The Legacy of Marxism Contemporary Challenges, Conflicts, and Developments

Marx's influence is evident in a range of often incompatible and contradictory political movements and intellectual approaches. With a number of those movements now discredited by the experience of 'really existing socialism', and the academic left gravitating towards approaches which eschew 'authoritarian', 'essentialist' and 'ethnocentric' elements of orthodox Marxism, the relevance of Marx has been called into question. Featuring chapters by Norman Geras, Joseph Femia, Alan Johnson, Paul Bowman, Ronaldo Munck, Lawrence Wilde, Mark Cowling, Chengyi Peng, Terrell Carver, Oliver Harrison and Stuart Sim, this book is an attempt to examine means by which the left can make real, substantive and positive contributions to contemporary debate. The collection examines such topics as: the meaning of Marxism and pluralism within the left; Marxism's scientific credentials; zizek, revolution, democracy and cultural studies; the politics of development; the relationship between Marxism and global capitalism; the global justice debate and Marx's rejection of moral discourse; the analysis of crime and criminal justice; Chinese society and constitutional diversity, and the relationship between Marxism and post-Marxism.

AcknowledgementsContributorsIntroduction Matthew JohnsonChapter 1: What does it mean to be a Marxist?Norman GerasChapter 2: An Image in a Curved Mirror: Pareto's Critique of Marxist ScienceJoseph V. FemiaChapter 3: Slavoj Žižek's Theory of Revolution: A CritiqueAlan JohnsonChapter 4: How to Not Read ŽižekPaul BowmanChapter 5: Marxism and Development: A Search for RelevanceRonaldo Munck Chapter 6: Progress, Anti-isms and Revolutionary Subjects: The Importance of Transcending LiberalismMatthew JohnsonChapter 7: Marx, Morality, and the Global Justice DebateLawrence WildeChapter 8: Can Marxism Make Sense of Crime?Mark CowlingChapter 9: Sinicized Marxist Constitutionalism: Its Emergence, Contents, and ImplicationsAndrew (Chengyi) PengChapter 10: Varieties of Constitutionalism: A Response to ‘Sinicized Marxist Constitutionalism' by Chengyi (Andrew) Peng Terrell CarverChapter 11: ‘Revolutionary subjectivity in post-Marxist thought: the case of Laclau and Badiou'Oliver HarrisonChapter 12: ‘Post' or ‘Past'?: Does Post-Marxism Have Any Future?Stuart Sim