The Democratic State: Critique of Bourgeois Sovereignty

Table of contents

Overview

 People with such a devout attitude toward the state, garnished or not with "critical reflections" or "background information," will no doubt consider a book that sets forth nothing but the purpose and reason for the "modern" state as too limited, or simply to "abstract and theoretical." For instance:
 
 

• that the state guarantees freedom and equality because this is the way it takes account of its citizens free will, but very conditionally;

 

 

• that law and order are not for preventing violence;

 

 

• that welfare measures are aimed at the expedient functioning of a certain class, and are by no means concessions to the majority, nor acts of charity;

 

 

• that the democratic competition for political power guarantees the freedom of this power from all the material interests of the electorate; i.e., has nothing at all to do with the exercise of this power being dependent on the people or their interests; and

 

 

• that there is a role for the people to play, namely, to be the available human material for the "objective constraints" or "unavoidable necessities" of domestic and foreign policy.

 

 

Is Communism Really Dead?

Overview

• that politicians of the former East Bloc "gave up" something they never had in the first place;

 

 

• that opting for the more successful system hardly means more success is in store for its inhabitants; and

 

 

• that in fact, the reasons why "communism is dead" are all damn good reasons for communism these days.

 

 

Table of contents

• The good news
• The bad news
• Conditional socialism: "Only if..."
• The necessity of communism

From 1917 to Perestroika
The Victory of Morality over Socialism

Overview

 This book gives refreshingly new answers to these questions and others. Here is the theory and practice of socialism in the Soviet Union, including a special chapter on Stalin.
 
 

Table of Contents

1. Glasnost and Perestroika: Instead of materialistic criticism of the system just another moral campaign
1. How to correct an unplannable brand of planned economy
2. Complaints as an economic resource
3. A stimulus to production in higher spheres
4. Planning with levers: A review of the principles of the Soviet economy
2. Instead of world revolution: Peace-promoting interference in the business of imperialism
1. Cultivating hopeful relations with the enemy
2. Promoting socialism on the imperialist market
3. Supporting world communism to death
3. Stalin - Who was that man?
1. Father of the Soviet economic miracle
2. Inventor of the personality cult
3. Grandfather of Eurocommunism
4. Soviet socialism and democracy: A little comparison of the systems
1. Personality cult as a question of voters' taste vs. impersonal respect of power
2. "Political responsibility" as serving objective restraints vs. serving the people
3. "Political morality" as a consolation vs. a solicitation

The U.S.A. - World Power Number One
Dissenting Views on Imperialism

Overview

 This book shows how the United States managed to become the capitalistic world power number one. It examines the instruments of the "world economy" staged by the U.S. in the post-war period: the dollar, the International Monetary Fund, the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Some mistaken notions about the universal currency are refuted. The book analyzes the logic of strategic planning with the "absolute" weapon, and explains what the "defeat" in Vietnam really was. Finally, this book illustrates how U.S. imperialism is reflected in the American intellect and psyche.
 
 

• On the Wild West: "... bourgeois society was able to establish itself so flawlessly in America because it was spared some expensive detours ... it was the imperialism at home that laid the foundation for the most powerful power in the world."

 

 

• On American sovereignty in the world: "The secret of the United States of America is to be found in its happy combination of business and violence."

 

 

• On Nicaragua: "The crime the Sandinistas have committed is their refusal to continue unconditionally serving American interests and that they might therefore possibly ally with enemy number one."

Table of Contents

1. World Power Number One
1. How the Wild West Became a World Power
2. Democratic Home Life
3. American Sovereignty in the World
2. IMF, GATT or the "World Economic System"
1. After the War
2. Crediting the Free World and Opening up World Trade
3. Dependency on the Dollar
4. Recapitulation: Money in an Imperialist World
3. The U.S.A. as a Military Power
1. America's Military Sovereignty
2. The Logic of War in the Atomic Age
3. The Russian Position
4. The New Offensive
4. Fighting Un-American Activities in Vietnam and Elsewhere
1. The Vietnam War
2. No Second Vietnam in Nicaragua - America's Back Yard is Everywhere
5. American Culture
1. American Food, Morality and Science
2. The Social Sciences, One by One
3. Individuality in America