studied impact of religion, on the region's political economy. Moreover, the study calculates the impact of the global economy upon Caribbean socio-economic conditions, and the ideological, geopolitical, and strategic implications of the Cold War and the Caribbean's socialist alignment on the nature, character, and intensity of British and American interventionism in the region. A must read for political economists in search of a greater understanding of the postcolonial political economy of the Caribbean and Latin America.

According to renowned Marxist economist Samir Amin, the recent Arab Spring uprisings comprise an integral part of a massive "second awakening" of the Global South. From the self-immolation in December 2010 of a Tunisian street vendor, to the consequent outcries in Cairo's Tahrir Square against poverty and corruption, to the ongoing upheavals across the Middle East and Northern Africa, the Arab world is shaping what may become of Western imperialism - an already tottering and overextended system. The Reawakening of the Arab World examines the complex interplay of nations regarding the Arab Spring and its continuing, turbulent seasons. Beginning with Amin's compelling interpretation of the 2011 popular Arab explosions, the book is comprised of five chapters - including a new chapter analyzing U.S. geo-strategy. Amin sees the United States, in an increasingly multi-polar world, as a victim of overreach, caught in its own web of attempts to contain the challenge of China, while confronting the staying power of nations such as Syria and Iran. The growing, deeply-felt need of the Arab people for independent, popular democracy is the cause of their awakening, says Amin. It is this awakening to democracy that the United States fears most, since real self-government by independent nations would necessarily mean the end of U.S. empire, and the economic liberalism that has kept it in place. The way forward for the Arab world, Amin argues, is to take on, not just Western imperialism, but also capitalism itself.

Originally published in 1980, Urbanization in Socialist Countries addresses the complex situation in urban policy development in European Socialist countries. The book examines the urban policy situation in eight countries and provides an analytical framework that addresses the fundamental issues they have faced. The book focuses on the system of settlement and on such problems as its regulation, as well as analysis of the goals, instruments and techniques used in planning the urbanization process in different socialist countries. The book aims to throw light on the basic premises underlying the formulation of urbanization concepts and reveal their main features and lines of development.

Communitarian anarchism is a generic form of socialism that denies the need for a state or any other authority over the individual from above, and which requires absolute belief that the individual cannot exist outside of a community of others. This book suggests that the communitarian anarchists of the nineteenth century developed and articulated a distinct tradition of economic thought. The period of this study begins with the first major writing of the French communitarian anarchist, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, in 1840 and ends with the temporary burial of anarchist theorizing at the beginning of the First World War in 1914. However, he tradition of communitarian anarchist economic thought did not end in 1914. The economic thought explored in this book provides a fresh perception of the fragmentation evident in many societies today, especially where there is a substantial "informal economy."

This title was first published in 2000: This book considers the fortunes of socialism in South Africa from the doctrine's arrival around 1900 to its legal suppression in 1950. Socialism's universal claims had to come to terms with South Africa's singular national experience in which a racial ideology and a racial division of the working class played a far greater role than in any other country. The left in South Africa had to deal with all the complexities of ideology and strategy that faced their counterparts in Europe and North America; but in South Africa it was further vexed by challenges of profound racial and national inequalities and a white labour movement which sought protection through racial segregation. Communism, rather than Social Democracy, prevailed; hence the reverberations of the splits in the Communist International were far more debilitating in South Africa than anywhere else. In the years after World War II African nationalism became the dominant influence on the South African left, chiefly through the relationship between the ANC and the Communist Party. Discordant Comrades draws on a wide range of primary sources from inside and outside South Africa, including the archives of the Communist International in Moscow. The result is a scholarly and challenging analysis of the South African left.