In Search of a Lost Idea

Recently our social thought—indeed, I dare say, social thought throughout the world—has been absorbed with the question of what is socialism. Did it exist? Does it exist, and indeed can it exist at all? An idea that until recently seemed to be not simply plausible, but a reality (fifteen countries with an aggregate population of 1.5 billion people, one of two superpowers and one of the two principal military-political alliances, Social Democratic governments in dozens of other countries of the world, very strong political parties, etc.), suddenly began to be doubted, and has become virtually eclipsed

Communism · Democracy · Development economics · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Positive economics · Socialism · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law