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African Socialism represents the most comprehensive doctrinal and programmatic attempt to deal with the complex problems of the African continent. During the second decade of the second half of the twentieth century, in the effort to deal with those problems, African Socialism established itself as the ideological rationale for mass movements of solidarity in Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, Guinea, and Mali. Outside the immediate confines of these countries, the influence of African Socialism has been impressive. Even countries as traditionally conservative as Ethiopia and Liberia have had to acknowledge its existence and in some cases adopt at least its vocabulary.

Begins with a description of Western socialism, or social democracy, identifying three key features, or ambitions. This "participatory" socialism, marked by democracy, regulation, & welfare, is deemed conventional, but a "natural" & adverse tendency toward authoritarianism & hierarchy is also seen to operate. Attention is given to "socialism-in-the-making's" political/moral character & social location in the contested spaces of civil society. D. Edelman

RECENT HISTORY HAS NOT BEEN KIND TO THE IDEAS OF SOCIALISM AND TRADITION. THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION--"THE ONLY EXISTING SOCIALISM" ACCORDING TO SOME FRIENDS AND FOES ALIKE--SEEMS TO MAKE SOCIALISM AN OBVIOUS CANDIDATE FOR THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY. IT IS WITHIN THIS HISTORICAL MOMENT THAT PEOPLE ON THE LEFT, WHO IN THE PAST HAVE DEFINED THEMSELVES UNHESITATINGLY AS SOCIALISTS AND AS PART OF A SOCIALIST TRADITION, FACE THE QUESTION OF WHETHER THEY ARE MISGUIDED IN CLINGING TO THAT IDENTITY AND TRADITION.