The Future That Failed: Origins and Destinies of the Soviet Model

The Future that Failedattempts to apply theoretical debates on modernity to an analysis of the Communist experience. The most influential theories of modernity have rarely been applied to the problems of Soviet-type societies, even though recent events have highlighted the lack of a conceptual framework for the interpretation of this history. The author tries to show that a revised concept of totalitarianism can be used to clarify the distinctive characteristics of the Soviet model as a pattern of modernity, rather than to construct an alternative to modernization theory. The author develops this argument along four main themes: the historical sources of the Soviet model, its institutional core, the differences between its original version and later variants (with particular reference to China and Eastern Europe), and the combination of structural and historical factors which brought about its terminal crisis. The theoretical model used throughout focuses on the changing configurationsof economic, political and cultural patterns.