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Marx for a Post Communist Era: On Poverty, Corruption and Banality (Ideas)

Marx for a Post Communist Era: On Poverty, Corruption and Banality (Ideas)

by StefanSullivan (Author)

  • New

    Paperback 2001

    $31.03
Synopsis

Was Marxism a variety of German Idealist self-actualization in economic form? A deeply flawed blueprint for social engineering? A catechism for post-colonial insurgencies? the intellectual foundations of modern social democracy? In this wide ranging summation, Sullivan tackles the multi-tentacled reach of Marx's legacy, and explores both the limits and the lasting significance of his ideas.

Structured around three obstacles to freedom - poverty, corruption and banality - the work engages both Marx and his critics in addressing unresolved issues of the current social and political order. As such, the work, after two introductory chapters, leaves behind Marxology and its familiar cast of characters (Bernstein, Kautsky, Adorno, Lukacs, Fanon, Horkheimer, Marcuse, etc.) to address both neo-Marxist and non-Marxist interpretations of these obstacles. These include growth-led poverty alleviation, human capital theory, current debates on rent-seeking and public choice theory, weaknesses in Frankfurt School approaches to mass culture, and emerging trends in cyberspace and leisure consumption.

Marx for a Post-Communist Era is credited as a foundational theoretical source in a wide range of contemporary studies. Some examples include a government-sponsored anti-corruption report in Peru, a study of neoliberalism and education reform in the UK, and an urban planning essay on museum spaces and the public good.

$31.03

Quantity

5 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 208
 Edition: 1
 Publisher: Routledge
Published: 20 Dec 2001
ISBN 10: 0415201934
ISBN 13: 9780415201933

Media Reviews
Possibly the most stigmatized thinker in the west, Marx has been distorted or co-opted by friends and foes alike. In a sober journalistic style, Stefan Sullivan's Marx for a Post-Communist Era reinvigorates a Marxist critique tarnished by esoteric scholasticism, party sloganeering and simplistic refutations.
-John Huntington, Politics and Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse, Washington D.C.
Sullivan's clear and lucid retelling of the cultural origins and history of Marxism and economic theory is unparalleled.
-C. Jason Smith Reconstruction
Sullivan's book is invigorating: readable and relevant in telling detail, it dissects the economic, political and cultural consequences of a world society driven by profit and greed. A marvelously humane and hopeful critique of the dominant ideology.
-Prof. David McLellan, University of Kent
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, most scholars and policymakers embraced an end of history euphoria - in short, now that the USSR was dead, all the world would increasingly adopt Western forms of political and economic governance (free markets and elections). And that was sufficient. Of course the events of the past few years, from the Crises in Asia and Russia to the attacks of September 11 have called this view into question. What first principles are there to help us move beyond the clichs and develop some sound analytical lenses? Stefan Sullivan, bucking all trends, builds a compelling argument about why Marx is still very important to understand current issues in international political economy and culture. Revisiting is not to say that the USSR will be back, but rather it is to appreciate what insights we find in the writingsof one of the most important social theorists of the modern era.
-Prof. Gerald McDermott, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania
Author Bio
Stefan Sullivan has authored numerous articles on international affairs and one novel, The Final Slum, which won a Discovery Award at the 2001 Hollywood Film Festival. In 1994, he received his PhD in political philosophy from Oxford University with a dissertation on Hegel and Marx. He lives in Washington D.C.