The ontology of socialism
By: Jadwiga Staniszkis ; edited and translated by Peggy Watson.
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1992
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 191
Subjects: Socialism -- Europe, Eastern -- History.; Europe, Eastern -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989.
Description: The Ontology of Socialism represents a highly original attempt to examine and define the essential nature of socialism as it existed in Eastern Europe prior to the events of 1989. The empirical material on which the book is based is drawn from a very wide range of sources, but primarily from the Polish experience. Jadwiga Staniszkis' analysis not only significantly advances our understanding of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe, but also provides an invaluable content within which to view current changes in the region. Dr Staniszkis deals with three pivotal paradoxes of the socialist system: the fact that it is a mode of production devoid of genuine economic interests; that it is a political structure where power is devoid of political content; and that it is a social structure devoid of civil society. She also analyses the contradictions of the colonial situation in Eastern Europe, with its two levels of dependency. This book's originality lies in its attempt to generate and use conceptual categories for the analysis of socialism which are not just adaptations of concepts which have been developed to analyse the capitalist system, since often these simply do not apply.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-179) and index.