This ground-breaking analysis confronts us with three fundamental questions on the socialist experiment in Russia: How did Marxist ideas come to be implemented in Russia, a country entirely unsuited to them? Why did the experiment lead to such suffering and upheaval and prove so fruitless? And why did the attempt to return to a proper Marxism//Leninism bring about the rapid collapse of Soviet Russia?In order to answer these questions, John Gooding examines the legacy of Lenin. In particular he investigates the two conflicting posthumous views on Lenin's character. On the one hand, Lenin was perceived - largely due to Stalin - as a godlike figure, embodying the omniscience and might of the party. On the other, he was known - mainly amongst intellectuals and later perestroika reformers - as a Marxist idealist, an anti-Stalinist and a democrat. It was this latter perception, the author argues, that brought the socialist experiment in Russia to its disastrous conclusion.

During the past decade, life in post-socialist states has been fraught with instability and conflict. This book focuses on changing rural-urban relations - and growing divisions between them - in the context of the reforms. Contributions to this volume explore responses to capitalist-oriented policies and reasons for rural disenfranchisement. The work takes an ethnographic approach to exploring how 'global' processes engage with local, rural concerns in the post-socialist world.

How are the policies, meaning and ideology of social democracy changing and what is the context for this change? To what extent are social democratic parties converging or diverging according to national traditions? What criticism are there of recent social democracy and what alternatives exist? This book offers a distinctive approach to answering these questions. By drawing on a wide range of political and ideological perspectives, the contributors have produced an interdisciplinary work of great theoretical and empirical value. They analyze developments in social democracy against the background of globalization, Europeanization and different national traditions. The perspectives range from the critical to the sympathetic, including discussion of where social democracy is going, as well as the argument that it provides no future for radical politics at all.

For 30 years, the Labour Party was wracked by conflict over membership in the European Community, swinging back and forth, pro and anti, when in and out of office. It was a conflict that helped keep the party in opposition for 18 years until it abandoned its socialist basis under New Labor. As a journalist and European Union official, Roger Broad knew many of the major and minor players and brings this experience to bear.

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.

It was Philippe van Parijs' conviction that the Marxist tradition can be kept alive as an essential political component of the Left not through dutiful conservation, but through ruthless recycling: the discarding of encumbering elements, and the reshaping of the remainder using the latest intellectual 'technology'. The essays collected in this book examine the structure and potential of historical materialism as a general theory of social change. They draw on the lessons of the failure of Marxist crisis theory, and show how a rejuvenated notion of exploitation can illuminate the analysis of the class structure of welfare state capitalism or the assessment of international migration. They explore and advocate a 'capitalist road to communism' that expands the realm of freedom while bypassing socialism, and they develop those aspects of the Marxist project consistent with ecological concerns.

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.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it appeared that development would be defined by the neo-liberal strategy of integration into the world market. This book investigates alternative strategies for developing countries through case studies of Cuba and Vietnam, and with reference to the experience of China. The essays assess the transitions of the two countries to world market integration, with emphasis on the role of state enterprises, structural transformation, and provision of social welfare.

In an uprising heard around the world, people in Argentina took to the streets on December 19th & 20th, 2001, shouting "!Que se vayan todos!" These words (All of them out!), and the thousands of people banging pots and pans, opened a period of intense social unrest and political creativity that led to the collapse of government after government. Neighborhoods organized themselves into hundreds of popular assemblies across the country, the unemployed workers movement acquired a new visibility, workers took over factories and businesses. Deeply involved in these movements were the activists who made up Colectivo Situaciones. With the embers of that December's aftermath still burning, Colectivo Situaciones militantly researched and wrote 19 and 20. Locating themselves among the "horizontally organized subjectivities that insisted on not being represented by politicians but maintaining and developing their own powers of political expression" that Micheal Hardt notes in his introduction, Colectivo Situaciones gathers, interrogates, and offers forth the words of unemployed workers, factory occupiers, insurgent intellectuals, and children of the disappeared. From their investigations is revealed the birth of a new social protagonism and the de-institutional power (potencia) they wield. 19 and 20 has been praised as this generation's 18th Brumaire and as Marx's analysis of that struggle helped set the stage for, twenty years later, the Paris Commune we find ourselves here. Revisiting and exploring the forms of counterpower that emerged from the shadow of neoliberal rule we find the book's potencia has only grown. In the intervening years the analysis of Colectivo Situaciones has been passed from hand to hand and multitudes of citizens from different countries have learned their own ways to chant !Que se vayan todos!, from Iceland to Tunisia, from Spain to Greece, from Tahrir Square to Black Lives Matter. Colectivo Situaciones' practice of militant research--of engaging with movements' own thought processes--resonates with everyone seeking to think current events and movements, and through that to gather the foundation of a commune for the 21st century.

This book, originally published in 1923, embodies two related and yet distinct types of sociological endeavour. It is a study in the history of social thought, a field which had only been receiving serious and widespread attention in recent years, and attempts to give an historical cross-section of representative Utopian thought at the time. But it is also a study in social idealism, a study in the origin, selection and potency of those social ideas and ideals that occasional and usually exceptional men conceive, with particular emphasis upon their relation to social progress. It was the first book that attempted to give an unprejudiced, systematic treatment of the social Utopias as a whole.

Keynes is one of the most important and influential economists who ever lived. It is almost universally believed that Keynes wrote his magnum opus, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, to save capitalism from the socialist, communist, and fascist forces that were rising up during the Great Depression era. This book argues that this was not the case with respect to socialism. Tracing the evolution of Keynes's views on policy from WWI until his death in 1946, Crotty argues that virtually all post-WWII "Keynesian" economists misinterpreted crucial parts of Keynes's economic theory, misunderstood many of his policy views, and failed to realize that his overarching political objective was not to save British capitalism, but rather to replace it with Liberal Socialism. This book shows how Keynes's Liberal Socialism began to take shape in his mind in the mid-1920s, evolved into a more concrete institutional form over the next decade or so, and was laid out in detail in his work on postwar economic planning at Britain's Treasury during WWII. Finally, it explains how The General Theory provided the rigorous economic theoretical foundation needed to support his case against capitalism in support of Liberal Socialism. Offering an original and highly informative exposition of Keynes's work, this book should be of great interest to teachers and students of economics. It should also appeal to a general audience interested in the role the most important economist of the 20th century played in developing the case against capitalism and in support of Liberal Socialism. Keynes Against Capitalism is especially relevant in the context of today's global economic and political crises.

This collection investigates the state of play in studies informed by Marxism. It includes an essay on state theory by Bob Jessop, a discussion of fundamental socialist values using analytical Marxism by Alan Carling, an introduction to Fromm's humanist Marxism by Lawrence Wilde, and pieces on Marxism and ecology, Marxism and feminism, the debate between Marxists and post Marxists, the democratic Marxism of Hal Draper, the confrontation between Marxism and Liberalism, and Marxism's place in the history of political thought.

Murray Bookchin has been a dynamic revolutionary propagandist since the 1930s when, as a teenager, he orated before socialist crowds in New York City and engaged in support work for those fighting Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
Now, for the first time in book form, this volume presents a series of exciting and engaged interviews with, and essays from, the founder of social ecology.
This expansive collection ranges over, amongst others, Bookchin's account of his teenage years as a young Communist during the Great Depression, his experiences of the 1960s and reflections on that decade's lessons, his vision of a libertarian communist society, libertarian politics, the future of anarchism, and the unity of theory and practice. He goes on to assess the crisis of radicalism today and defends the need for a revolutionary Left. Finally, he states what is to be valued in both anarchism and Marxism in building such a Left and offers guidelines for forming a new revolutionary social movement.

This book challenges the notion that the Marxian approach is no longer relevant to the problems of contemporary society in the post-Soviet world. The first part of the book deals with the distinctive method of Marx's political economy, with an emphasis on its origins and the problems that arise out of misinterpretations of Capital . The second section applies this method to some of the key contemporary issues including unemployment, globalization and the crisis of the welfare state, and suggests that the approach of Marxist political economy remains a highly relevant and intellectually sound method of analysis.

A number of arguments have been made to explain the relative weakness of the American Left. A preference for individualism, the effects of prosperity, and the miscalculations of different components of the Left, including the labor movement, have been cited, among other factors, as possible explanations for this puzzling aspect of American exceptionalism. But these arguments, says Richard Iton, overlook a crucial factor--the powerful influence of race upon American life. Iton argues that the failure of the American Left lies in its inability to come to grips with the centrality of race in the American experience. Placing the history of the American Left in an illuminating comparative context, he also broadens our definition of the Left to include not just political parties and labor unions but also public policy and popular culture--an important source for the kind of cultural consensus needed to sustain broad social and collectivist efforts, Iton says. In short, by exposing the impact of race on the development of the American Left, Iton offers a provocative new way of understanding the unique orientation of American politics. |Richard Iton argues that the failure of the American Left lies in its inability to come to grips with the centrality of race in the American experience. By placing the history of the American Left in a comparative context, he broadens the definition to include not just political parties and labor unions but also public policy and popular culture--important sources for the kind of cultural consensus needed to sustain broad social and collectivist efforts.

This text examines the development of social democratic parties in Western Europe and suggests that instead of viewing a single model, in the past it was more accurate to consider a Northern and Southern European version. Each model varied in its characteristics, yet each retained an adherence to the same core values. But now a "new" version of social democracy is emerging that is characterized by an advocacy of the tenets of neo-liberalism.

Sidney and Beatrice Webb are the most important British contributors to the socialist tradition. They had a hand in founding many of the institutions that form the fabric of British society; notably the Fabian society, the Labour Party, the London School of Economics, the New Statesman , the Political Quarterly and Tribune. This is the first authorized biography of the Webbs commissioned by the Passfield Trustees; this life of the 'oddest couple since Adam and Eve' differs from previous studies in considering their literary and institution-building accomplishments and not just their personal idiosyncrasies.

Opinion about the Webbs has emphasised their personal idiosyncrasies to the exclusion of their literary and institution building accomplishments. In this account, Sidney is shown to play a more important role than Beatrice in the literary output and there is emphasis on their promotion of working class democratic experience. In providing this analysis of the Webbs, "the oddest couple since Adam and Eve" Harrison shows that Sidney thought a good marriage should be a partnership while Beatrice maintained that a man should always make the important decisions and the women the less important ones, and she should determine which were which!

Why was Oklahoma, of all places, more hospitable to socialism than any other state in America? In this provocative book, Jim Bissett chronicles the rise and fall of the Socialist Party of Oklahoma during the first two decades of the twentieth century, when socialism in the United States enjoyed its golden age. To explain socialism's popularity in Oklahoma, Bissett looks back to the state's strong tradition of agrarian reform. Drawing most of its support from working farmers, the Socialist Party of Oklahoma was rooted in such well-established organizations as the Farmers Alliance and the Indiahoma Farmers' Union. And to broaden its appeal, the Party borrowed from the ideology both of the American Revolution and of Christianity. By making Marxism speak in American terms, the author argues, Party activists counteracted the prevailing notion that socialism was illegitimate or un-American. Jim Bissett is Associate Professor of History at Elon College, North Carolina.

In this brilliant and thoroughly engaging work Ian McKay sets out to revamp the history of Canadian socialism. Drawing on models of left politics in Marx and Gramsci, he outlines a fresh agenda for exploration of the Canadian left.
In rejecting the usual paths of sectarian or sentimental histories, McKay draws on contemporary cultural theory to argue for an inventive strategy of "reconnaissance." This important, groundbreaking work combines the highest standards of scholarship, and a broad knowledge of current debates in the field. "Rebels, Reds, Radicals" is the introduction to McKay's definitive multi-volume work on the history of Canadian socialism (volume one, "Reasoning Otherwise: Leftists and the People's Enlightenment in Canada, 1890-1920" will be available in November 2008).
Ian McKay teaches at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. His previous books include "Rebels, Reds, Radicals," "For a Working-Class Culture in Canada," and "The Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia."

A critical assessment of the "New Labour" phenomena. It assesses the impact of Labour's "modernizers" in three crucial areas: changes within the Labour party itself; the reformation of the British state; and the influence on particular areas of policy. The essays do not seek to provide unequivocal answers to the questions raised by the arrival of New Labour and their initial period in office, but provide a debate between the contributors over the nature and significance of these changes. The book is a wide ranging and accessible account of the political phenomena which will lead Britain into the 21st century.

What does the good life mean in a "backward" place? As communist regimes denigrated widespread unemployment and consumer excess in Western countries, socialist Eastern European states simultaneously legitimized their power through their apparent ability to satisfy consumers' needs. Moving beyond binaries of production and consumption, the essays collected here examine the lessons consumption studies can offer about ethnic and national identity and the role of economic expertise in shaping consumer behavior. From Polish VCRs to Ukrainian fashion boutiques, tropical fruits in the GDR to cinemas in Belgrade, The Socialist Good Life explores what consumption means in a worker state where communist ideology emphasizes collective needs over individual pleasures.

While there has been much focus in recent times on the rise of right-wing populism in Europe, there has been surprisingly little material on the phenomenon of left-wing populism. This edited collection seeks to fill that gap with an investigation of the relationship between the radical left and populism. Featuring a broad range of historical and contemporary case studies from across Europe, this is a much-needed empirical account of this phenomenon. This book will be of considerable interest to researchers, scholars and students of left radicalism, European politics and the politics of social movements. It will also appeal to appeal to non-academic audiences, especially party and social movement activists because of its politically salient topic and its historical and comparative focus.

This text offers a concise and accessible coverage of the historical background, the organization and policies of the 15 social democratic parties in the European Union with a focus on the 1945-1990s period. It combines an updated study of the evolution of each party's ideology, sociology and policies, with attention also to the impact of European integration on the fortunes of social democratic forces. The book can be used as a reference text by academics, students and political practitioners and contains contact details and reference information for each party.;The book is aimed at departments of politics (European politics, politics of European Union, comparative politics and government, political ideology), sociology, history, European studies; trade unions, Left political parties in EU; political commentators, journalists, and party research centres.