Socialism: An Analysis of Its Past and Future

In this short, but rich piece of work, Erzsebet Szalai offers a neo-socialist alternative to socialism and neo-capitalism. Drawing upon the rich tradition of left-wing Hungarian Social Science, she offers her own theory of transitional society, suggesting that socialism was not an independent formation, but instead a society in transition. She relocates Soviet-type societies on the semi-periphery of the capitalist world system. In addition she offers a critique of capitalism that pivots on the two connected issues of over production and ecological crisis. She makes the distinction between an anti-globalism critique and a globalization critique, locating herself in the latter. This work offers reader the opportunity to engage in a critique of capitalism that is organized along a new understanding of socialism itself.