Competition In Socialist Society

This book explores how the concept of "competition", which is usually associated with market economies, operated under state socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, where the socialist system, based on command economic planning and state-centred control over society, was supposed to emphasise "co-operation", rather than competitive mechanisms. The book considers competition in a wider range of industries and social fields across the Soviet bloc, and shows how the gradual adoption and adaptation of Western practices led to the emergence of more open competitiveness in socialist society. The book includes discussion of the state’s view of competition, and focuses especially on how competition operated at the grassroots level. It covers politico-economic reforms and their impact, both overall and at the enterprise level; competition in the cultural sphere; and the huge effect of increasing competition on socialist ways of thinking.

"First Published in 1998, Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company."

Dr. Hoff's 1938 book and Professor Vaughn's important introduction establish the theoretical impossibility of socialism: a system empirically in ruins but still advocated by many.

Chattopadhyay convincingly shows that Marx's conception of socialism bears little resemblance to the single-party states often termed "socialist."

Taking Socialism Seriously raises essential questions about what socialism is and how socialists can reach it by addressing a long list of potential quandaries. The contributions compiled by Anatole Anton and Richard Schmitt describe how socialism differs from a reformed and more humane form of capitalism. Various chapters discuss suitable forms of love and family in a socialist society and economic arrangements within a socialist system. They also break important new paths by calling for significant social change, examining detailed questions that have previously been neglected and setting a new direction for radical theorists. Critics are often convinced that there is no alternative and therefore are content to reform capitalism. This book affirms that another world is possible.