Description
This book investigates notions of the individual, society, the state, economic relations and historical change that exist in the political left by drawing on contemporary philosophical, political and social thought. Using a discourse perspective, this work brings together the many fractious strains in the left, including social democracy, anarchism, communism and market socialism, and discusses them in terms of their relationships with each other. Not only does the study disentangle the left from liberal capitalism and progressive movements—such as those against racism and inequality—it sees the current left as intertwined with its history and its visions of the future.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.- 2. What We Mean When We Talk About Capitalism and the Left.- 3. Explorations in Discourse.- 4. The Question of Change.- 5. Listening to History.- 6. Institutions and -Isms to 1900.- 7. A Left Comes into Its Own, 1900-1950.- 8. Beyond Social Democracy.- 9. The Left Makes History, 1950-1975.- 10. The Left in Retreat.-11. Current Affairs.- 12. Populism.- 13. Social Democracy and Market Socialism.- 14. An Anarchist Prospectus, Communism Revisited, a Dash of Populism.
