Class, Power and the State

Abstract

"The old order is dying but the new one cannot be born." Gramsci's somber aphorism beautifully describes the modern predicament. Yet it may have been an understatement. Few on the revolutionary left could have predicted then that the old order, capitalism, would, without in the least solving either its internal crisis or its essential brutality, display such staying power. Nor was it widely expected that capital would derive such strength from the inability of the new order, socialism, to be born—or, to be more exact, its inability to develop in a manner worthy of its ideals—and the demoralization to which this has led.

This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.

Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.