The Impossibility of Socialism: Part 1. Class Kaleidoscope

The Impossibility of Socialism:
Part 1. Class Kaleidoscope


Davydov D.A.

Cand. Sci. (Polit.), Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Philosophy and Law, Ural Branch of RAS, Yekaterinburg, Russia davydovdmitriy90@gmail.com

ID of the Article: 9920


For citation:

Davydov D.A. The Impossibility of Socialism: Part 1. Class Kaleidoscope. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2024. No 1. P. 125-135




Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of social and class contradictions in modern society. The author shows that, despite growing economic inequality in developed countries, the prospect for uniting all the exploited and oppressed in order to fight for socialist society, equality and justice is becoming increasingly vague. There are many grounds for asserting the impossibility of socialism (in the foreseeable future) and the high probability of a new antagonistic stage in the development of society. The first part argues for two of the article’s four theses: 1) the richer the society, the more disagreements and conflicts between representatives of the class of hired workers and those who express their interests, and not between capitalists and the proletariat; 2) the development of productive forces does not at all lead to an uprising of the exploited against the class of exploiters, but to the emergence of a large and influential social stratum of post-materialists, whose interests are contrary to the interests of a significant proportion of people who lack the means of subsistence.


Keywords
post-capitalism; socialism; communism; capitalism; class analysis; working class; postmaterialism; social inequal

References

Богаевская О., Журавлева В. Белый рабочий класс США как основа электората Трампа // Мировая экономика и международные отношения. 2021. Т. 65. № 11. С. 5–14. [Bogaevskaia O., Zhuravleva V. (2021) The White Working Class as Trump’s Electorate Base. Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia [World economy and international relations]. No. 11: 5–14. (In Russ.)]

Веблен Т. Теория праздного класса. М.: Прогресс, 1984. [Veblen T. (1984) The Theory of the Leisure Class. Moscow: Progress. (In Russ.)]

Давыдов Д.А. Когда правые левее левых. Аномалии левых дискурсов в эпоху расцвета постматериализма // Антиномии. 2023. Т. 23. № 1. С. 51–89. [Davydov D.A. (2023) When Rightists are to the Left of Leftists. Anomalies of Left-Wing Discourses in the Heyday of Post-Materialism. Antinomii [Antinomies]. No. 1: 51–89. (In Russ.)]

Коуп З. Разделенный мир. Разделенный класс. Глобальная политическая экономия и стратификация труда. М.: Common Place, 2022. [Cope Z. (2022) Divided World, Divided Class: Global Political Economy and the Stratification of Labour Under Capitalism. Moscow: Common Place. (In Russ.)]

Allinson J. et al. (2021) The Tragedy of the Worker: Towards the Proletarocene. New York: Verso.

Altamura C., Oliver B. (2022) Who Feels the Bern? An Analysis of Support for Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic Primary. American Politics Research. No. 5. URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1532673X221112390?journalCode=aprb#con2 (accessed 21.08.2023). DOI: 10.1177/1532673X221112390.

Borriello A., Jäger A. (2023) The Populist Moment: The Left After the Great Recession. New York: Verso.

Brand U., Wissen M. (2021) The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism. New York: Verso.

Crouch C. (2004) Post-Democracy. London: Polity.

Currid-Halkett E. (2017) The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Gest J. (2016) The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Inglehart R. (2018) Cultural Evolution: People’s Motivations are Changing, and Reshaping the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jones O. (2012) Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. New York: Verso.

Mason P. (2017) Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Norris P., Inglehart R. (2019) Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexi, and Authoritarian Populism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Piketty T. (2017) Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press.

Reed T.F. (2020) Toward Freedom: The Case against Race Reductionism, New York, Verso.

Richards J.W. (2018) The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines. New York: Forum Books.

Sanandaji T. (2020) Mass Challenge: The Socioeconomic Impact of Migration to a Scandinavian Welfare State.Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Smil V. (2022) How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We’re Going.New York: Viking.

Srnicek N., Williams A. (2016) Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work. New York: Verso.

Standing G. (2011) The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London.

Wright E.O. (2023) Classes. New York: Verso.

Content No 1, 2024