The State in Socialist Society

Description

Students of Communist regimes or those that style themselves socialist quickly become aware that the state formations which constitute a large part of their concern are different in kind from those of the non- socialist world. They are different in the scope of their powers and their degree of intervention into society and the economy. They are differently perceived by their citizens, and their rulers have different modes of justifying or legitimating their regimes. The relationship between the state and the individual, political parties, trade unions and other partial organisations is, clearly, quite different from that prevailing under Western liberal democracy. What this volume seeks to do is to bring some of these threads together, to give an account of the generic character of these state formations, and to notice at least some of their species differentiation. Its aim is to provide an extensive and varied picture both of Western and of indigenous theorising about the nature of the state, and as representative a coverage of the problems of its institutional development as is practicable within the confines of one volume.