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  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Democracy against Capitalism
  • Cited by 399
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
October 2009
Print publication year:
1995
Online ISBN:
9780511558344
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511558344
Subjects:
Political Theory, Politics and International Relations, Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Information

Book description

Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that with the collapse of Communism the theoretical project of Marxism and its critique of capitalism is more timely and important than ever. Current intellectual fashions of the left which emphasise 'post-modern' fragmentation, 'difference', contingency and the 'politics of identity' can barely accommodate the idea of capitalism, let alone subject the capitalist system to critique. In this book she sets out to renew the critical programme of historical materialism by redefining its basic concepts and its theory of history in original and imaginative ways, using them to identify the specificity of capitalism as a system of social relations and political power. She goes on to explore the concept of democracy in both the ancient and modern world, examining the concept's relation to capitalism, and raising questions about how democracy might go beyond the limits imposed on it by capitalism.

Reviews

"...a provocative, much needed, and timely intervention. It will invigorate and arm those who wish to argue against the dead end of the politics of difference and reassert the centrality of class theory and politics." Contemporary Sociology

"Wood stakes out a strong and clear perspective here. It is an important one and should receive a wide hearing." Michael A. Principe, Canadian Philosophical Reviews

"This relevant anthology will be read with interest by any philosopher interested in social theory." Ethics

"...a terrific book that deserves to become a classic of our political tendency....Wood provides a brilliant explication and defense of the key theoretical concepts relevant to socialism...." Against the Current

"This book deserves to be read by more than social theorists and followers of contemporary marxist debate. Wood engages in a critique of capitalism not despite the apparent triumph of captalism but because of it." John P. Burke, Research in Philosophy and Technology

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