| Synopsis: |
The revolutions in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and China's transition to a market economy, have thrown many Third World countries that proclaimed commitment to a socialist development path into crisis. This collection explores the nature of this crisis. It examines the recent experiences of radical and socialist regimes as they attempt to adjust to the new geopolitical and economic realities of the 1990s - the formerly Afro-Marxist states, the radical Arab regimes, as well as China, Vietman, Cuba and North Korea. It looks at why the Soviet economic model collapsed and at the important structural shifts that global capitalism went through in the 1980s. It asks if there is such a thing as a socialist development strategy and, if so, what it might comprise in a world where the Soviet statist model has been defeated but where poverty, inequality and exploitation grow ever more stark. The contributors include: Samir Amin, Nazih N. Ayubi, Christopher Clapham, Peter Cross, James Elliot, Andre Gunder Frank, Ankie Hoogveit, Adrian Leftwich, Kidane Mengisteab, Mustapha Kamal Pasha, Peter Nolan and Peter Utting. |