Democracy Versus Communism


Book Description

This is a new release of the original 1961 edition.




Communism and Democracy


Book Description




Communism's Shadow


Book Description

It has long been assumed that the historical legacy of Soviet Communism would have an important effect on post-communist states. However, prior research has focused primarily on the institutional legacy of communism. Communism's Shadow instead turns the focus to the individuals who inhabit post-communist countries, presenting a rigorous assessment of the legacy of communism on political attitudes. Post-communist citizens hold political, economic, and social opinions that consistently differ from individuals in other countries. Grigore Pop-Eleches and Joshua Tucker introduce two distinct frameworks to explain these differences, the first of which focuses on the effects of living in a post-communist country, and the second on living through communism. Drawing on large-scale research encompassing post-communist states and other countries around the globe, the authors demonstrate that living through communism has a clear, consistent influence on why citizens in post-communist countries are, on average, less supportive of democracy and markets and more supportive of state-provided social welfare. The longer citizens have lived through communism, especially as adults, the greater their support for beliefs associated with communist ideology—the one exception being opinions regarding gender equality. A thorough and nuanced examination of communist legacies' lasting influence on public opinion, Communism's Shadow highlights the ways in which political beliefs can outlast institutional regimes.




Crimes of Democracy Versus Crimes of Communism


Book Description

The book presents data (112 graphs) from the real experiment of socialism versus capitalism in Slovakia, the former socialist countries and in the world. From the data it presents evidence of the crimes of democracy, which are several times higher than the crimes of communism. It discusses the rules of global capitalistic democracy leading to high inequality, modern democratic serfdom and the crimes of democracy, which are based on the rules of the capitalistic democracy coupled with unlimited private property. It describes the costs of the transition from socialism to capitalism, from "totalitarianism" to democracy across the whole region, highlights the dramatic and widespread deterioration of human rights and security, where democracy is killing people several times more efficiently than Stalin's execution guards. It presents evidence of the astonishing power of recent totalitarian neo-liberal capitalistic democracy. It presents evidence that policies of some democratically elected governments produced significantly more criminal military interventions, significantly more innocent deaths and committed more severe crimes against humanity than totalitarian communism. That it is not possible, under the recent democratic rules, to punish democratically elected governments for well-known crimes against humanity and violation of international law. Democracy in the capitalistic system cannot work and is not working properly because the recent democracy is based on unlimited private property. The freedom of expression is incompatible with unlimited private property. Capitalistic democracy means that the owners of the unlimited property have power to govern through the democratically elected representatives over democracy.




Communism: A Very Short Introduction


Book Description

The collapse of communism was one of the most defining moments of the twentieth century. This Very Short Introduction examines the history behind the political, economic, and social structures of communism as an ideology.




Celebrate People's History!


Book Description

The best way to learn history is to visualize it! Since 1998, Josh MacPhee has commissioned and produced over one hundred posters by over eighty artists that pay tribute to revolution, racial justice, women's rights, queer liberation, labor struggles, and creative activism and organizing. Celebrate People's History! presents these essential moments—acts of resistance and great events in an often hidden history of human and civil rights struggles—as a visual tour through decades and across continents, from the perspective of some of the most interesting and socially engaged artists working today. Celebrate People's History includes artwork by Cristy Road, Swoon, Nicole Schulman, Christopher Cardinale, Sabrina Jones, Eric Drooker, Klutch, Carrie Moyer, Laura Whitehorn, Dan Berger, Ricardo Levins Morales, Chris Stain, and more.




‘True Democracy’ as a Prelude to Communism


Book Description

This book constitutes a critical intervention in the theoretical discussion over the political relationship between democracy and communism. Shedding light on the philosophical origins of the democracy debate, it draws a clear demarcation line between liberalism and republicanism, arguing that after rejecting the former and supporting the latter, the young Marx endorsed 'true democracy' as a prelude to his forthcoming theory of communism. To this end, while following the dynamics of the Marxian history of political ideas and pre-communist theory of the state, the book takes into account the thought of a vast range of philosophers and political theorists, starting from the Ancient times (Aristotle), passing through the Age of Enlightenment (Spinoza, Rousseau), the German Idealist tradition (Hegel) the Young Hegelians’ Republicanism (Bauer, Ruge, Feuerbach), and reaching our own times (Arendt, Colletti, MacPherson, Castoriadis, Poulantzas). It will be of interest to students and scholars interested in the history of political thought, theories of democracy, and Marxism.




The People Vs. Democracy


Book Description

Uiteenzetting over de opkomst van het populisme en het gevaar daarvan voor de democratie.




Communism and the Emergence of Democracy


Book Description

Before democracy becomes an institutionalised form of political authority, the rupture with authoritarian forms of power causes deep uncertainty about power and outcomes. This book connects the study of democratisation in eastern Europe and Russia to the emergence and crisis of communism. Wydra argues that the communist past is not simply a legacy but needs to be seen as a social organism in gestation, where critical events produce new expectations, memories and symbols that influence meanings of democracy. By examining a series of pivotal historical events, he shows that democratisation is not just a matter of institutional design, but rather a matter of consciousness and leadership under conditions of extreme and traumatic incivility. Rather than adopting the opposition between non-democratic and democratic, Wydra argues that the communist experience must be central to the study of the emergence and nature of democracy in (post-) communist countries.




Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World


Book Description

Examines in depth three waves of democratic change that took place in eleven different former Communist nations.