Marxism, Socialism

A review essay on books by: Georges Labica, Gerard Bensussan, & Wolfgang Fritz Haug (Eds), Kritisches Worterbuch des Marxismus ([Critical Dictionary of Marxism] Berlin: Argument, 1983-1989); Walter Euchner (Ed), Klassiker des Sozialismus. Bd. I: Von Babeuf bis Plechanow, Bd. 2: Van Jares bis Herbert Marcuse ([Classics of Socialism: Vol. 1. From Babeuf to Plekhanov, Vol. 2. From Jares to Herbert Marcuse] Munchen: C.H. Beck, 1991); Raul Rojas, Das unvollendete Projekt. Zur Entstehungsgeschichte von Marx' Kapital ([The Uncompleted Project. The Developmental History of Marx's Capital] Hamburg: Argument, 1989); & Johannes Busch-Wesslau, Der Marxismus und die Legitimation politischer Macht ([Marxism and the Legitimation of Political Power] Frankfurt/New York: Campus, 1990 [see listings in IRPS No. 72]). The question of whether we still need socialist literature is not so polemic as it would first seem. Few of the theories debated by sociologists, economists, & philosophers have had such an impact on change as Marxist & related socialist ideas. To say that the collapse of the USSR does not affect rational choice theory, communicative act theory, or constructivism would imply that these theories are divorced from reality. Marxist theory offers fresh perspectives in describing the recent changes in Eastern Europe through its emphasis on dialectics. In this light, a positive appraisal is offered of all four works. Labica's & Bensussan's dictionary explains 1,255 entries, 420 in detail. Euchner's anthology is distinguished by a heavy biographical emphasis on thirty-six authors. Rojas analyzes the theoretical problems posed by Karl Marx's death & its implications for the theory of rents & foreign currency exchange. Busch-Wesslau's contribution is a non-Marxist critique of Marxism, asking whether Marxism can function as an alternative to bourgeois social contract theory. M. Meeks