Open AccessREFLECTIONS ON WAGAR ' S WORLD PARTY
Author(s) -
Albert J. Bergesen
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of world-systems research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.219
H-Index - 2
ISSN - 1076-156X
DOI - 10.5195/jwsr.1996.74
Subject(s) - socialism , vanguard , politics , communism , vision , state socialism , political science , power (physics) , political economy , state (computer science) , sociology , law , history , capitalism , computer science , archaeology , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , anthropology
Our task is to reflect upon Wagar's idea of a world party. In case such reflections are affected by the recent historical situation of the collapse of communism/existing socialism in 1989 and the implications this has for visions of progressive politics going into the 21st century. This event colors most political thinking, although for many the response has been that existing socialism was not real socialism, or that existing socialism was but the Stalinist deformation that, if avoided in the future, the 1917 project could again be resumed and human history and social relations remade anew. I don't see it that way. What existing socialism stood for in terms of the role of a vanguard party taking state power for the larger good is, now after the fall, I think off the board as a realistic program that can be sold to anyone