Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives: Area Studies and Global Theories

In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. Two years later, the Soviet Union disintegrated. The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union discredited the idea of socialism for generations to come. It was seen as representing the final and irreversible victory of capitalism. This triumphant dominance was barely challenged until the 2008 financial crisis threw the Western world into a state of turmoil. Through analysis of post-Socialist Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as of the United Kingdom, China, and the United States, Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives confronts the difficulty we face in articulating alternatives to capitalism, socialism, and threatening populist regimes. Beginning with accounts of the impact of capitalism on countries left behind by the planned economies, the book moves on to consider how China has become a beacon of dynamic economic growth, aggressively expanding its global influence. The final section of the book poses alternatives to the ideological dominance of neoliberalism in the West.