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Analysis of the collapse of "real socialism"
As I'm going to write a term paper on Marxist theory of the state, I'm currently looking for writings and books dealing with this topic. However, I'm not well-read and I also haven't found a Marxist analysis of the collapse of real socialism yet. I do have some ideas but I would like to refer to already existing works. My aim is to argue that what Marxism says about the state is as relevant as it was before although "socialist states" are vanishing. Are there any books you can recommend?
There wasn't real socialism, but for an analysis of the collapse of the Soviet Union from the perspective that it did represent real socialism, check out Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny's Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union. In spite of my disagreements with it, it does make some sound arguments.
Perestroika: The complete collapse of revisionism by Harpal Brar
It doesn't really matter, if it was "real socialism" or something else, I appreciate every perspective. I just need to understand why those states didn't/couldn't "wither away".
It's not exactly a book, but the ICL-FI published its analysis of the collapse of the Soviet Union in at least three articles, "How the Soviet Workers' State was Strangled" by Seymour, "On the End of Stalinist Rule in Eastern Europe", also by Seymour, and "For a Marxist Clarity and Forward Perspective" by St. John. The first is available online, in a collection of articles on the Soviet Union, including some on the important issue of nationalisation. The rest you can probably get by writing to the ICL section nearest to you, which in this case would be SpAD in Germany I think. Or the Proletarian Platform in Poland.
The ICL also had a long analysis of their intervention in the situation in East Germany published, but I'm not sure if it was ever meant for external circulation (and I haven't read it).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miliba...lantzas_debate
I'm writing a short paper on that as well. I argue for the structural Marxist account of the state. Incidentally also wrote an article about this (in Dutch) in relation to Venezuela (http://communisme.nu/commentaar/2015...olivarianisme/ ). You can find some names associated with this James O'Connor, Poulantzas, Bob Jessop, and find some works you think are relevant by them I suppose.
As for analysis of the collapse of real socialism, The Marxian Concept of Capital and the Soviet Experience by Chattopadhyay is quite good in this regard. He looks at the collapse as having been caused by an absolute over-accumulation of capital. It applies to the Soviet Union but also to North Korea. A short summary:
http://marxistpedia.mwzip.com/wiki/S...nd_dissolution
http://marxistpedia.mwzip.com/wiki/N...ion_of_Capital
pew pew pew
