PREVIEW

Alienation and the Soviet Economy: The Collapse of the Socialist Era (Book/ Hardcover)

Product Overview

We live in momentous times. As the Soviet empire collapses before our eyes, perhaps still more stunning is the spectacle of formerly Marxist nations jettisoning central planning and embracing the market. It leaves many Western academics, who sympathized with the Marxist creed or apologized for socialist experiments, looking ridiculous.

One scholar, however, stands out as a notable exception. He is Paul Craig Roberts, a Research Fellow at The Independent Institute who today holds is Chairman of the Institute for Political Economy. When his major work, Alienation and the Soviet Economy, first appeared in 1971 it was virtually ignored or dismissed by most professional Sovietologists. Yet the cascade of current events has fully vindicated all its most controversial conclusions about Marxist theory and the Soviet economy.

The Independent Institute is therefore delighted to make this seminal book accessible again to the general public. This new edition of Alienation and the Soviet Economy also features a foreword by Aaron Wildavsky, the late Professor of Political Science of the University of California at Berkeley. In addition to this English edition, a Russian translation has been published in Moscow.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Alienation and Central Planning in Marx
Chapter 2: "War Communism" - Product of Marxian Ideas
Chapter 3: Polycentricity and Hierarchy
Chapter 4: The Polycentric Soviet Economy
Chapter 5: Oskar Lange’s Theory of Socialist Planning
Chapter 6: Speculative Excess as a Force in History

About the Author(s)

Paul Craig Roberts has had careers in scholarship and academia, journalism, public service, and business. He is chairman of The Institute for Political Economy. Dr. Roberts has held academic appointments at Virginia Tech, Tulane University, University of New Mexico, Stanford University where he was Senior Research Fellow in the Hoover Institution, George Mason University where he had a joint appointment as professor of economics and professor of business administration, and Georgetown University where he held the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy in the Center for Strategic and International Studies. President Reagan appointed Dr. Roberts Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and he was confirmed in office by the U.S. Senate. From 1975 to 1978, Dr. Roberts served on the congressional staff where he drafted the Kemp-Roth bill and played a leading role in developing bipartisan support for a supply-side economic policy. After leaving the Treasury, he served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Commerce.