From Paris Commune to Perestroika: State, Classes and Revolution

Marxism, much acclaimed by followers of Marx as a revolutionary philosophy and a scientific guide to action was attacked from time to time by critics from different angles. The study aims at analyzing the response of some eminent Marxist intellectuals of different Marxist schools of thought in the West to the stand taken by the critics of orthodox Marxist view of capitalist state. While reviewing the contributions of some important Marxism schools of thought, the book attempts to critically evaluate some of the recent Marxist interpretations of the post-War developments in capitalist, socialist and the Third World countries. Contemporary phenomena such as the dynamics of the state in the late capitalist societies, prospects of development in the Third World and the socialist content of the Russian ‘Perestroika’ and Chinese ‘modernisation’ have also come under scrutiny. A compulsory reading for all those who want to understand the Marxists’ response to the confusions created by the theories and practices of the ‘non-Marxists’ and the so-called ‘Marxists’.