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The Roots of Illiberal Nationalism in Romania: A Historical Institutionalist Analysis of the Leninist Legacy

Author(s): Cheng Chen / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2003

This article is a study of the dynamics behind “illiberal nationalism” in post-Leninist Romania. It seeks to provide a historical institutionalist explanation for the extent to which universalist liberal political principles have proven compatible with nationalist projects in post-Leninist Romania. The author’s hypothesis is that the “illiberal” character of nationalism in contemporary Romania can be traced back to the nation-building project adopted by the Leninist regime in Romania. This nation-building project sought to engineer the reconciliation between nationalism and the universalist ideology of Leninism in much the same way that nationalism and liberalism have been reconciled in the West. Paradoxically, the more successful this Leninist nation building was, the more difficult it would be for post-Leninist elites to define a liberal variant of nationalism, given how deeply Leninist principles became embedded or fused with the nation’s self-image. This counterintuitive logic partially accounts for the illiberal features of nationalism in post-Leninist Romania.

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NOTES TO A MARXIST PHENOMENOLOGY: THE BODY AND THE MACHINE IN ENGELS’ THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS IN ENGLAND

Author(s): Jon Stewart / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

In his The Condition of the Working Class in England, Friedrich Engels outlines systematically the miseries of the workers in England in the context of industrialization. A key to his argument concerns the interface between the human body and the machine. In this article I argue that Engels provides a kind of a phenomenology of the body in his analyses of the relation of the worker to the new machines. The limited secondary literature on Marxism and phenomenology has not been attentive to the detailed attention that is given to the body of the worker in this book.

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Pogledi na direktnu demokratiju i samoupravljanje iz perspektive časopisa Praxis

Author(s): Miloš V. Janković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 36/2021

The paper analyzes texts of Yugoslav authors to Praxis journal during the eleven years of production. It offers an overview of different views on direct (delegate, participatory) democracy and workers', or social, self-government. Based on different understandings of normative models of direct democracy and self-government, we identified four main lines of criticism that can be characterized as 1) statism, 2) insufficient democratization, 3) non-integrality of self-government and 4) market orientation. On the one hand, these criticisms complement each other, while on the other hand, they are set against each other.

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Scheming the Political Landscape: A New Communist Domain

Author(s): Yin Wang / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The paper analyses and interprets Western radical left-wing scholars’ view on communism from the three dimensions of Ego, Other and the World in the modern philosophical context. The purpose of the research is to compare and reconstruct the three scientific categories of relations represented by communism, namely, the logical dialectical relations of Ego domain, Other domain and the World domain. The theoretical reconstruction and contextual analysis of Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, as well as numerous researchers of their work are used. The methodological basis of this research is a philosophical reconstruction and deductive speculation, inductive speculation and insight speculation approach. It is shown that the radical left scholars reexamine the evolution of communism from three basic categories: imaginary domain, symbolic domain and real domain. Furthermore, they reconsider the construction of communism through the study of the interrelations among Ego, Other and the World. Simultaneously, they also excavate the structural contradiction of contemporary capitalism and criticise its deficiencies. The weaknesses of the argument about these relations are shown by reconstructing this upward spiral relations, which can be considered an ideal model of domain structure in ‘The Neo-Communist domain’. On the basis of this claim, it is shown that these three types of domain structures may well coexist at least in ideal society, thus mankind should adhere to Marx’s dialectical materialism to consider problems. The scientific significance of the research is justifying that the philosophical reconstruction does not only enrich Marxist communist ideology and is of great practical significance for Socialist countries to reshape the ideals and beliefs of Marxism, but also stick to the development of Marxism and to expand the research horizon of communism. Nevertheless, the communist thought of western radical left scholars still has the dilemma of separating theory from practice and failing to transform theoretical communism into combatant communism.

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Democracy and socialism before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall: An analysis of the interpretations of the intellectual and activist Francisco Weffort in Brazil

Author(s): Rafael Marchesan Tauil,Luciléia Aparecida Colombo,Terrell Carver / Language(s): English Issue: 69/2021

This article presents Francisco Weffort’s principal interpretations concerning socialism and democracy. The research was conducted taking in account his articles and books, written between 1979 and 1992. We argue that his thought about socialism and democracy, developed during his academic career later underpinned his participation in the central nucleus of the Workers' Party (PT), first as general secretary between 1983 and 1987 (before the fall of Berlin Wall) and after as the main coordinator of Lula’s presidential campaign in 1994 (after the fall of Berlin Wall). His theorizations were initially in tune with Western Marxism in Brazil, when a group of intellectuals tried to comprehend Marx writings from a scientific approach, trying to leave aside the Leninist political perspective, adopted by the Brazilian Communist Party. This perspective influenced the PT from its foundation in 1980 until the late 90’s. The Worker’s Party emerged proclaiming himself as a socialist revolutionary party, built by workers, trade unions, Catholic Church believers and intellectuals but not by politicians. The party arose as a new option for the Brazilian society, which were tired of old politicians. That is why the scientific approach (far from political perspectives) used to interpret Marx by this group of intellectuals was deeply connected with the party, which denied the importance of politics and had the revolutionary socialist horizon as target. After some time as a PT’s member in the late 1980s, Weffort started to privilege the role took by politics in his analysis and writings under the influence of Eurocommunism, through the reception of Gramsci in Brazil. This reception was responsible for an interpretative turn in his work, when he began to privilege democratic political ways instead of a revolutionary rupture as a path to be achieved in the Brazilian political horizon. Our hypothesis is sustained by the idea that the writings about democracy and socialism are deeply connected to the period before and after Berlin Wall and can be seen as an excellent portrait of the dilemma lived by many Brazilian (and worldwide) intellectuals, the paradox represented by the opposition of a socialist revolutionary scenario versus the democratic way.

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Intellectual Origins and the Evolution of Political Corectness – A Critical Perspective

Author(s): Victor Stoica / Language(s): English Issue: 69/2021

Today, the world is undergoing massive and very rapid changes. Following the conflicts that the West has gone through, especially in the last century, a new ideology has emerged, a postmodern one, inspired by the old ones, more precisely by Marxism and the theories of the Frankfurt school, namely cultural Marxism or cultural neo-Marxism. This ideology has no economic basis for its goal of changing and revolutionizing society, but a socio-cultural one, wanting to standardize cultures and ethnicities by eliminating any individual differences. The most powerful weapon of this current is political correctness or PC, a tool that aims to censor any opinions contrary to neo-Marxists, a tool that has come to have legal status in some Western countries such as Canada, Sweden, France and others. Based on postmodern elements, this current seeks to relativize any truth and to take advantage of the nihilism and anomies that have emerged in the societies in which it makes its presence known. Most often associated with the political "left", political correctness seeks to eliminate any contrary opinion, any opposition and automatically free speech and thus erodes the basis of democracy and the Enlightenment values that led to the formation of the West as we know it today.

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The Third Wave of Liberation Theology From the Catholic Enfant Terrible to Vehicle of Ecumenism, Interreligious and Social Dialog?

Author(s): Filip Krauze / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2021

The past decade has seen a radical shift in the Church’s stance toward liberation theology. At the same time, the complexity of its description has greatly increased. The issue has grown beyond South America and intra-ecclesiastical affairs. The multicultural and multireligious nature of liberation theology presents, on the one hand, a methodological difficulty and, on the other hand, an opportunity to look at faith and religion in different cultures and denominations through a new unifying key. According to the author, we are dealing with the “third wave” of liberation theology nowadays. Efforts are needed to utilize it more productive than the better known South American “infant terrible” of the Church.

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Eros, Thanatos, Platon i rat

Author(s): Emanuele Severino / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1-2/2022

Platon u Politei (Republici, Državi) zbori o ratu kao »najvišem umijeću«, naime kao jednom od specifičnih načina rada koji su mogući unutar organizacije »podjele rada« od koje se sastoji super-umijeće polisa.

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Shvaćanja demokracije u Političkoj misli: konsenzus kao poveznica samoupravne i inačica liberalne demokracije

Author(s): Tonči Kursar / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 03/2022

The author considers the concept of democracy in the articles published in the journal Politička misao (Political Thought). It seems that there are two fundamental concepts of democracy that have been analysed in the journal in almost sixty years of its activity: self-management democracy and liberal democracy. The author also takes into account different versions of liberal democracy which have been presented in the articles. Both main concepts of democracy are not treated as structurally different, but as quite similar. Namely, they share the idea that history should end with them, or that they are ‘the last political forms’ (Đorđević). Both have been developed as a kind of consensus democracy, which is explored in the text based on Rancière’s (and Badiou’s) thesis. As ‘consensus democracies’, they show significant selectivity considering the type of interests they promote as public interests. In the concept of self-management democracy, priority belongs to the working class, while versions of liberal democracy support ‘sociologicalized’ interests which are derived from what Rancière calls ‘redistribution of senses’. Thirdly, both concepts of democracy try, each in its own way, to dissolve the political into the social. The author believes that the actual variant of liberal democracy is post-democracy, which, although problematic in itself, still defends, as proven by the articles in Politička misao, the current (liberal) consensus. This consensus is defended as more pragmatic and realistic than its alternative, which would be mystical-revolutionary.

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Is language a system of signs? Lenin, Saussure and the theory of hieroglyphics

Author(s): Patrick Sériot / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

This paper strives to pursue two goals at the same time: how can one get to know in depth the intellectual life of the USSR in the 1930s–1950s; and, what can the virulent anti-Saussurean criticism in Russia at that time tell us about the specificity of the Marxist-Leninist theory of signs? We propose the following angle of attack: the recurring theme of this criticism, namely that Saussure’s Cours presents a “theory of hieroglyphics”, therefore a type of “bourgeois idealist” theory that Lenin assailed in his 1909 book Materialism and Empiriocriticism about Ernst Mach. Yet thinking about hieroglyphics is based on much older controversies, dating back to the 17th century and concerning the deciphering of Egyptian writing. The issue which arises here is semiotic in nature: it is the scalar opposition between transparency and opacity of the sign that is at stake. Does the sign hide or reveal? The Soviet discourse on language and signs in the 1930s–1950s seems to be based on an interrogation of the sign/referent, language/ thought, form/content relationship. A part of the history of semiotics can thus be discovered from the critique of the “hieroglyphic theory”, a little-known episode in a debate on the interpretation of Saussurism.

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Ferdinand de Saussure. USSR. 1950…

Author(s): Ekaterina Velmezova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

During the linguistic discussion organized in the Soviet newspaper Pravda in 1950, Ferdinand de Saussure was mentioned only a few times, but the corresponding references are important from the point of view of both the opinions about Saussure that were prevalent in Soviet linguistics before the discussion, and in light of its evolution afterwards. In 1950, both a supporter and an opponent of Marrist linguistics, Ivan Meschaninov and Arnold Chikobava respectively, unconditionally agreed on at least one thing: namely, that the theories of Saussure were, from their point(s) of view, unacceptable for “progressive” Soviet linguistics. This criticism of Saussure shows the significant shift made by Soviet humanities in the middle of the last century over the course of just a few years: in the late 1950s, it was the “revision” of the main theses of the criticism of Saussure that made possible the (relative) triumph of structuralism, which finally took place in the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

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Pregledne studije postmarksističke teorije

Author(s): Zvonimir Glavaš / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 3/2022

Iako nije sa sigurnošću utvrđeno tko je prvi uporabio pojam postmarksističkog u značenju makar približnom onom kako ga se danas razumijeva, uobičajeno se kao početna točka uzima 1985. i čuvena studija Laclaua i Mouffe Hegemonija i socijalistička strategija [Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, 1985]. No suprotno očekivanjima koje izaziva ta informacija što je u pravilu ponavljaju pregledne studije postmarksističke teorije, Laclau i Mouffe (2014: xxiv) postmarksizam ne spominju naročito naglašeno, navodeći tek u uvodu svoje knjige kako je vrijeme da sasvim jasno kažu da su »trenutno situirani na postmarksističkom terenu«, nakon čega ublažavaju tu tvrdnju pojašnjavajući da je njihov »intelektualni projekt u ovoj knjizi postmarksistički, ali evidentno i postmarksistički. « (isto) Potom su se 2001. u predgovoru sljedećeg izdanja iste knjige pak otvoreno ogradili od nastojanja da tom tvrdnjom uspostave neku novu teorijsku kategoriju, premda je istovremeno nisu ni odbacili (usp. Laclau, Mouffe: 2014: ix).

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Съвременният реализъм (коментар върху материал от изобразителните изкуства)

Author(s): Valentin Angelov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2022

Contemporary realism in fine arts corresponds to modernism and borrows expressive means and creative techniques from it. The difference between it and traditional realism (of Courbet, Repin, Vasnetsov, Mrkvička) is growing, and it is especially strongly manifested in the contemporary avant-garde, which has the ambition to separate and oppose the artistic tradition.

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Characteristic Features of the Chinese Marxism’s Formation: Key Philosophical and Socio-Political Foundations of Research

Author(s): Nataliia Yarmolitska,Katherine Gan / Language(s): English Issue: 18/2022

In this article, the authors analysed the history of the origin and formation of Marxism in China. An analysis of the main provisions of the philosophical and socio-political foundations of research is proposed. The authors conducted a study of the development process and the main contradictions in the formation of Chineseized Marxism and also tracked the impact it can have on the humanitarian development of modern Ukrainian society. For more detailed coverage of the formation of Chineseized Marxism, the authors conducted a historiographical study of current sources, as well as analysed the literature of the Soviet period, in which the primary attention was paid to the study of the figure of Mao Zedong as the «theoretician of the national revival of China» and the founder of Chineseized Marxism. The main narratives of Soviet studies regarding the «philosophical ideas of Mao Zedong», the «concept of movement and development», the «great leap» and the «cultural revolution» are analysed. In the course of the research, it was established that the vast majority of works of the Soviet period were aimed at criticizing Maoism for anti-communism and nationalism. It was also proved that «Chineseized Marxism» during the entire historical period of its formation did not have much in common with Marxist theory, but was based on the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, Western philosophy, using the teachings of traditional Chinese philosophy as a basis.

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Some accelerationist remarks on Marcuse’s drives theory and his dialectics of civilization

Author(s): Andrzej Karalus / Language(s): English Issue: 59/2022

Marcuse’s theory of civilization offers a promising Freud-Marx synthesis. His approach, best articulated in Eros and Civilization, aims at a thorough reformulation of the Freudian drive doctrine to render it more historical and concatenate it to the problem of structural violence and the institutionalized (and internalized) mechanism of repression. I claim that the said reformulation provides a cornerstone for Marcuse’s highly idiosyncratic variant of a critical theory, which, according to my interpretation, possesses clear proto-accelerationist undertones. The article offers a concise recapitulation of Marcuse’s “dialectics of civilization” and points at the somewhat surprising close convergences with the accelerationist version of postcapitalism in his reflection on politics, technology, and the role of arts and aesthetic imagination in challenging the affirmative (desublimating) character of culture.

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Čtvrtá průmyslová revoluce a koronavirová pandemie mění svět

Author(s): Petr Víšek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 4/2020

The changes underway as a result of the application of state-of-the-art technologies must be considered in the broader historical context and the serious long-term consequences that can be expected. While many hopes are associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there are also uncertainties. The nature of both work and labour relations will change, as will the roles of the state and local municipalities. It will lead to new life trajectories, for example it will be necessary to reconsider the concept of unemployment and to understand it as a period of preparation for a new profession and the protection of attained social status. This will impose entirely new demands on the social and education systems. Moreover, one must assume an increase in social polarisation and the risks associated with it. The dependence on modern technologies will also create new challenges and dangers. In this context, the coronavirus pandemic can be seen both as a brake and an accelerator.

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Karingasis ateizmas Lietuvos sovietiniame marksizme

Author(s): Gintaras Kabelka / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 112/2022

The paper deals with the methodological contradictions characterized by Marxist atheism principles in Soviet Lithuania: it is shown that the concept of militant atheistic propaganda in Stalinist period, which was understood as the ideological struggle against class enemies, was slowly displaced by the Marxist critique and historical researches concerning religion, as one of the phenomenon belonging to superstructure (i.e. ideology). The theoretical sources of these views are presented concisely. It is argued that the militant atheism (I. Zaksas, A. Gaidys, J. Mačiulis et al.) overestimates the principle of partisanship and epistemic roots of religion, denies any positive impact of religion on society and culture, focuses on practice of propaganda, and provides poor conceptual argumentation. The programmatic attempts to renew the principles of militant atheism are deliberated.

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Law, Values and State: The Fundaments of Derivation Theories

Author(s): Alexandre de Lima Castro Tranjan / Language(s): English Issue: 34/2022

This paper aims to discuss the material determinations of systems of law and values in contemporary societies. Sustained upon a combined analysis of Pashukanis and Althusser, we criticise the positivist theories of Kelsen and Hart due to the emptiness of what these latter postulate as the bedrock of legal systems. Norms are argued, contrarily to what positivist authors defended, to be a secondary aspect of law, essentially characterized by the relations it comprehends between legal subjects, that take place in an economy of production and exchange of value between formally free and equal subjects. Thus, legal subjectivity-form mirrors commodity form, for it is logically necessary for contracts to be celebrated from the will of the parties. Otherwise, the situation would be only of imposition by force. In the last section of the paper, the ideological origin of the will and the values shared among the people is discussed.

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Quo vadis neoliberalism: A carefrontation of Veblen, Keynes, and Marx

Author(s): Pınar KAHYA AYDIN / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Neoliberalism is still main reference point of economic thought in economics departments of universities and hegemonic ideology of policy makers although it comes in harsh criticisms for policy outcomes particularly deepening global inequality from wide range of scholars, journalists and even some policy networks especially after 2008-9 financial crisis. These criticisms are meaningful in terms of questioning neoliberal hegemony even so the motto of neoliberalism which is “there is no alternative” has not been responded as “nope, there is an alternative” yet at least as a counter hegemonic position for global political and economic system. The article sets out to formulate the need of going beyond criticisms and creating a reference toolbox kit to face with neoliberal hegemony. Is it possible to create an alternative method of thought in economics via eliminating deficiencies of particular schools of thought? In particular, is it possible to create a holistic response from different schools of non-mainstream economics focusing on neoliberalism as a concrete case for objection? The answer is yes. In this study, three different schools of economic thought, evolutionary institutionalism, Keynesianism and Marxism are mutually considered and the theoretical possibility of a holistic opposition in different levels is affirmed in a way of their stances in against neoliberalism.

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The Concept of Zhonghua in Modern Chinese Philosophy and its Cosmological Implications

Author(s): Sergii Rudenko / Language(s): English Issue: 30/2023

This article presents the results of a study of both Western and Far Eastern narratives of philosophical cosmology. The task of the study was to analyse the essential characteristics of philosophical cosmology in both Western and Far Eastern paradigms. This was made possible by clarifying the distinction between astronomy and cosmology, on the one hand, and philosophy and philosophical cosmology, on the other. The Greek word “??sµ??” is both etymologically and semantically different from the concept of “space.” If space has only one characteristic, it is an extension, and then the cosmos, being a phenomenon that is not static but dynamic, has internal forces and a movement towards self organisation and harmonisation. A person does not live in space, but in the world; such is the point of view of philosophical cosmology, which means that different cultures may have their own cosmology, which will need to be different. It is in this difference of philosophical cosmologies that the richness of philosophy is seen; by studying other cosmological worldviews, one can better understand one’s own. Scholars, including Weimin Sun, Robert Cummings Neville, and others, agree on the need to intensify interest in Chinese cosmology and its basic concepts. One such concept is Zhonghua. Modern Chinese philosophy is a combination of Marxist philosophy, traditional Chinese philosophy, and Western philosophy. One of the tasks of a modern researcher in China is to find possible points of contact, and common features in order to demonstrate the possible well-functioning cooperation of these currents. In addition, common features are found primarily in cosmology.

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