Legacies of the Collapse of Marxism

by John H. Moore

Overview

A penetrating study by prominent authors of the aftermath of the collapse of Marxism. Rudolf Andorka discusses the causes of the collapse of the Communist system; Francis Kukuyama looks at the varieties of Russian nationalism; Craig Calhoun addresses the interaction of nationalism, civil society, and democracy; James M. Buchanan analyzes the implications for economies in transition of the asymmetrical reciprocity in market exchange; Robert Conquest discusses academe and the Soviet myth; and Seymour Martin Lipset concludes with the question of why we did not anticipate the failure of Communism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461723684
Publisher:	University Publishing Association
Publication date:	11/08/1994
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	276
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

John H. Moore

Editorial Reviews

These books examine distinct aspects of Marxism and communism (i.e., as social movement, political theory, and transitional regime). None approaches the magisterial breadth of Leszek Kolakowski's Main Currents of Marxism (Oxford Univ. Pr., 1978), but each demonstrates its subject's intellectual relevance and scholarly vitality, and each confronts questions that will remain long after communism's passing. For example, Legacies of the Collapse of Marxism includes several essays on nationalism after communism. Despite the absence of a single focus, the careful choice of authors-Francis Fukuyama, Craig Calhoun, and Daniel Chirot, among others-explain this anthology's success. Nevertheless, some readers will detect a conservative bias among the contributors. Thus, Seymour Martin Lipset explains "model" Western researchers' failure to anticipate communism's collapse as a partial consequence of their tendency to be "left liberal in their politics" and their consistent overestimation of a regime's durability. The contributors to Legacies don't ask in what sense Soviet communism ever was legitimately a Marxist enterprise, but the remaining books show why this question cannot be dismissed lightly. Aronson considers Marxism's ambivalent relation with democracy and recalls the well-known criticisms of Lenin by other Marxists. He attempts to survey Marxism's development as a "project" possessed of a "prophetic dimension" and to sketch the basis for "a post-Marxist radical movement." Aronson's revelation of himself as a convert, now dispirited, to his subject's "stunning explanatory, ethical and inspirational power" lends authenticity to his criticism. While Aronson's work will be accessible to most readers, the same cannot be said of some of the contributions to Whither Marxism? For example, Abdul Janmohamed's essay on Marx and Foucault will be opaque to those uninitiated to Foucault's language. Andre Marga's essay on East European Marxism includes long, annoyingly untranslated quotations in French and German. In short, the essays respond to the question "Whither Marxism?" with an implicit answer: everywhere and nowhere. Thoughtful readers should demand more. These three books include original scholarship that belongs in most academic libraries, although the choice may be a matter of which academic discipline is emphasized. Legacies of the Collapse of Marxisim is intended mainly for political scientists with an interest in post-Soviet politics, Whither Marxism? will appeal especially to theorists, and Aronson's book comes closest to addressing general readers.-Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie

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