How can sincere support be given wholly to a political party unless it has clear principles underpinning its base? Such a question is of particular relevance when asked of the Labour party in view of the events which have shattered the foundations of socialism worldwide over the past decade. The author, who has considerable practical experience as a Labour party activist, sets out to re-establish the concept of socialism as a vision for the future. But the forward-looking views of New Socialism need to be very different from the old. The transformation of society over the past 60 years means that old doctrines have to be replaced by new if socialism is to be made attractive to the modern man or woman.

Impoverished, indebted, and underdeveloped at the close of World War II, Romania underwent dramatic changes as part of its transition to a centrally planned economy. As with the Soviet experience, it pursued a policy of “primitive socialist accumulation” whereby the state appropriated agricultural surplus and restricted workers’ consumption in support of industrial growth. Focusing on the daily operations of planning in the ethnically mixed city of Cluj from 1945 to 1955, this book argues that socialist accumulation was deeply contradictory: it not only inherited some of the classical tensions of capital accumulation, but also generated its own, which derived from the multivocal nature of the state socialist worker as a creator of value, as living labour, and as a subject of emancipatory politics.

This book states that the political systems of China, Vietnam, Cuba and other socialist countries are showing distinct maturity and ability to deal effectively with challenges – the most recent being the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to understand how they have developed their structures, it is time to return to the roots of the Marxist tradition and re-examine the question of socialist governance. It was Friedrich Engels (and less so Marx) who laid out some of the theoretical foundations for socialist governance. On the basis of extensive research in 1870s and 1880s, Engels developed his analysis of the nature of hitherto existing states as a ‘separated public power’; the role of the dictatorship of the proletariat and its exercise of power; the actual meaning of the ‘withering away of the state’, which would be one of the very last outcomes of socialist construction; and the nature of socialist governance itself. On this matter, he proposed a de-politicised public power that would stand in the midst of society and focus on managing the processes of production for the sake of the true interests of society.

David Miller makes a comprehensive analysis of an economy in which market mechanisms retain a central role, but in which capitalist patterns of ownership have been superceded. He provides a clear, coherent statement of the theoretical basis of market socialism, and justifies it as a viable political option.

"Readers of economic and political theory as well as students of economic planning will appreciate this classic, now available for the first time in English. Written eighty years ago, when Sorel became disillusioned with the official socialism of the German and French Marxist parties, this new translation presents Sorel's analysis of the rise and fall of the two great modern ideologies: socialism and liberal capitalism. At present, when the fate of both of these ideologies seems in doubt, Sorel's analysis remains particularly insightful and fresh. Sorel explains why they seem to have fallen into disrepute just as they succeeded in an almost total monopoly of power in the advanced industrial countries of the world.Sorel notes a striking parallel in the historical evolution of both bodies of thought: productivity was the foremost ideal when both movements were at their most dynamic and socially effective stage. On the other hand, they were at their most decadent state when they no longer separated themselves from politics and embraced the ideals of social unity. This work is an attack on the time-honored notion of community solidarity whose Platonic and Aristotelian versions find their contemporary counterparts in notions of natural sociability and political obligation. This work anticipates much of the thinking that lies behind Sorel's famous Reflections on Violence and clearly expresses the moral basis of that work, as well as present tendencies in normative and empirical political thought."