Socialism in Power (eBook)

Roland Boer is a professor in the School of Marxism, at Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China. Among numerous works on Marxism and philosophy, he has published the five-volume work, The Criticism of Heaven and Earth (2007-14). In 2014, it was awarded the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize. He has recently published Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Guide for Foreigners (Springer 2021), and Friedrich Engels and the Foundations of Socialist Governance (Springer 2021).

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This book examines the historical development-in practice and theory-of governance in socialist systems. With more than a century of such development from many parts of the world,  including the Soviet Union, China, and the DPRK (North Korea), it is possible to gain much from careful study of their political systems.But what is the nature of this socialist governance? It is abundantly clear that the type of governance in socialist countries had never before been seen in human history. How does this governance work? What was the political theory that arose from the practice? How did this type of governance develop over time and in light of specific conditions?These are the questions that Socialism in Power sets out to answer. It does so not by using methods developed for studying Western liberal nation-states, but by deploying Marxist-Leninist analysis. Not an abstract Marxism, but concrete Marxism, as it was applied and developed in light of the particular historical conditions of the countries in question.The book begins with careful analysis of the works of Marx and Engels, with a particular emphasis on Engels, who was crucial in establishing the basic principles of socialist governance. Next, the book focuses on the Soviet Union, which was the first country in human history to experience socialism in power. The rarely studied DPRK (North Korea) comes next, as a transition to East Asia, followed by a number of chapters on China, which arguably has the most developed form of socialist governance.