Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives
Area Studies and Global Theories
Edited by Peter J. S. Duncan and Elisabeth Schimpfössl
In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down. Two years later the Soviet Union disintegrated. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union discredited the idea of socialism for generations to come. It was seen as representing the final and irreversible victory of capitalism. This triumphal dominance was barely challenged until the 2008 financial crisis threw the Western world into a state of turmoil.
Through analysis of post-socialist Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as of the United Kingdom, China and the United States, Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives confronts the difficulty we face in articulating alternatives to capitalism, socialism and threatening populist regimes. Beginning with accounts of the impact of capitalism on countries left behind by the planned economies, the volume moves on to consider how China has become a beacon of dynamic economic growth, aggressively expanding its global influence.
The final section of
the volume poses alternatives to the ideological dominance of neoliberalism in
the West. Since the 2008 financial crisis, demands for social change have
erupted across the world. Exposing the failure of neoliberalism in the United
Kingdom and examining recent social movements in Europe and the United States,
the closing chapters identify how elements of past ideas are re-emerging, among
them Keynesianism and radical socialism. As those chapters indicate, these
ideas might well have potential to mobilise support and challenge the dominance
of neoliberalism.
Peter J. S. Duncan is Associate Professor of Russian Politics and Society at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Among his six books are The Soviet Union and India (1989); The Road to Post-Communism: Independent Political Movements in the Soviet Union, 1985-1991(co-author, 1992); and Russian Messianism: Third Rome, Revolution, Communism and After (paperback, 2014). Elisabeth Schimpfössl researches wealth inequality, elite philanthropy as well as questions around self-censorship in Eastern Europe. She is author of Rich Russians: From Oligarchs to Bourgeoisie, published by Oxford University Press in 2018. She has a doctorate from the University of Manchester and is currently lecturer in sociology and policy at Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
Introduction
Peter J. S. Duncan and Elisabeth Schimpfössl
PART I: Capitalism in Action
Chapter 1: Semi-Dependent Capitalism: Russia
Ruslan Dzarasov
Chapter 2: Diversifying the Super-Rich: Forbes-Listed Russians from a Muslim Background
Catherine Suart
Chapter 3: The Culture of Elite Philanthropy: Russia and the United Kingdom Compared
Tim Monteath and Elisabeth Schimpfössl
Chapter 4: Between the Public and the Private: Socialism, Capitalism and Street Socialization in Georgia
Costanza Curro
PART II: China Today and as a Future Alternative
Chapter 5: Making it
in China: The Determinants of Economic Success in a Socialist Market System
Ion Marandici
Chapter 6: The Revival of Marxism in China: Could it Herald a Communist Reformation?
Heiko Khoo
Chapter 7: China’s Emerging Liberal Partnership Order and Russian and US Responses: Evidence from the Belt and Road Initiative in Eurasia
Peter Braga and Stephen G. F. Hall
PART III: Alternatives in the West
Chapter 8: Neo-Liberalism, Keynesianism and the Current Crisis
Geoffrey Hosking
Chapter 9: Political Alternatives on the Western Left: Podemos, Syriza, Sanders and Corbyn
Peter J.S. Duncan
Conclusion
Peter J.S. Duncan and Elisabeth Schimpfössl
Format: Paperback
Size: 234 × 156 mm
252 Pages
3 B&W illustrations
Copyright: © 2019
ISBN: 9781787353831
Publication: October 14, 2019
Series: FRINGE
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