Suchergebnisse

The structure of East European societies as systems of dictatorship over needs. These societies are seen as anticapitalist formations. Factors essential to the selection & realization of socialist experiments are examined. The following principles are seen to constitute the ideological society of the dictatorship over needs: (1) the abolition of exploitation, (2) a rationality which regulates social life, & (3) the leading role of the planning elite. The basic features of a dictatorship over needs are analyzed: (A) the whole society becomes a conglomerate of wage laborers, (B) after the subjection of labor power by the planning elite, general human needs are authoritatively defined & structured, (C) workers are denied articulation of needs for freedom, & (D) any social objectifications must totally fit in the authoritative determination of the system of human needs. The central role of the market in cases of turbulence (reactions to inefficiency) & the creation of the pseudo-market in East European regimes are discussed. The effects of state paternalism are analyzed. A. Rubins.

Tens of thousands of books have been written about the Soviet Union–about its industry, agriculture, the political system, and its history. Even about prisons, concentration camps, and insane asylums there is a lot of literature. And yet, in talking with various persons in the West, I have realized how little is known here about Soviet life.