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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > Socialism & left-of-centre democratic ideologies
What is the best way to organize an economy to satisfy demands for efficiency, compassion and freedom? These political, economic, social and philosophical concerns underpin what has been the most important issue of the twentieth-century, that of the relationship between market and plan. Markets and Socialism consists of extracts drawn from the most important contributors to the debate started by Karl Marx. In six thematic sections the reader can follow the vicissitudes of the non-market, market and mixed market models. The range of countries and historical sweep covered in this volume are impressive: from the 'socialist calculation' debate to the experiences of Russia, East-Central Europe, Sweden, America and China. A combination of theoretical analyses and practical case studies makes this volume essential reading for teachers, students and anyone interested in a clear and concise introduction to the central dilemma of our times.
In 1895, Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling were two of the best-known socialists in Britain, mixing with the most influential figures of their time, from Keir Hardie to William Morris. The couple were committed to building a socialist political force based on the 'scientific' theories of Eleanor's father Karl and his collaborator, Friedrich Engels. Marx and Aveling's 'letters' to Russia from England offer a unique perspective on British socialism as it entered its crucial phase, which culminated in the foundation of the Labour Party in 1900. As they reported from the heart of capitalist Britain, a Liberal government fell, having failed to keep its promises to labour. The remainder of the year saw the election of a Conservative-led Unionist administration, an underwhelming general election performance by socialists, and the death of Engels. These lively, accessible letters include sharp reflections on Victorian cultural figures including Oscar Wilde, Annie Besant, and the 'new woman' novelists. An introductory essay sheds light on the authors' complex, tumultuous life and work together, and reveals the friendships and political connections Karl Marx, Engels and the authors had with prominent Russian revolutionaries. The book will be of interest to students, historians, and all those interested in left politics and movements in Britain.
Recent years have seen a massive growth of interest in socialism, particularly among young people. But few are fully aware of socialism 's revolutionary history. For this reason, an appreciation of the Second International--often called the "Socialist International"--during its Marxist years is particularly relevant. From 1889 to 1912 resolutions of the Second International helped disseminate and popularize a revolutionary aim: the overturn of capitalism and its replacement by the democratic rule of the working class, as a first step toward socialism. Despite weaknesses and contradictions that led to the Second International 's collapse in 1914, its resolutions during these years remain a resource for those studying the socialist movement 's history and objectives. Many of the topics dealt with--war and militarism, immigration, trade unions and labor legislation, women 's rights, colonialism, socialist strategy and tactics--remain just as relevant today. This book is the first English-language collection ever assembled of all the resolutions adopted by congresses of the Second International in its Marxist years.
Out of early twentieth-century Russia came the world's first significant effort to build a modern revolutionary society. According to Marxist economist Samir Amin, the great upheaval that once produced the Soviet Union has also produced a movement away from capitalism - a long transition that continues even today. In seven concise, provocative chapters, Amin deftly examines the trajectory of Russian capitalism, the Bolshevik Revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the possible future of Russia - and, by extension, the future of socialism itself. Amin manages to combine an analysis of class struggle with geopolitics - each crucial to understanding Russia's singular and complex political history. He first looks at the development (or lack thereof) of Russian capitalism. He sees Russia's geopolitical isolation as the reason its capitalist empire developed so differently from Western Europe, and the reason for Russia's perceived "backwardness." Yet Russia's unique capitalism proved to be the rich soil in which the Bolsheviks were able to take power, and Amin covers the rise and fall of the revolutionary Soviet system. Finally, in a powerful chapter on Ukraine and the rise of global fascism, Amin lays out the conditions necessary for Russia to recreate itself, and perhaps again move down the long road to socialism. Samir Amin's great achievement in this book is not only to explain Russia's historical tragedies and triumphs, but also to temper our hopes for a quick end to an increasingly insufferable capitalism. This book offers a cornucopia of food for thought, as well as an enlightening means to transcend reductionist arguments about "revolution" so common on the left. Samir Amin's book - and the actions that could spring from it - are more necessary than ever, if the world is to avoid the barbarism toward which capitalism is hurling humanity.
For over a century Yiddish served as a major vehicle for expressing left-wing ideas and sensitivities. A language without country, an 'ugly jargon' despised by assimilationist Jewish bourgeoisie and nationalist Zionists alike, it was embraced as genuine folk idiom by Jewish adherents of socialism and communism worldwide. Following the Holocaust, Yiddish was the primary language of education, culture and propaganda for millions of people on five continents. The present volume examines the rich diversity of relationships between Yiddish and the Left, from the attitude of Yiddish writers to apartheid in South Africa to the vicissitudes of the Yiddish communist press in the Soviet Union and the USA. (Legenda 2001)
This work remains one of the all-time classics of 20th-century intellectual thought. For over half a century, it has inspired politicians and thinkers around the world, and has had a crucial impact on our political and cultural history. Hayek argues that, while socialist ideals may be tempting, they cannot be accomplished except by means that few would approve of. Addressing economics, fascism, history, socialism and the Holocaust, Hayek unwraps the trappings of socialist ideology. He reveals to the world that little can result from such ideas except oppression and tyranny. Today, more than 50 years on, Hayek's warnings are just as valid as when "The Road to Serfdom" was first published.
Since the late 1960s social democrats have become the dominant political force in the European Union. In fact, Social Democrats govern in no less than 11 of the 15 member states. Simultaneously, the EU has embarked on its most far-reaching project yet, namely Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); a project that was designed mainly by non-Social Democratic governments. This volume provides the first in-depth and comparative analysis of the views and policies of nine European Social Democratic parties concerning economic governance under Europe's new single currency and of the impact of the new political and institutional constellation in the EU on the process of economic integration and European social democracy.
This book seeks to explore the understanding of Fabianism of both the Webbs and the Fabian Women's Group and how this understanding shaped their views regarding such gender-centred issues as the family wage; protective labour law; and women's place in the welfare state, the home and the labour market.
How and why cities have become the predominant sites for revolutionary upheavals in the contemporary world Examining the changing character of revolution around the world, The Revolutionary City focuses on the impact that the concentration of people, power, and wealth in cities exercises on revolutionary processes and outcomes. Once predominantly an urban and armed affair, revolutions in the twentieth century migrated to the countryside, as revolutionaries searched for safety from government repression and discovered the peasantry as a revolutionary force. But at the end of the twentieth century, as urban centers grew, revolution returned to the city-accompanied by a new urban civic repertoire espousing the containment of predatory government and relying on visibility and the power of numbers rather than arms. Using original data on revolutionary episodes since 1900, public opinion surveys, and engaging examples from around the world, Mark Beissinger explores the causes and consequences of the urbanization of revolution in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Beissinger examines the compact nature of urban revolutions, as well as their rampant information problems and heightened uncertainty. He investigates the struggle for control over public space, why revolutionary contention has grown more pacified over time, and how revolutions involving the rapid assembly of hundreds of thousands in central urban spaces lead to diverse, ad hoc coalitions that have difficulty producing substantive change. The Revolutionary City provides a new understanding of how revolutions happen and what they might look like in the future.
This book examines the most economically critical and politically sensitive issues of China's reform process -- labor market development, changing industrial relations, the altered role of trade unions, and labor-state and labor-capital conflict. By examining the nature of contemporary work in various sectors of the Chinese economy, the contributors demonstrate that formal ownership patterns, still heavily dominated by the state, are not a comprehensive guide to the character of the current economic system.
Socialists are united far more by their shared opposition to anomic individualism than by their commitment to any single interpretative scheme or body of beliefs. However, the 42 texts by the 27 socialists represented in this collection show that, in spite of the striking differences, there are certain crucial similarities and points of convergence. These volumes show that in Britain, at least in the years from 1825-1952, the democrats who called themselves socialists tended to concentrate their discussion around four common themes that served as the core of their common cause: quest for community, the institution of equality, the rehabilitation of the state, and transition by consent. The classic texts contained in these ten volumes, which encompass the Ricardian socialists, the Christian socialists, and the Fabian socialists, seek to make human interaction and social responsibility the centrepiece of economic debate from a variety of ideological perspectives. These key contributions to British thought between 1825 and 1952 are still a source of stimulus to students of political economy even as they have acquired the status of great historical works.
Militant Minority tells the compelling story of British Columbia workers who sustained a left tradition during the bleakest days of the Cold War. Through their continuing activism on issues from the politics of timber licenses to global questions of war and peace, these workers bridged the transition from an Old to a New Left. In the late 1950s, half of B.C.'s workers belonged to unions, but the promise of postwar collective bargaining spawned disillusionment tied to inflation and automation. A new working class that was educated, white collar, and increasingly rebellious shifted the locus of activism from the Communist Party and Co-operative Commonwealth Federation to the newly formed New Democratic Party, which was elected in 1972. Grounded in archival research and oral history, Militant Minority provides a valuable case study of one of the most organized and independent working classes in North America, during a period of ideological tension and unprecedented material advance.
The current generation owes a moral and political obligation to the next generation and beyond , in terms of their real inheritance: the three interlinked existential crises represented by climate change, the multiple crises of the global environment and the conventional and nuclear arms race. This book is an attempt to reach out to the next generation to start shaping their own collective future through the greening of socialism on a global basis as an affirmative survival response to these crises which will have to be confronted in the course of the twenty-first century. It starts with a clear recapitulation of the major historical event-structures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which have been responsible for the genesis of these crises and links them to the possible choices and actions for the next century and beyond. These crises are no longer separable in terms of the consequences they entail for global humanity. Nor is it possible to separate our relationship with Nature as a whole from our relationship with each other at a global level. Consequently, the resolution of these crises is no longer a matter of mere technical or economic fixes, they will involve the major part of humanity as actors intervening into shaping their own future. The decisive moment for social and political change is fast approaching, with a clear choice to be made between systemic change or continuing with fragmented systems which are inexorably driving us towards the possibility of human extinction along with the extinction of major life-forms on earth. The building blocks of a desirable and sustainable future are already available to us but the powerful and entrenched economic and political structures of the world are in continuous denial of the possibilities of the future through systemic changes. This book lays out the above argument in a concise and logical framework that ranges across several disciplines from political economy and history to ecology and the sciences and technology. It is then up to the next generation to make their own choices about the future in the light of the mounting evidence about the urgency of systemic change. The decisive moment is now. This book is an honest account linking the past, the present and the likely future. It is a challenging read for those who will rise to the challenge.
As leaders of a 'people's university', part of the vast post-1960s expansion in British higher education, UEL's first generation of educationalists was committed to innovation and to creating a new democratic identity for their institution. They were also determined to extend access to higher education to those previously excluded, and to offer East Londoners, at a time of social deprivation and political turbulence, the vocational education to meet their aspirations. In this book, leading figures in UEL's history describe its radical accomplishments across a broad range of subject areas including Architecture, Cultural Studies, Fashion Textiles, Independent Studies, Law, and Refugee Studies. These chapters, including three by former students, evoke the excitement of an environment in which there was so much opportunity to invent, to do things differently. The book is an excellent and detailed resource for all those with an interest in the history and future of higher education in the UK, and particularly the legacy of polytechnics and new universities. At a time of intense marketisation in the UK's higher education sector, this book insists on the possibility of democratic educational innovation and renewal.
The United States leads the world in incarceration, and the United Kingdom is persistently one of the European countries with the highest per capita rates of imprisonment. Yet despite its increasing visibility as a social issue, mass incarceration - and its inconsistency with core democratic ideals - rarely surfaces in contemporary Anglo-American political theory. Democratic Theory and Mass Incarceration seeks to overcome this puzzling disconnect by deepening the dialogue between democratic theory and punishment policy. This collection of original essays initiates a multi-disciplinary discussion among philosophers, political theorists, and criminologists regarding ways in which contemporary democratic theory might begin to think beyond mass incarceration. Rather than viewing punishment as a natural reaction to crime and imprisonment as a sensible outgrowth of this reaction, the volume argues that crime and punishment are institutions that reveal unmet demands for public oversight and democratic influence. Chapters explore theoretical paths towards de-carceration and alternatives to prison, suggest ways in which democratic theory can strengthen recent reform movements, and offer creative alternatives to mass incarceration. Democratic Theory and Mass Incarceration offers guideposts for critical thinking about incarceration, examining ways to rebuild crime control institutions and create a healthier, more just society.
These days, it is easy to be cynical about democracy. Even though there are more democratic societies now (119 and counting) than ever before, skeptics can point to low turnouts in national elections, the degree to which money corrupts the process, and the difficulties of mass participation in complex systems as just a few reasons the system is flawed. The Occupy movement in 2011 proved that there is an emphatic dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs, particularly with the economy, but, ultimately, it failed to produce any coherent vision for social change. So what should progressives be working toward? What should the economic vision be for the 21st century? After Occupy boldly argues that democracy should not just be a feature of political institutions, but of economic institutions as well. In fact, despite the importance of the economy in democratic societies, there is very little about it that is democratic. Questioning whether the lack of democracy in the economy might be unjust, Tom Malleson scrutinizes workplaces, the market, and financial and investment institutions to consider the pros and cons of democratizing each. He considers examples of successful efforts toward economic democracy enacted across the globe, from worker cooperatives in Spain to credit unions and participatory budgeting measures in Brazil and questions the feasibility of expanding each. The book offers the first comprehensive and radical vision for democracy in the economy, but it is far from utopian. Ultimately, After Occupy offers possibility, demonstrating in a remarkably tangible way that when political democracy evolves to include economic democracy, our societies will have a chance of meaningful equality for all.
During the years between the publication of the first of his two
major works, "The Structure of Social Action "(1937), and the
writing of his second, "The Social System "(1951), Talcott Parsons
was primarily engaged in political activity through the Office of
Strategic Services in its efforts to bring about the defeat of the
Third Reich and to set the stage for a democratic reconstruction of
postwar Germany. Beyond Parsons' analytic skills the essays reveal
a dedicated liberal scholar, far removed from the stereotypes with
which he came to be pilloried by later critics.
The birth of democracies owes much to the interventions and mobilizations of ordinary people. Yet many feel as though they have inherited democratic institutions which do not deliver for the people - that a rigid democratic process has been imposed from above, with increasing numbers of people feeling left out or left behind. In this well-researched volume, leading political sociologist Donatella della Porta rehabilitates the role social movements have long played in fostering and deepening democracy, particularly focusing on progressive movements of the Left which have sought to broaden the plurality of voices and knowledge in democratic debate. Bridging social movement studies and democratic theory, della Porta investigates contemporary innovations in times of crisis, particularly those in the direction of participatory and deliberative practices - 'crowd-sourced constitutions', referendums from below and movement parties - and reflects on the potential and limits of such alternative politics. In a moment in which concerns increase for the potential disruption of a Great Regression led by xenophobic movements and parties, the cases and analyses of resistance in this volume offer important material for students and scholars of political sociology, political science and social movement studies.
This study describes and analyses the new social movements that have arisen in India over the past two decades, in particular the anti-caste movement (of both the untouchables and the lower-middle castes), the women's liberation movement, the farmers' movement (centred on struggles arising out of their integration into a state-controlled capitalist market), and the environmental movements (opposition to destructive development, including resistance to big dam projects and the search for alternatives). Rooted in participant observation, it focuses on the ideologies and self-understanding of the movements themselves. The central themes of this book are the origin of movements in the socio-economic contradictions of post-independence India; their effect on political developments, in particular the disintegration of Congress hegemony; their relation to "traditional Marxist" theory and Communist practice; and their groping toward a synthesis of theory and practice that constitutes a new social vision distinct from traditional Marxism.
Robert Owen (1771-1858) was the founder of British socialism, and one of the most influential reformers in Britain and America in the first half of the 19th century. This book contains all Owen's key writings on the ideal community, socialism, religion, and the capitalist economic system. |
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