Dealing with topics and perspectives generally neglected by American sociologists, Hollander focuses on the nature of socialism and the reasons for Marxism's appeal among Western intellectuals. In his new introduction to updated essays, never before published in book form, he also addresses issues of enduring interest in both socialist and pluralistic societies. These include relationships between the private and the public, techniques of social and political control, the timeless tension between professed value and observed behavior, and the way systems struggle for a sense of purpose in the contemporary world.

Development is not a purely economic phenomenon; it also has a strong sociological element. The Many Faces of Socioeconomic Change explores how economic socio-cultural and political aspects of human progress have been studied since the time of Adam Smith. Surveying narratives of how development occurs, from early evolutionary models to recent types of development theory, it outlines the main long-term changes in how socioeconomic development has been envisaged through time. The Many Faces of Socioeconomic Change presents the argument that socioeconomic development emerged with the creation of grand evolutionary sequences of social progress that were the products of Enlightenment and mid-Victorian thinkers. By the middle of the twentieth century, when interest in accelerating development gave the topic a new impetus its scope narrowed to a set of economically based strategies. After 1960, however, faith in such strategies began to wane, in the face of indifferent results and a general faltering of confidence in economists' boasts of scientific expertise. In the twenty first century, development research is being pursued using research methods that generate disconnected results. As a result, it seems unlikely that any grand narrative will be created in the future and that Neo-liberalism will be the last of this particular kind of socioeconomic theory. With a broad scope of content and clear exposition of academic thinking this book guides the reader through the way in which the policy adopted as a consequence of modern theories has been less effective because of the neglect or a misunderstanding of the social context within which they operate.

Taking power in Nicaragua in 1979 as a revolutionary party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) was willing to put its fate in the hands of the Nicaraguan people twice, in 1984 and 1990. The party wrote a democratic constitution and then, remarkably, accepted the decision of the majority by relinquishing power upon its defeat in the 1990 election. The Many Faces of Sandinista Democracy explores the conflicts involving different visions of political and economic democracy, as well as new radical thought on participatory democracy. The latter addresses the problems popular organizations encountered as they moved from subservience to the FSLN in the 1980s to the liberating but disorientating electoral defeat of 1990. Up until the moment of defeat, the Sandinistas saw themselves as the true vanguard of the Nicaraguan people, able to submit themselves to free elections, because they felt they truly represented the general will of the people. Dr. Hoyt brings to an international audience for the first time a study of the ideas of several Nicaraguan thinkers. She examines the conflicts surrounding the development of ideas within the FSLN, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of its rare combination of democratic and vanguard principles.

This collection examines practical and ethical issues inherent in the application of oral history and memory studies to research about the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe since the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Case studies highlight the importance of ethical good practice, including the reflexive interrogation of the interviewer and researcher, and aspects of gender and national identity. Researchers use oral history to analyze present-day recollections of the Soviet past, thereby extending our understanding beyond archival records, official rhetoric and popular mythology. Oral history explores individual life stories, but this has sometimes resulted in rather incomplete, incoherent, inconsistent or illogical narratives. Oral history, therefore, presents the researcher with a number of methodological and ethical dilemmas, including the interpretation of "silence" in biographical accounts. This collection links the discussion of oral history ethics with that of memory studies. Memories are shaped by factors that may be, simultaneously, both consecutive and disrupted. In written accounts and responses to interview questions, respondents sometimes display nostalgia for the Soviet past, or, conversely, may seek to de-mythologize the realities of Soviet rule. Case studies explore what to do when interview subjects and memoirists consciously, sub-consciously or unconsciously "forget" aspects of their own past, or themselves seek to take control of the research process.

Die Geschichte von Menschen mit Behinderungen, die in den staatssozialistischen Gesellschaften lebten, ist bislang weitestgehend unerforscht. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes beheben dieses Desiderat. Sie bieten erstmals eine interdisziplinäre, internationale, systematische und vergleichende Perspektive auf Disability in den ehemaligen Ostblockstaaten, gehen dabei über den üblichen, begrenzten Fokus auf die UdSSR hinaus und bringen Disability mit anderen sozialen Kategorien – Ethnizität, Jugend, Geschlecht und Sexualität – ins Gespräch.

""Socialist Mindset"" explores the resurgence of socialist ideas in contemporary politics, examining their evolution and relevance in today's global landscape. The book delves into how socialist principles are being reimagined to address 21st-century challenges such as economic inequality, climate change, and automation. It traces the development of socialist thought from its 19th-century roots to its current manifestations, providing crucial context for understanding modern socialist perspectives. The book argues that socialist ideas are gaining traction in response to perceived failures of neoliberal capitalism. It examines how these principles are being applied in various political movements and policy proposals worldwide, from universal healthcare to free higher education. What sets this work apart is its focus on practical applications of socialist concepts within existing political and economic frameworks, rather than advocating for a complete system overhaul. Progressing from key concepts and historical context, the book explores economic models, social welfare systems, and environmental policies through a socialist lens. It draws on a wide range of evidence, including economic data and case studies, to evaluate the potential of socialist approaches in addressing contemporary issues. By balancing theoretical discussions with real-world examples, ""Socialist Mindset"" offers readers a comprehensive understanding of socialist thought in current political discourse.

After World War II, a new community of elite emerged in Hungary, in spite of the communist principles espoused by the government. In Luxury and the Ruling Elite in Socialist Hungary, György Majtényi allows us a peek inside their affluence. Majtényi exposes the lavish standard of living that the higher echelon enjoyed, complete with pools, Persian rugs, extravagant furniture, servants, and groundskeepers. They shopped in private stores stocked with expensive meats and tropical fruits just for them. They benefited from access to everything from books, telephone lines, and international travel to hunting grounds, soccer games, and even the choicest cemetery plots. But Majtényi also reveals the underbelly of such society, particularly how these privileges were used as a way of maintaining power, initiating or denying entry to party members, and strengthening the very hierarchies that communism promised to abolish. Taking readers on a fascinating and often surprising look inside the manor homes and vacation villas of wealthy post–World War II Hungarians, Majtényi offers fresh insight into the realities of patriarchy, loyalty, gender, and class within the communist regime.

The Optimum Imperative examines architecture’s multiple entanglements within the problematics of Socialist lifestyle in postwar Czechoslovakia. Situated in the period loosely bracketed by the signing of the Munich accords in 1938, which affected Czechoslovakia’s entrance into World War II, and the Warsaw Pact troops’ occupation of Prague in 1968, the book investigates three decades of Czech architecture, highlighting a diverse cast of protagonists. Key among them are the theorist and architect Karel Honzík and a small group of his colleagues in the Club for the Study of Consumption; the award-winning Czechoslovak Pavilion at the 1958 World Expo in Brussels; and SIAL, a group of architects from Liberec that emerged from the national network of Stavoprojekt offices during the reform years, only to be subsumed back into it in the wake of Czechoslovak normalization. This episodic approach enables a long view of the way that the project of constructing Socialism was made disciplinarily specific for architecture, through the constant interpretation of Socialist lifestyle, both as a narrative framework and as a historical goal. Without sanitizing history of its absurd contortions in discourse and in daily life, the book takes as its subject the complex and dynamic relationships between Cold War politics, state power, disciplinary legitimating narratives, and Czech architects’ optimism for Socialism. It proposes that these key dimensions of practicing architecture and building Socialism were intertwined, and even commensurate at times, through the framework of Socialist lifestyle.

First Published in 1985. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The startling revolutions of recent years have had as great an impact on Northeast Asia as on Eastern Europe. Gorbachev's cautious withdrawal of support for North Korea and his establishment of ties with South Korea have created a need for a new research agenda exploring how communism and capitalism in Asia can be successfully restructured or redirected in a new world order. Focused on systemic issues, this book is the first study to attempt a comprehensive analysis of social and economic development in modem Korea as a whole. As a homogeneous nation artificially divided by the competing ideologies of the Cold War, Korea provides a unique laboratory for comparing divergent development processes undertaken by conflicting social systems. Current theories of Third World development have advocated either capitalist models of modernization or have called for the establishment of self-reliant socialist economies cut off from the world capitalist system. While capitalist South Korea has consistently outperformed Communist North Korea since the mid-1970s, development has not yet brought a fully evolved West-em-style democracy in its wake. "Self-reliant" North Korea achieved successful growth during its first fifteen years, but has since been faced with numerous structural limitations on sustained development, including severe restrictions on political freedom and civil liberties. In the author's view, the experience of the two Koreas suggests that the solution to underdevelopment must be based on the realization that exclusionary theories need modification in the light of special historical and sociological circumstances peculiar to individual nations. This volume offers a valuable interpretation of modem Korean history and constitutes an important contribution to the comparative study of capitalism and communism in practice. It will be of particular interest to specialists in international relations and comparative political systems.