Socialism The Tragedy Of An Idea

Author : Lajos Bokros
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2020-12-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9783030578435

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Socialism—The Tragedy of an Idea by Lajos Bokros Pdf

This book explores the idea of socialism from three angles and raises the questions if socialism is possible, inevitable, and desirable. Socialism as an economic and societal system was possible based on the two most important pillars of Marxian political economy: State ownership in the means of production and mandatory central planning (command economy). Nevertheless, these two characteristics are compatible only with dictatorship. On this basis, socialism is neither inevitable nor desirable, because it excludes competition, freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. The three questions are analyzed through the academic work of five towering figures: Joseph A. Schumpeter, Karl Polanyi, Friedrich A. Hayek, Karl Popper, and Hannah Arendt. The theoretical findings and inferences resulting from this analysis are compared with the reality of socialism as it existed rather than an imaginary uncontroversial blueprint of socialism. The book discusses the evolution of Soviet communism and its attempts with market reforms to solve its inherent contradictions. It concludes that totalitarian regimes tend to fail in reforms because market freedom is inconsistent with totalitarian control. The author makes a strong case against dictatorship, also in the context of the spreading of nationalist populism around the globe. This book is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of the ideas of socialism, totalitarianism, and populism.

Author : Lajos Bokros
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 3030578445

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Socialism-The Tragedy of an Idea by Lajos Bokros Pdf

This book explores the idea of socialism from three angles and raises the questions if socialism is possible, inevitable, and desirable. Socialism as an economic and societal system was possible based on the two most important pillars of Marxian political economy: State ownership in the means of production and mandatory central planning (command economy). Nevertheless, these two characteristics are compatible only with dictatorship. On this basis, socialism is neither inevitable nor desirable, because it excludes competition, freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. The three questions are analyzed through the academic work of five towering figures: Joseph A. Schumpeter, Karl Polanyi, Friedrich A. Hayek, Karl Popper, and Hannah Arendt. The theoretical findings and inferences resulting from this analysis are compared with the reality of socialism as it existed rather than an imaginary uncontroversial blueprint of socialism. The book discusses the evolution of Soviet communism and its attempts with market reforms to solve its inherent contradictions. It concludes that totalitarian regimes tend to fail in reforms because market freedom is inconsistent with totalitarian control. The author makes a strong case against dictatorship, also in the context of the spreading of nationalist populism around the globe. This book is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of the ideas of socialism, totalitarianism, and populism.

Author : Ivor Bulmer-Thomas
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 1949
Category : Socialism
ISBN : UOM:39015011020107

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The Socialist Tragedy by Ivor Bulmer-Thomas Pdf

Author : William Smaldone
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2019-10-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781786611598

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European Socialism by William Smaldone Pdf

This accessible text offers a concise but comprehensive introduction to European socialism, which arose in the maelstrom of the industrial and democratic revolutions launched in the eighteenth century. Striving for sweeping social, economic, cultural, and political change, socialists were a diverse lot. However, they were united by principles asserting the social and political equality of all people, ideas that won the adherence of millions and struck fear in the hearts of their numerous opponents. William Smaldone shows how, over the course of 200 years, socialists successfully promoted the democratization of European society and a more equitable division of wealth. At the same time, he illustrates how conflicts over the means of achieving their aims divided them into rival “socialist” and “communist” currents, a rift that undercut the struggle against fascism and helped lay the groundwork for Europe’s division during the Cold War. Although many predicted the demise of socialism as a potent force after the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s dissolution, and the rise of neo-liberal ideology, recent developments show that such a judgment was premature. The author argues that the growth of new socialist parties across Europe indicates that socialist ideas remain vibrant in the face of capitalism’s failure to solve chronic social and economic problems, especially following the deep global crisis that began in 2008. Combining an analytical narrative with a selection of primary texts and visual images, this book provides undergraduate students with a brief, readable history, including an overview of how socialist political movements have evolved over time and stressing the rich diversity that has characterized socialism’s foundations from its beginning. This new edition brings this text up to date and examines the European socialist movement in the face of 21st century challenges. It includes a new preface, including the 2017 American election, updated bibliographies, two new chapters and an afterword.

Author : Rudolf Bahro
Publisher : Verso Books
Page : 566 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2020-05-05
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781789606812

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The Alternative in Eastern Europe by Rudolf Bahro Pdf

The contemporary Marxist writer provides analyses of socialist theory, modern political struggle, and socialist societies in Eastern Europe.

Author : Bhikhu C. Parekh
Publisher : Holmes & Meier Publishers
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 1975
Category : Political Science
ISBN : UOM:39015000522808

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The Concept of Socialism by Bhikhu C. Parekh Pdf

Author : Leszek Kołakowski,Stuart Hampshire
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 1974
Category : Political Science
ISBN : UOM:39015003520403

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The Socialist Idea by Leszek Kołakowski,Stuart Hampshire Pdf

Author : John J. Schwarzmantel
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015021870665

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Socialism and the Idea of the Nation by John J. Schwarzmantel Pdf

Socialism and the Idea of the Nation looks at the relationship between socialism and nationalism in both theory and practice in Europe over a broad time-span. The book discusses the origins and meaning of the nationalist idea, the concept of socialist internationalism and the transcendence of the idea of nation and socialism and nationalism in long established nation-states like England and France. It continues with an examination of socialism and nationalism in the late comers like Italy and Germany, socialism and nationalism in Austria, as an example of a multi-national state, nationalism and socialist revolution and primary and secondary concepts of nationhood.

Author : Stewart Grahame
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2014-04-24
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0992871220

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Where Socialism Failed by Stewart Grahame Pdf

In a world edging ever-closer to the centralised authority of the Good-Intentioned we need to remember the repeated failures of Socialism. New Australia was a Colony founded in Paraguay on 28th September 1893 by the firebrand, polemicist, and Socialist Preacher and Journalist William Lane. This book is the story of that colony, its founding, its struggles, its secessions and its ultimate failure. It is the story of one of the very first attempts to found a society based on Socialist principles. A story of good-intentions and wishful thinking; a story of the clash between ideology and reality, and, perhaps most of all, a story about human nature. The failure of Socialism is often characterised by tragedy but as this story unfolds we find that Socialism's main feature may well be farce. This book draws on the work of early twentieth century Socialists such as H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw and tests their ideas against the realities of communal life in the Paraguayan jungle. It would be sad if it weren't so funny. Originally written in 1912 and now, 100 years later, after the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, Where Socialism Failed is no less relevant and no less entertaining than it ever was.

Author : Kristian Niemietz
Publisher : London Publishing Partnership
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2019-02-07
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780255367714

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Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies by Kristian Niemietz Pdf

Socialism is strangely impervious to refutation by real-world experience. Over the past hundred years, there have been more than two dozen attempts to build a socialist society, from the Soviet Union to Maoist China to Venezuela. All of them have ended in varying degrees of failure. But, according to socialism’s adherents, that is only because none of these experiments were “real socialism”. This book documents the history of this, by now, standard response. It shows how the claim of fake socialism is only ever made after the event. As long as a socialist project is in its prime, almost nobody claims that it is not real socialism. On the contrary, virtually every socialist project in history has gone through a honeymoon period, during which it was enthusiastically praised by prominent Western intellectuals. It was only when their failures became too obvious to deny that they got retroactively reclassified as “not real socialism”.

Author : Martin Malia
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 408 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2008-06-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781439118542

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Soviet Tragedy by Martin Malia Pdf

"The Soviet Tragedy is an essential coda to the literature of Soviet studies...Insofar as [he] returns the power of ideology to its central place in Soviet history, Malia has made an enormous contribution. He has written the history of a utopian illusion and the tragic consequences it had for the people of the Soviet Union and the world." -- David Remnick, The New York Review of Books "In Martin Malia, the Soviet Union had one of its most acute observers. With this book, it may well have found the cornerstone of its history." -- Francois Furet, author of Interpreting the French Revolution "The Soviet Tragedy offers the most thorough scholarly analysis of the Communist phenomenon that we are likely to get for a long while to come...Malia states that his narrative is intended 'to substantiate the basic argument,' and this is certainly an argumentative book, which drives its thesis home with hammer blows. On this breathtaking journey, Malia is a witty and often brilliantly penetrating guide. He has much wisdom to impart." -- The Times Literary Supplement "This is history at the high level, well deployed factually, but particularly worthwhile in the philosophical and political context -- at once a view and an overview." -- The Washington Post

Author : The Editors of National Review
Publisher : Post Hill Press
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2019-10-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781642934564

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Against Socialism by The Editors of National Review Pdf

Socialism is back. T. S. Eliot said that “there is no such thing as a Lost Cause because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause.” We thought our Gained Cause was having vanquished domestic socialism forevermore after the collapse of Soviet Communism in 1989. In the 1990s, Bill Clinton operated within the broad economic consensus established by Ronald Reagan, and when Republicans called Barack Obama a socialist, some on the left considered it a racially charged smear. But here we are: A self-avowed socialist nearly won the Democratic nomination in 2016 and is a serious contender this time. Another socialist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is the hottest thing in progressive politics today. The Green New Deal and Medicare for All are proposals for sweeping aggrandizements of government power on a scale not seen in this country since the New Deal, if ever. Meanwhile, some on the right are raising questions about free markets, or even rejecting them. If National Review exists for nothing else, it is to stand up for important truths, even when they are out of favor. It is in that spirit that we publish this book, an anthology of articles and essays from our twin special issues: “In Defense of Markets” and “Against Socialism.” If our cause wasn’t nearly as gained as we thought two decades ago, it is incumbent on us to make the argument for it more vigorously than ever.

Author : Sean Carney
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 355 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2013-01-01
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781442613973

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The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy by Sean Carney Pdf

The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy is a detailed study of the idea of the tragic in the political plays of David Hare, Howard Barker, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Mark Ravenhill, Sarah Kane, and Jez Butterworth. Through an in-depth analysis of over sixty of their works, Sean Carney argues that their dramatic exploration of tragic experience is an integral part of their ongoing politics. This approach allows for a comprehensive rather than selective study of both the politics and poetics of their work. Carney's attention to the tragic enables him to find a common discourse among the canonical English playwrights of an older generation and representatives of the nineties generation, challenging the idea that there is a sharp generational break between these groups. Finally, Carney demonstrates that tragic experience is often denied by the social discourse of Englishness, and that these playwrights make a crucial critical intervention by dramatizing the tragic.

Author : Stéphane Courtois
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 920 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : History
ISBN : 0674076087

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The Black Book of Communism by Stéphane Courtois Pdf

This international bestseller plumbs recently opened archives in the former Soviet bloc to reveal the accomplishments of communism around the world. The book is the first attempt to catalogue and analyse the crimes of communism over 70 years.

Author : Mark William Roche
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 470 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 1998-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0791435458

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Tragedy and Comedy by Mark William Roche Pdf

The first evaluation and critique of Hegel's theory of tragedy and comedy, this book also develops an original theory of both genres.