Semester:
Offered:
Stephen A. Marglin (Department of Economics)
First-Year Seminar 73F 4 credits (fall term) Enrollment: Limited to 12
Does socialism have a future?
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the embrace of the market by China, and the definitive turn of the Western European Left towards accommodation with the existing capitalist order, socialism was consigned to the dustbin of history. Only to rise from the dead: according to a 2022 Pew Research poll, more young Americans have a favorable view of socialism (44 percent) than of capitalism (40 percent).
This seminar will address the future of socialism by interrogating its past. What is socialism? How has its meaning changed over time? Why did the reality of socialism, particularly in the Soviet Union, turn out so differently from its promise of abundance, harmony, and freedom? How does Marx’s vision of history figure into the socialist project? What assumptions about human beings underlie the conviction that socialism would constitute progress? What are the assumptions that suggest that socialism would be destructive? Are smaller scale cooperative enterprises feasible alternatives to capitalism?