CARL BOGGS
  • HOME
  • BOOKS
    • FUGITIVE POLITICS: THE STRUGGLE FOR ECOLOGICAL SANITY
    • FACING CATASTROPHE: FOOD, POLITICS, AND THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS
    • FASCISM OLD AND NEW: AMERICAN POLITICS AT THE CROSSROADS
    • ORIGINS OF THE WARFARE STATE: WORLD WAR II AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS
    • DRUGS, POWER, AND POLITICS: NARCO WARS, BIG PHARMA, AND THE SUBVERSION OF DEMOCRACY
    • ECOLOGY AND REVOLUTION: GLOBAL CRISIS AND THE POLITICAL CHALLENGE
    • PHANTOM DEMOCRACY: CORPORATE INTERESTS AND POLITICAL POWER IN AMERICA
    • EMPIRE VERSUS DEMOCRACY: THE TRIUMPH OF CORPORATE AND MILITARY POWER
    • THE CRIMES OF EMPIRE: ROGUE SUPERPOWER AND WORLD DOMINATION
    • THE HOLLYWOOD WAR MACHINE: U.S. MILITARISM AND POPULAR CULTURE
    • IMPERIAL DELUSIONS: AMERICAN MILITARISM AND ENDLESS WAR
    • A WORLD IN CHAOS: SOCIAL CRISIS AND THE RISE OF POSTMODERN CINEMA
    • MASTERS OF WAR: MILITARISM AND BLOWBACK IN THE ERA OF AMERICAN EMPIRE
    • THE END OF POLITICS: CORPORATE POWER AND THE DECLINE OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE
    • THE SOCIALIST TRADITION: FROM CRISIS TO DECLINE
    • INTELLECTUALS AND THE CRISIS OF MODERNITY ​
    • SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND POLITICAL POWER: EMERGING FORMS OF RADICALISM IN THE WEST
    • THE TWO REVOLUTIONS: GRAMSCI AND THE DILEMMAS OF WESTERN MARXISM
    • THE IMPASSE OF EUROPEAN COMMUNISM
    • THE POLITICS OF EUROCOMMUNISM: SOCIALISM IN TRANSITION
    • GRAMSCI'S MARXISM
  • ARTICLES
    • COUNTERPUNCH
    • FAST CAPITALISM
    • NEW POLITICAL SCIENCE
    • DEMOCRACY AND NATURE
  • GUEST AUTHORS
    • PETER MCLAREN
  • BLOG
    • THE GREAT SOCIALIST MIRAGE
    • JANUARY SIXTH AS GODSEND
    • Bill MCKIBBEN, MARK BITTMAN, AND THE FOOD CATASTROPHE
    • THE TORN LEGACY OF FRANK WILKINSON
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT

BOOKS


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THE IMPASSE OF EUROPEAN COMMUNISM by Carl Boggs   

Westview Press, 1982
In this volume the author confronts a major historical dilemma for Socialist and Communist parties – how to work within the system of liberal capitalism, achieving some degree of success without abandoning their oppositional political identity.  The main focus here is the Italian Communist Party (PCI), the largest of all non-ruling such parties after World War II.  PCI leaders opting for a “democratic road to socialism” believed fundamental change could occur by means of parties utilizing existing political institutions and practices.  The conclusion reached by Boggs, based on thorough historical and political analysis, is that the “democratic road” strategy has failed dismally, producing deradicalization with extensive adaptation to the institutions and norms of liberal capitalism.

“In this pathbreaking book, Carl Boggs has subjected the postwar evolution of European Communist parties to deep critical scrutiny, revealing that the famous “democratic road to socialism” championed by many Marxist theorists is fraught with overwhelming pitfalls and contradictions, can easily lead in the end to political futility – a trajectory exemplified by the postwar Italian Communists.  One result has been a steady process of deradicalization that leaves the capitalist system fully intact.”     
                                                                                                          
John H. Kautsky                                                                                                                  
Department of Political Science                                                                                        
Washington University, St. Louis

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Contact Dr. Carl Boggs

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.” 
― Isaac Asimov
  • HOME
  • BOOKS
    • FUGITIVE POLITICS: THE STRUGGLE FOR ECOLOGICAL SANITY
    • FACING CATASTROPHE: FOOD, POLITICS, AND THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS
    • FASCISM OLD AND NEW: AMERICAN POLITICS AT THE CROSSROADS
    • ORIGINS OF THE WARFARE STATE: WORLD WAR II AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS
    • DRUGS, POWER, AND POLITICS: NARCO WARS, BIG PHARMA, AND THE SUBVERSION OF DEMOCRACY
    • ECOLOGY AND REVOLUTION: GLOBAL CRISIS AND THE POLITICAL CHALLENGE
    • PHANTOM DEMOCRACY: CORPORATE INTERESTS AND POLITICAL POWER IN AMERICA
    • EMPIRE VERSUS DEMOCRACY: THE TRIUMPH OF CORPORATE AND MILITARY POWER
    • THE CRIMES OF EMPIRE: ROGUE SUPERPOWER AND WORLD DOMINATION
    • THE HOLLYWOOD WAR MACHINE: U.S. MILITARISM AND POPULAR CULTURE
    • IMPERIAL DELUSIONS: AMERICAN MILITARISM AND ENDLESS WAR
    • A WORLD IN CHAOS: SOCIAL CRISIS AND THE RISE OF POSTMODERN CINEMA
    • MASTERS OF WAR: MILITARISM AND BLOWBACK IN THE ERA OF AMERICAN EMPIRE
    • THE END OF POLITICS: CORPORATE POWER AND THE DECLINE OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE
    • THE SOCIALIST TRADITION: FROM CRISIS TO DECLINE
    • INTELLECTUALS AND THE CRISIS OF MODERNITY ​
    • SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND POLITICAL POWER: EMERGING FORMS OF RADICALISM IN THE WEST
    • THE TWO REVOLUTIONS: GRAMSCI AND THE DILEMMAS OF WESTERN MARXISM
    • THE IMPASSE OF EUROPEAN COMMUNISM
    • THE POLITICS OF EUROCOMMUNISM: SOCIALISM IN TRANSITION
    • GRAMSCI'S MARXISM
  • ARTICLES
    • COUNTERPUNCH
    • FAST CAPITALISM
    • NEW POLITICAL SCIENCE
    • DEMOCRACY AND NATURE
  • GUEST AUTHORS
    • PETER MCLAREN
  • BLOG
    • THE GREAT SOCIALIST MIRAGE
    • JANUARY SIXTH AS GODSEND
    • Bill MCKIBBEN, MARK BITTMAN, AND THE FOOD CATASTROPHE
    • THE TORN LEGACY OF FRANK WILKINSON
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT