Information Technology and Socialist Construction

Information Technology and Socialist Construction
Author: Daniel E. Saros
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2014-05-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317803191

The failure of command central planning in the twentieth century has led to a general disillusionment within the socialist movement worldwide. Some alternatives to capitalism have been proposed since the end of the Cold War, but none has offered an alternative form of economic calculation. This book explains how modern information technology may be used to implement a new method of economic calculation that could bring an end to capitalism and make socialism possible. In this book, the author critically examines a number of socialist proposals that have been put forward since the end of the Cold War. It is shown that although these proposals have many merits, their inability effectively to incorporate the benefits of information technology into their models has limited their ability to solve the problem of socialist construction. The final section of the book proposes an entirely new model of socialist development, based on a "needs profile" that makes it possible to convert the needs of large numbers of people into data that can be used as a guide for resource allocation. This analysis makes it possible to rethink and carefully specify the conditions necessary for the abolition of capital and consequently the requirements for socialist revolution and, ultimately, communist society. Information Technology and Socialist Construction will be of interest to students and scholars of political economy, the history of economic thought, labour economics and industrial economics.

Russia and the Long Transition from Capitalism to Socialism

Russia and the Long Transition from Capitalism to Socialism
Author: Samir Amin
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2016-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1583676031

Out of early twentieth-century Russia came the world’s first significant effort to build a modern revolutionary society. According to Marxist economist Samir Amin, the great upheaval that once produced the Soviet Union has also produced a movement away from capitalism – a long transition that continues even today. In seven concise, provocative chapters, Amin deftly examines the trajectory of Russian capitalism, the Bolshevik Revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the possible future of Russia – and, by extension, the future of socialism itself. Amin manages to combine an analysis of class struggle with geopolitics – each crucial to understanding Russia’s singular and complex political history. He first looks at the development (or lack thereof) of Russian capitalism. He sees Russia’s geopolitical isolation as the reason its capitalist empire developed so differently from Western Europe, and the reason for Russia’s perceived “backwardness.” Yet Russia’s unique capitalism proved to be the rich soil in which the Bolsheviks were able to take power, and Amin covers the rise and fall of the revolutionary Soviet system. Finally, in a powerful chapter on Ukraine and the rise of global fascism, Amin lays out the conditions necessary for Russia to recreate itself, and perhaps again move down the long road to socialism. Samir Amin’s great achievement in this book is not only to explain Russia’s historical tragedies and triumphs, but also to temper our hopes for a quick end to an increasingly insufferable capitalism. This book offers a cornucopia of food for thought, as well as an enlightening means to transcend reductionist arguments about “revolution” so common on the left. Samir Amin’s book – and the actions that could spring from it – are more necessary than ever, if the world is to avoid the barbarism toward which capitalism is hurling humanity.

Lost in Transition

Lost in Transition
Author: Kristen Ghodsee
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2011-09-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0822351021

Through ethnographic essays and short stories based on her experiences in Eastern Europe between 1989 and 2009, Kristen Ghodsee explains why many Eastern Europeans are nostalgic for the communist past.

Ambiguous Transitions

Ambiguous Transitions
Author: Jill Massino
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2019-07-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785335995

Focusing on youth, family, work, and consumption, Ambiguous Transitions analyzes the interplay between gender and citizenship postwar Romania. By juxtaposing official sources with oral histories and socialist policies with everyday practices, Jill Massino illuminates the gendered dimensions of socialist modernization and its complex effects on women’s roles, relationships, and identities. Analyzing women as subjects and agents, the book examines how they negotiated the challenges that arose as Romanian society modernized, even as it clung to traditional ideas about gender. Massino concludes by exploring the ambiguities of postsocialism, highlighting how the legacies of the past have shaped politics and women’s lived experiences since 1989.

Socialism, Capitalism, Transformation

Socialism, Capitalism, Transformation
Author: Leszek Balcerowicz
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 1995-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 963386495X

This volume gathers together essays on the theme of economic transition in Central and Eastern Europe, written by the former Polish Minister of Finance. In it, the author summarizes the research on institutions, institutional change and human behaviour that he has undertaken since the late 1970s. He addresses such issues as the socialist market economy, reformability of the Soviet-type economic system, democratization and market-orientated reform in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Polish model of economic reform.

Building a Trustworthy State in Post-Socialist Transition

Building a Trustworthy State in Post-Socialist Transition
Author: J. Kornai
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2015-12-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1403981108

Building a Trustworthy State in Post-Socialist Transition considers the problems and prospects for creating trustworthy and reliable public institutions in the aftermath of the transition from socialism in Central and Eastern Europe. The volume draws on the experience of those who have lived through and studied the transition and contrasts their insights with those of generalist scholars who study government accountability and democracy. The contributions originated in the Collegium Budapest project on Honesty and Trust: Theory and Experience in the Light of the Post-Socialist Transition, organized by János Kornai and Susan Rose-Ackerman. A second volume entitled, Creating Social Trust in Post-Socialist Transition , is being published simultaneously.