Jack Hayward
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199216314
- eISBN:
- 9780191712265
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216314.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
Inspired by a revival of Tocqueville's liberalism, the critique of French political culture was launched by Aron, Hoffmann, Crozier, Furet, and Rosanvallon. However, it was from socialist reformists ...
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Inspired by a revival of Tocqueville's liberalism, the critique of French political culture was launched by Aron, Hoffmann, Crozier, Furet, and Rosanvallon. However, it was from socialist reformists Delors and Rocard that the priority for civil society over statism was pursued politically, especially in the 1980s. Despite its impact, compared to that of capitalist globalization associational liberalism has petered out.Less
Inspired by a revival of Tocqueville's liberalism, the critique of French political culture was launched by Aron, Hoffmann, Crozier, Furet, and Rosanvallon. However, it was from socialist reformists Delors and Rocard that the priority for civil society over statism was pursued politically, especially in the 1980s. Despite its impact, compared to that of capitalist globalization associational liberalism has petered out.
DIRK SPILKER
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199284122
- eISBN:
- 9780191712579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199284122.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The German communists who resumed their work in Soviet-occupied eastern Germany in the dying days of World War II were determined to exploit the existing power vacuum and seize — with help from the ...
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The German communists who resumed their work in Soviet-occupied eastern Germany in the dying days of World War II were determined to exploit the existing power vacuum and seize — with help from the Soviet Union — the key posts in the new administrations. Their plan was to absorb Germany's proud but weakened Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) into a communist-led Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and thus win control of the German workers' movement, destroy the power of Germany's upper bourgeoisie through a series of radical economic reforms promoted under the guise of anti-fascism, and win the support of the German middle classes by protecting their interests and rejecting calls for an immediate transition to socialism. This strategy worked well until, in the autumn of 1945, opposition to the communists from Germany's other political parties, which had earlier been non-existent because of the post-war chaos, increased. Still, the founding of the SED was a success for the communists at a time when few things were certain in Germany.Less
The German communists who resumed their work in Soviet-occupied eastern Germany in the dying days of World War II were determined to exploit the existing power vacuum and seize — with help from the Soviet Union — the key posts in the new administrations. Their plan was to absorb Germany's proud but weakened Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) into a communist-led Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and thus win control of the German workers' movement, destroy the power of Germany's upper bourgeoisie through a series of radical economic reforms promoted under the guise of anti-fascism, and win the support of the German middle classes by protecting their interests and rejecting calls for an immediate transition to socialism. This strategy worked well until, in the autumn of 1945, opposition to the communists from Germany's other political parties, which had earlier been non-existent because of the post-war chaos, increased. Still, the founding of the SED was a success for the communists at a time when few things were certain in Germany.
Patrick Major
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199243280
- eISBN:
- 9780191714061
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243280.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Few historical changes occur literally overnight, but on 13 August 1961 18 million East Germans awoke to find themselves walled in by an edifice which was to become synonymous with the Cold War: the ...
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Few historical changes occur literally overnight, but on 13 August 1961 18 million East Germans awoke to find themselves walled in by an edifice which was to become synonymous with the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. This new history rejects traditional, top‐down approaches to Cold War politics, exploring instead how the border closure affected ordinary East Germans, from workers and farmers to teenagers and even party members, ‘caught out’ by Sunday the Thirteenth. Party, police, and Stasi reports reveal why one in six East Germans fled the country during the 1950s, undermining communist rule and forcing the eleventh‐hour decision by Khrushchev and Ulbricht to build a wall along the Cold War's frontline. Did East Germans resist or come to terms with immurement? Did the communist regime become more or less dictatorial within the confines of the so‐called ‘Antifascist Defence Rampart’? Using film and literature, but also the GDR's losing battle against Beatlemania, Patrick Major's cross‐disciplinary study suggests that popular culture both reinforced and undermined the closed society. Linking external and internal developments, Major argues that the GDR's official quest for international recognition, culminating in Ostpolitik and United Nations membership in the early 1970s, became its undoing, unleashing a human rights movement which fed into, but then broke with, the protests of 1989. After exploring the reasons for the fall of the Wall and reconstructing the heady days of the autumn revolution, the author reflects on the fate of the Wall after 1989, as it moved from demolition into the realm of memory.Less
Few historical changes occur literally overnight, but on 13 August 1961 18 million East Germans awoke to find themselves walled in by an edifice which was to become synonymous with the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. This new history rejects traditional, top‐down approaches to Cold War politics, exploring instead how the border closure affected ordinary East Germans, from workers and farmers to teenagers and even party members, ‘caught out’ by Sunday the Thirteenth. Party, police, and Stasi reports reveal why one in six East Germans fled the country during the 1950s, undermining communist rule and forcing the eleventh‐hour decision by Khrushchev and Ulbricht to build a wall along the Cold War's frontline. Did East Germans resist or come to terms with immurement? Did the communist regime become more or less dictatorial within the confines of the so‐called ‘Antifascist Defence Rampart’? Using film and literature, but also the GDR's losing battle against Beatlemania, Patrick Major's cross‐disciplinary study suggests that popular culture both reinforced and undermined the closed society. Linking external and internal developments, Major argues that the GDR's official quest for international recognition, culminating in Ostpolitik and United Nations membership in the early 1970s, became its undoing, unleashing a human rights movement which fed into, but then broke with, the protests of 1989. After exploring the reasons for the fall of the Wall and reconstructing the heady days of the autumn revolution, the author reflects on the fate of the Wall after 1989, as it moved from demolition into the realm of memory.
Włodzimierz Brus and Kazimierz Laski
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198283997
- eISBN:
- 9780191596032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198283997.003.0011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic Systems
A cruel East European wisecrack defines socialism as ‘the painful road to capitalism’. It may be too much to see in MS simply a stage on this road (or slide, as some would say), but the analysis in ...
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A cruel East European wisecrack defines socialism as ‘the painful road to capitalism’. It may be too much to see in MS simply a stage on this road (or slide, as some would say), but the analysis in this book left little doubt that the disticntions between capitalist and socialist economic systems, as hitherto perceived, become under MS thoroughly blurred. The recourse to MS means that the very idea of a grand design of a supremely rational economy has been acknoledged as utterly fallacious despite the fact that a number of socialist values have to be incorporated into any economic system pursuing objectives worthy of human society.Less
A cruel East European wisecrack defines socialism as ‘the painful road to capitalism’. It may be too much to see in MS simply a stage on this road (or slide, as some would say), but the analysis in this book left little doubt that the disticntions between capitalist and socialist economic systems, as hitherto perceived, become under MS thoroughly blurred. The recourse to MS means that the very idea of a grand design of a supremely rational economy has been acknoledged as utterly fallacious despite the fact that a number of socialist values have to be incorporated into any economic system pursuing objectives worthy of human society.
N. Scott Arnold
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195088274
- eISBN:
- 9780199853014
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195088274.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This book argues that the most defensible version of a market socialist economic system would be unable to realize widely held socialist ideals and values. In particular, it would be responsible for ...
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This book argues that the most defensible version of a market socialist economic system would be unable to realize widely held socialist ideals and values. In particular, it would be responsible for widespread and systematic exploitation. The charge of exploitation, which is really a charge of injustice, has typically been made against capitalist systems by socialists. This book argues that it is market socialism—the only remaining viable form of socialism—that is systematically exploitative. Recent work on the economics of contracts and organizations is used to show that the characteristic organizations of a free enterprise system, the classical capitalist firm and the modern corporation, are structured in such a way that opportunities for exploitation among economic actors (e.g., managers, workers, providers of capital, customers) are minimized. By contrast, this book argues, in a market socialist regime of worker cooperatives, opportunities for exploitation would abound. The book locates its comparative analysis of market socialism and the free enterprise system in the larger context of the capitalism/socialism debate. In the account of this debate, the book offers a distinctive and compelling vision of the relationship between the social sciences and political philosophy.Less
This book argues that the most defensible version of a market socialist economic system would be unable to realize widely held socialist ideals and values. In particular, it would be responsible for widespread and systematic exploitation. The charge of exploitation, which is really a charge of injustice, has typically been made against capitalist systems by socialists. This book argues that it is market socialism—the only remaining viable form of socialism—that is systematically exploitative. Recent work on the economics of contracts and organizations is used to show that the characteristic organizations of a free enterprise system, the classical capitalist firm and the modern corporation, are structured in such a way that opportunities for exploitation among economic actors (e.g., managers, workers, providers of capital, customers) are minimized. By contrast, this book argues, in a market socialist regime of worker cooperatives, opportunities for exploitation would abound. The book locates its comparative analysis of market socialism and the free enterprise system in the larger context of the capitalism/socialism debate. In the account of this debate, the book offers a distinctive and compelling vision of the relationship between the social sciences and political philosophy.
Debbie Pinfold
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199245659
- eISBN:
- 9780191697487
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199245659.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The child is a prominent figure in German literature and in German literary criticism alike. This book examines the ways in which German authors have used the child’s perspective to present the Third ...
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The child is a prominent figure in German literature and in German literary criticism alike. This book examines the ways in which German authors have used the child’s perspective to present the Third Reich. It examines a number of texts ranging from the 1930s to the 1980s. It also considers how children at this time were brought up and educated to accept unquestioningly National Socialist ideology, and thus questions the possibility of a traditional naive perspective on these events. Authors, as diverse as Günter Grass, Siegfried Lenz, and Christa Wolf, together with many less well-known writers had all used this perspective and this raises the question as to why it is such a popular means of confronting the enormity of the Third Reich. This study asks whether this perspective is an evasive strategy, a means of gaining new insights into the period, or a means of discovering a new language which had not been tainted by Nazism. This raises and addresses issues central to a post-war aesthetic in German writing.Less
The child is a prominent figure in German literature and in German literary criticism alike. This book examines the ways in which German authors have used the child’s perspective to present the Third Reich. It examines a number of texts ranging from the 1930s to the 1980s. It also considers how children at this time were brought up and educated to accept unquestioningly National Socialist ideology, and thus questions the possibility of a traditional naive perspective on these events. Authors, as diverse as Günter Grass, Siegfried Lenz, and Christa Wolf, together with many less well-known writers had all used this perspective and this raises the question as to why it is such a popular means of confronting the enormity of the Third Reich. This study asks whether this perspective is an evasive strategy, a means of gaining new insights into the period, or a means of discovering a new language which had not been tainted by Nazism. This raises and addresses issues central to a post-war aesthetic in German writing.
Robert Rohrschneider
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198295174
- eISBN:
- 9780191685088
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198295174.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
The fall of the Berlin wall raised many questions about Germany and post-socialist countries. Given East Germany's authoritarian history, how democratic are its citizens now? What kind of democracy ...
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The fall of the Berlin wall raised many questions about Germany and post-socialist countries. Given East Germany's authoritarian history, how democratic are its citizens now? What kind of democracy do they want a liberal or socialist democracy? What economic system do they prefer? How have they reacted to democratic and market systems since 1989? This book shows how individual institutional learning may be offset by the diffusion of democratic values. The book uses public opinion surveys to compare attitudes of MPs and the general public, and in-depth interviews with parliamentarians in east, and west Berlin to show the persistence of socialist views in the east as well as lower levels of political tolerance. Moreover, the book argues, these values have changed fairly little since unification. The book presents evidence and develops implications for other post-socialist nations, arguing that while post-socialist citizens do not yearn for the old socialist order, their socialist values frequently lower enthusiasm for new democratic and market institutions. The implications being that ideological values are primarily shaped by individual exposure to institutions and that democratic and market values are diffused only in specific conditions.Less
The fall of the Berlin wall raised many questions about Germany and post-socialist countries. Given East Germany's authoritarian history, how democratic are its citizens now? What kind of democracy do they want a liberal or socialist democracy? What economic system do they prefer? How have they reacted to democratic and market systems since 1989? This book shows how individual institutional learning may be offset by the diffusion of democratic values. The book uses public opinion surveys to compare attitudes of MPs and the general public, and in-depth interviews with parliamentarians in east, and west Berlin to show the persistence of socialist views in the east as well as lower levels of political tolerance. Moreover, the book argues, these values have changed fairly little since unification. The book presents evidence and develops implications for other post-socialist nations, arguing that while post-socialist citizens do not yearn for the old socialist order, their socialist values frequently lower enthusiasm for new democratic and market institutions. The implications being that ideological values are primarily shaped by individual exposure to institutions and that democratic and market values are diffused only in specific conditions.
You-tien Hsing
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199568048
- eISBN:
- 9780191721632
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199568048.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
This book emphasizes the centrality of cities in China's ongoing transformation. Based on fieldwork in twenty-four Chinese cities between 1996 and 2007, the author forwards an analysis of the ...
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This book emphasizes the centrality of cities in China's ongoing transformation. Based on fieldwork in twenty-four Chinese cities between 1996 and 2007, the author forwards an analysis of the relations between the city, the state, and society through two novel concepts: urbanization of the local state and civic territoriality. Urbanization of the local state is a process of state power restructuring entailing an accumulation regime based on the commodification of state-owned land, the consolidation of territorial authority through construction projects, and a policy discourse dominated by notions of urban modernity. Civic territoriality encompasses the politics of distribution engendered by urban expansionism, and social actors' territorial strategies toward self-protection. Findings are based on observations in three types of places. In the inner city of major metropolitan centers, municipal governments battle high-ranking state agencies to secure land rents from redevelopment projects, while residents mobilize to assert property and residential rights. At the urban edge, as metropolitan governments seek to extend control over their rural hinterland through massive-scale development projects, villagers strategize to profit from the encroaching property market. At the rural fringe, township leaders become brokers of power and property between the state bureaucracy and villages, while large numbers of peasants are dispossessed, dispersed, and deterritorialized; their mobilizational capacity is consequently undermined.Less
This book emphasizes the centrality of cities in China's ongoing transformation. Based on fieldwork in twenty-four Chinese cities between 1996 and 2007, the author forwards an analysis of the relations between the city, the state, and society through two novel concepts: urbanization of the local state and civic territoriality. Urbanization of the local state is a process of state power restructuring entailing an accumulation regime based on the commodification of state-owned land, the consolidation of territorial authority through construction projects, and a policy discourse dominated by notions of urban modernity. Civic territoriality encompasses the politics of distribution engendered by urban expansionism, and social actors' territorial strategies toward self-protection. Findings are based on observations in three types of places. In the inner city of major metropolitan centers, municipal governments battle high-ranking state agencies to secure land rents from redevelopment projects, while residents mobilize to assert property and residential rights. At the urban edge, as metropolitan governments seek to extend control over their rural hinterland through massive-scale development projects, villagers strategize to profit from the encroaching property market. At the rural fringe, township leaders become brokers of power and property between the state bureaucracy and villages, while large numbers of peasants are dispossessed, dispersed, and deterritorialized; their mobilizational capacity is consequently undermined.
Richard English
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202899
- eISBN:
- 9780191675577
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202899.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Political History
This book studies socialist republicanism in independent Ireland between the wars. The 1934 Republican Congress movement exemplified the socialist republican stance, holding that a Republic of a ...
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This book studies socialist republicanism in independent Ireland between the wars. The 1934 Republican Congress movement exemplified the socialist republican stance, holding that a Republic of a united Ireland will never be achieved except through a struggle which uproots capitalism on its way. This book demonstrates that the contradictory analysis which characterized the republican left during these years explains its political failure. It explores the mentality which typified republicans during the formative years of independent Ireland, and shows how their solipsistic zealotry was simultaneously self-sustaining and self-defeating. The book examines the complex relationship between economics and nationalism in the Irish Free State and the way in which this relationship determined the policies and success of the dominant Fianna Fáil party.Less
This book studies socialist republicanism in independent Ireland between the wars. The 1934 Republican Congress movement exemplified the socialist republican stance, holding that a Republic of a united Ireland will never be achieved except through a struggle which uproots capitalism on its way. This book demonstrates that the contradictory analysis which characterized the republican left during these years explains its political failure. It explores the mentality which typified republicans during the formative years of independent Ireland, and shows how their solipsistic zealotry was simultaneously self-sustaining and self-defeating. The book examines the complex relationship between economics and nationalism in the Irish Free State and the way in which this relationship determined the policies and success of the dominant Fianna Fáil party.
Marc Stears
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199291632
- eISBN:
- 9780191700668
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199291632.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Between 1909 and 1925, the American nationalist progressives and British socialist pluralists outlined two sharply distinct political philosophies: one apparently state-centred, the other fiercely ...
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Between 1909 and 1925, the American nationalist progressives and British socialist pluralists outlined two sharply distinct political philosophies: one apparently state-centred, the other fiercely anti-statist. The nationalist progressives, it appeared, wished to construct an entirely new central state machine in the United States, one capable of overcoming the obstacles of localism and sectionalism and imposing a nationwide political agenda and social identity across several States. The socialist pluralists, on the other hand, seemed fiercely to reject the state-centred programmes of their contemporaries. They celebrated diversity, social difference, and group autonomy, and argued for a radical decentralization of authority in all aspects of social, economic, and political life. And yet, despite these stark differences, the ideological evolution of these two groups also appeared intricately intertwined. Indeed, not only did the groups' leaders involve themselves in a continual dialogue, they also identified individual programmes of concrete reform that could be shared between them.Less
Between 1909 and 1925, the American nationalist progressives and British socialist pluralists outlined two sharply distinct political philosophies: one apparently state-centred, the other fiercely anti-statist. The nationalist progressives, it appeared, wished to construct an entirely new central state machine in the United States, one capable of overcoming the obstacles of localism and sectionalism and imposing a nationwide political agenda and social identity across several States. The socialist pluralists, on the other hand, seemed fiercely to reject the state-centred programmes of their contemporaries. They celebrated diversity, social difference, and group autonomy, and argued for a radical decentralization of authority in all aspects of social, economic, and political life. And yet, despite these stark differences, the ideological evolution of these two groups also appeared intricately intertwined. Indeed, not only did the groups' leaders involve themselves in a continual dialogue, they also identified individual programmes of concrete reform that could be shared between them.
Steven A. Barnes
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151120
- eISBN:
- 9781400838615
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151120.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This book offers a fundamental reinterpretation of the role of the Gulag—the Soviet Union's vast system of forced-labor camps, internal exile, and prisons—in Soviet society. Soviet authorities ...
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This book offers a fundamental reinterpretation of the role of the Gulag—the Soviet Union's vast system of forced-labor camps, internal exile, and prisons—in Soviet society. Soviet authorities undoubtedly had the means to exterminate all the prisoners who passed through the Gulag, but unlike the Nazis they did not conceive of their concentration camps as instruments of genocide. This book argues that the Gulag must be understood primarily as a penal institution where prisoners were given one final chance to reintegrate into Soviet society. Millions whom authorities deemed “re-educated” through brutal forced labor were allowed to leave. Millions more who “failed” never got out alive. Drawing on newly opened archives in Russia and Kazakhstan as well as memoirs by actual prisoners, the book shows how the Gulag was integral to the Soviet goal of building a utopian socialist society. It takes readers into the Gulag itself, focusing on one outpost of the Gulag system in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, a location that featured the full panoply of Soviet detention institutions. The book traces the Gulag experience from its beginnings after the 1917 Russian Revolution to its decline following the 1953 death of Stalin. It reveals how the Gulag defined the border between those who would re-enter Soviet society and those who would be excluded through death.Less
This book offers a fundamental reinterpretation of the role of the Gulag—the Soviet Union's vast system of forced-labor camps, internal exile, and prisons—in Soviet society. Soviet authorities undoubtedly had the means to exterminate all the prisoners who passed through the Gulag, but unlike the Nazis they did not conceive of their concentration camps as instruments of genocide. This book argues that the Gulag must be understood primarily as a penal institution where prisoners were given one final chance to reintegrate into Soviet society. Millions whom authorities deemed “re-educated” through brutal forced labor were allowed to leave. Millions more who “failed” never got out alive. Drawing on newly opened archives in Russia and Kazakhstan as well as memoirs by actual prisoners, the book shows how the Gulag was integral to the Soviet goal of building a utopian socialist society. It takes readers into the Gulag itself, focusing on one outpost of the Gulag system in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, a location that featured the full panoply of Soviet detention institutions. The book traces the Gulag experience from its beginnings after the 1917 Russian Revolution to its decline following the 1953 death of Stalin. It reveals how the Gulag defined the border between those who would re-enter Soviet society and those who would be excluded through death.
Mary McAuley
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198219828
- eISBN:
- 9780191678387
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198219828.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter attempts to provide an overview of changing relationship between state and society before, during, and after the civil war. Against the background of a civil war which endlessly drained ...
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This chapter attempts to provide an overview of changing relationship between state and society before, during, and after the civil war. Against the background of a civil war which endlessly drained the city of resources and kept tension high, the Bolshevik politicians determinedly set out to create a socialist society. Although ‘war communism’ was not a phrase they used, many of the measures they adopted, particularly in the period from the autumn of 1918 through to the autumn of 1920-the nationalization of industry and trade, ending of the market, issuing of goods-formed part of an attempt to find a radical alternative to capitalism.Less
This chapter attempts to provide an overview of changing relationship between state and society before, during, and after the civil war. Against the background of a civil war which endlessly drained the city of resources and kept tension high, the Bolshevik politicians determinedly set out to create a socialist society. Although ‘war communism’ was not a phrase they used, many of the measures they adopted, particularly in the period from the autumn of 1918 through to the autumn of 1920-the nationalization of industry and trade, ending of the market, issuing of goods-formed part of an attempt to find a radical alternative to capitalism.
Jeremy Tranmer
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265390
- eISBN:
- 9780191760440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265390.003.0018
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Rock Against Racism was one of the most dynamic and innovative British social movements of the 1970s, bringing together music fans and left-wing activists in the struggle against the far-right ...
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Rock Against Racism was one of the most dynamic and innovative British social movements of the 1970s, bringing together music fans and left-wing activists in the struggle against the far-right National Front. This surprising alliance was forged by members of the Trotskyist International Socialists/Socialist Workers Party who had a long-standing interest in popular culture and championed punk as a form of working-class revolt. This attitude contrasted sharply with that of the significantly larger Communist Party of Great Britain, which tended to view mass culture as a development of American capitalism. Seeking to adopt the dominant social and cultural norms of the labour movement, communists were unable to relate to the subversive irreverence of punk. Rock Against Racism disappeared in the very early 1980s but acted as a template for future attempts to link music and politics.Less
Rock Against Racism was one of the most dynamic and innovative British social movements of the 1970s, bringing together music fans and left-wing activists in the struggle against the far-right National Front. This surprising alliance was forged by members of the Trotskyist International Socialists/Socialist Workers Party who had a long-standing interest in popular culture and championed punk as a form of working-class revolt. This attitude contrasted sharply with that of the significantly larger Communist Party of Great Britain, which tended to view mass culture as a development of American capitalism. Seeking to adopt the dominant social and cultural norms of the labour movement, communists were unable to relate to the subversive irreverence of punk. Rock Against Racism disappeared in the very early 1980s but acted as a template for future attempts to link music and politics.
Kris Deschouwer
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199240562
- eISBN:
- 9780191600296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199240566.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Belgium and the Netherlands are often taken and presented together as the ‘Low Countries’, and there are good reasons for treating the two countries as part of a single category, since both are ...
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Belgium and the Netherlands are often taken and presented together as the ‘Low Countries’, and there are good reasons for treating the two countries as part of a single category, since both are textbook examples of divided societies, which display the subcultural vertical segmentation that has travelled conceptually as verzuiling (desegmentation or pillarization) and share the well‐known features of consociational democracy. Being neighbours, moreover, Belgium and the Netherlands share much common history, although the border separating the two countries is highly significant, and explains a number of important differences between them. In both countries, the major parties can be grouped into three party families: religious (Christian), liberal, and socialist, and in both there has been party change since the 1960s, in which the losers have been the Christian and Socialist parties, and the Liberals have gained support; however, specific patterns have been quite different. Most symptomatic of the passing of the old politics has been the formation of the so‐called ‘purple’ governments, which exclude Christian Democrats, but draw together the ‘red’ socialists and the ‘blue’ liberals. The introduction discusses these changes (including depillarization and the erosion of consociationalism), and the differences between the two countries; the next three sections cover the same topics as those in the other country case studies in the book, and examine party legitimacy (voter turnout, party membership, partisan identification, bridging the ‘gap’ between voters and office‐holders, and the Belgian legitimacy crisis), the strength of party organizations, and the systemic functionality of parties (in governance and recruitment, and linkage functions—participation, aggregation, and communication).Less
Belgium and the Netherlands are often taken and presented together as the ‘Low Countries’, and there are good reasons for treating the two countries as part of a single category, since both are textbook examples of divided societies, which display the subcultural vertical segmentation that has travelled conceptually as verzuiling (desegmentation or pillarization) and share the well‐known features of consociational democracy. Being neighbours, moreover, Belgium and the Netherlands share much common history, although the border separating the two countries is highly significant, and explains a number of important differences between them. In both countries, the major parties can be grouped into three party families: religious (Christian), liberal, and socialist, and in both there has been party change since the 1960s, in which the losers have been the Christian and Socialist parties, and the Liberals have gained support; however, specific patterns have been quite different. Most symptomatic of the passing of the old politics has been the formation of the so‐called ‘purple’ governments, which exclude Christian Democrats, but draw together the ‘red’ socialists and the ‘blue’ liberals. The introduction discusses these changes (including depillarization and the erosion of consociationalism), and the differences between the two countries; the next three sections cover the same topics as those in the other country case studies in the book, and examine party legitimacy (voter turnout, party membership, partisan identification, bridging the ‘gap’ between voters and office‐holders, and the Belgian legitimacy crisis), the strength of party organizations, and the systemic functionality of parties (in governance and recruitment, and linkage functions—participation, aggregation, and communication).
Michael Freeden
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294146
- eISBN:
- 9780191599323
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829414X.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The introductory part of this chapter discusses the internal tensions of socialism—on the basis of practical application, at the conceptual level (as conflicts in value), at the temporal level (as ...
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The introductory part of this chapter discusses the internal tensions of socialism—on the basis of practical application, at the conceptual level (as conflicts in value), at the temporal level (as the dualism of a world that ought to be and can be), and as an alternative social future based on largely untested hypotheses of human nature and associated social arrangements. It points out that socialism offers a permanent reminder that political theory emanates from practice, and that practice itself is an embodiment of conceptual structures, so it is less easy to draw up an agreed cluster of core socialist concepts. The eight sections of the chapter are: (a) Pre‐ and proto‐socialisms; (b) The socialist core; (c) History: the fifth core concept; (d) Socialism and democracy; (e) Socialism and power; (f) The ‘Socialist Clause’ and the state; (g) Class and property; and (h) The socialist periphery.Less
The introductory part of this chapter discusses the internal tensions of socialism—on the basis of practical application, at the conceptual level (as conflicts in value), at the temporal level (as the dualism of a world that ought to be and can be), and as an alternative social future based on largely untested hypotheses of human nature and associated social arrangements. It points out that socialism offers a permanent reminder that political theory emanates from practice, and that practice itself is an embodiment of conceptual structures, so it is less easy to draw up an agreed cluster of core socialist concepts. The eight sections of the chapter are: (a) Pre‐ and proto‐socialisms; (b) The socialist core; (c) History: the fifth core concept; (d) Socialism and democracy; (e) Socialism and power; (f) The ‘Socialist Clause’ and the state; (g) Class and property; and (h) The socialist periphery.
Leif Lewin
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198277255
- eISBN:
- 9780191599774
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198277253.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
According to the assumption of the public‐choice theory, politicians are guided by their self‐interest and vote maximization. By analysing studies based on theories of the political business cycle, ...
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According to the assumption of the public‐choice theory, politicians are guided by their self‐interest and vote maximization. By analysing studies based on theories of the political business cycle, Leif Lewin provides evidence of predominance of public interest over self‐interest in politics.The author then proceeds to analyse the electoral strategies of European socialists supporting this argument. The facts presented clearly indicate that the image of the politicians as primarily vote‐maximizers has little empirical support.Less
According to the assumption of the public‐choice theory, politicians are guided by their self‐interest and vote maximization. By analysing studies based on theories of the political business cycle, Leif Lewin provides evidence of predominance of public interest over self‐interest in politics.
The author then proceeds to analyse the electoral strategies of European socialists supporting this argument. The facts presented clearly indicate that the image of the politicians as primarily vote‐maximizers has little empirical support.
Serenella Sferza
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199246748
- eISBN:
- 9780191599385
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199246742.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Much of the literature on parties centres on decline and failure, but recently the decline hypothesis has come under attack on both empirical and theoretical grounds, and this has exposed major ...
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Much of the literature on parties centres on decline and failure, but recently the decline hypothesis has come under attack on both empirical and theoretical grounds, and this has exposed major shortcomings in dominant views (models) of party development, which mostly have offered an externalist view of party development and cast political parties as passive takers of their environment. This view of parties is markedly at odds with the considerable leeway attributed to other political actors and organizations, and whatever the solution to this impasse maybe, it clearly requires looking at party development not only from ‘without’, but also from ‘within’, in ways that capture the two‐ways link between intra‐party politics and resources and inter‐party competition; this perspective brings back not only intra‐party politics as a crucial political arena but also parties as central political actors. Explores this possibility by applying the emerging ‘new’ organizational approach to the trajectory of the French Socialist Party (SFIO, the Section Française de l’lnternationale Ouvrière, until 1971, PS afterwards), which, in the 1970s, staged a spectacular renaissance, and within a decade brought it from near extinction to power—although since then, policy and moral failures have dissipated much of this popular enthusiasm. However, the left's victory at the 1997 elections, the popularity of the current Socialist‐led government, and the weak challenge posed by new politics formations, suggest that much of the capital the PS accumulated in the previous decade remains in place. Provides an internalist account of the PSs jagged trajectory in four parts: the first summarizes externalist approaches to party development; the second analyses the trajectory of the PS over the last three decades in terms of the match and mismatch between party organization and the environment; the third looks at regional variations within this national pattern; and the fourth discusses the resilience of factionalism and draws the implications of this case for the study of political parties.Less
Much of the literature on parties centres on decline and failure, but recently the decline hypothesis has come under attack on both empirical and theoretical grounds, and this has exposed major shortcomings in dominant views (models) of party development, which mostly have offered an externalist view of party development and cast political parties as passive takers of their environment. This view of parties is markedly at odds with the considerable leeway attributed to other political actors and organizations, and whatever the solution to this impasse maybe, it clearly requires looking at party development not only from ‘without’, but also from ‘within’, in ways that capture the two‐ways link between intra‐party politics and resources and inter‐party competition; this perspective brings back not only intra‐party politics as a crucial political arena but also parties as central political actors. Explores this possibility by applying the emerging ‘new’ organizational approach to the trajectory of the French Socialist Party (SFIO, the Section Française de l’lnternationale Ouvrière, until 1971, PS afterwards), which, in the 1970s, staged a spectacular renaissance, and within a decade brought it from near extinction to power—although since then, policy and moral failures have dissipated much of this popular enthusiasm. However, the left's victory at the 1997 elections, the popularity of the current Socialist‐led government, and the weak challenge posed by new politics formations, suggest that much of the capital the PS accumulated in the previous decade remains in place. Provides an internalist account of the PSs jagged trajectory in four parts: the first summarizes externalist approaches to party development; the second analyses the trajectory of the PS over the last three decades in terms of the match and mismatch between party organization and the environment; the third looks at regional variations within this national pattern; and the fourth discusses the resilience of factionalism and draws the implications of this case for the study of political parties.
Karen Celis
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199242665
- eISBN:
- 9780191600258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199242666.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
It took 15 years and many debates before women's movement activists persuaded the Belgian politicians to liberalize the old abortion law dating from the Napoleonic Penal code of 1910. In this ...
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It took 15 years and many debates before women's movement activists persuaded the Belgian politicians to liberalize the old abortion law dating from the Napoleonic Penal code of 1910. In this ‘partyocracy’ the issue produced an unbridgeable division between the left‐wing socialists and the right‐wing Christian Democratic parties, finally bridged only when the Socialists worked out a compromise with the third party power—the Liberals. When the new law was finally passed in 1990, it authorized women's self‐determination regarding abortion with oversight from doctors in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. This movement success was not due to any involvement of women's policy agencies which, dominated by Christian Democrats, refused to push what the movement actors agreed was a top priority for women's status.Less
It took 15 years and many debates before women's movement activists persuaded the Belgian politicians to liberalize the old abortion law dating from the Napoleonic Penal code of 1910. In this ‘partyocracy’ the issue produced an unbridgeable division between the left‐wing socialists and the right‐wing Christian Democratic parties, finally bridged only when the Socialists worked out a compromise with the third party power—the Liberals. When the new law was finally passed in 1990, it authorized women's self‐determination regarding abortion with oversight from doctors in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. This movement success was not due to any involvement of women's policy agencies which, dominated by Christian Democrats, refused to push what the movement actors agreed was a top priority for women's status.
Magnus Feldmann
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199206483
- eISBN:
- 9780191709715
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206483.003.0012
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
This chapter studies the origins of varieties of capitalism in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. It develops a theory of network-promotion and network-disruption to explain the emergence of ...
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This chapter studies the origins of varieties of capitalism in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. It develops a theory of network-promotion and network-disruption to explain the emergence of LME and CME institutions. This theory is examined in the context of two countries in the region, Estonia and Slovenia, which are shown to be very good examples of liberal and coordinated market economies. This chapter focuses on industrial relations and wage bargaining in these two countries. It shows how inherited economic institutions and strategic policy choices in early transition have shaped networks and emerging varieties of capitalism.Less
This chapter studies the origins of varieties of capitalism in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. It develops a theory of network-promotion and network-disruption to explain the emergence of LME and CME institutions. This theory is examined in the context of two countries in the region, Estonia and Slovenia, which are shown to be very good examples of liberal and coordinated market economies. This chapter focuses on industrial relations and wage bargaining in these two countries. It shows how inherited economic institutions and strategic policy choices in early transition have shaped networks and emerging varieties of capitalism.
Celia Valiente
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199242665
- eISBN:
- 9780191600258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199242666.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
After the establishment of a democratic constitution in Spain, the Socialist government included abortion law reform on its agenda to modernize Spanish policy in line with other European democracies. ...
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After the establishment of a democratic constitution in Spain, the Socialist government included abortion law reform on its agenda to modernize Spanish policy in line with other European democracies. Facing intense opposition, the government allowed abortions only for ethical, eugenic, and therapeutic conditions. For the women's movement, abortion reform was a top priority, but activists were not heard directly, and had to settle for this moderate legalization. When the Ministry of Health sought to add further restrictions through a cumbersome set of committees and regulations, the women's movement had a women's policy agency inside the bureaucracy as an ally. The agency intervened to facilitate women's access to abortion services and thus helped the movement gain a successful response from the state.Less
After the establishment of a democratic constitution in Spain, the Socialist government included abortion law reform on its agenda to modernize Spanish policy in line with other European democracies. Facing intense opposition, the government allowed abortions only for ethical, eugenic, and therapeutic conditions. For the women's movement, abortion reform was a top priority, but activists were not heard directly, and had to settle for this moderate legalization. When the Ministry of Health sought to add further restrictions through a cumbersome set of committees and regulations, the women's movement had a women's policy agency inside the bureaucracy as an ally. The agency intervened to facilitate women's access to abortion services and thus helped the movement gain a successful response from the state.
