Bøger af Erik Olin Wright

What is wrong with capitalism, and how can we change it?

One of the 21st century's most brilliant sociologists confronts his own mortality.

What would a viable free and democratic society look like? Poverty, exploitation, instability, hierarchy, subordination, environmental exhaustion, radical inequalities of wealth and powerit is not difficult to list capitalism's myriad injustices. But is there a preferable and workable alternative? Alternatives to Capitalism: Proposals for a Democratic Economy presents a debate between two such possibilities: Robin Hahnel's ';participatory economics' and Erik Olin Wright's ';real utopian' socialism. It is a detailed and rewarding discussion that illuminates a range of issues and dilemmas of crucial importance to any serious effort to build a better world.

Reconstructing Marxism explores fundamental questions about the structure of Marxist theory and its prospects for the future. The authors maintain that the disintegration of the old theoretical unity of classical Marxism is in part responsible for what is commonly called the ¿crisis of Marxism.¿ Only a reconstructed Marxism can come to terms with this disintegration.Addressing a range of problems in historical materialism and class analysis, the authors compare historical materialism with Darwinian evolutionary theory, and identify what is distinctively ¿historical¿ in Marx’s theory of history. Through an evaluation of G.A. Cohen’s defense and Anthony Giddens’s critique of historical materialism they suggest what a plausible, yet still Marxist, theory of history might be. They analyze the relationship of micro-analysis to macro theory and the assignment of causal primacy in explanations, and present a general assessment of the current state of Marxist theory and the prospects for its analytical reconstruction.Distinguished by the clarity of its presentation, the analytical rigor of its argument and its concern with fundamental philosophical and sociological issues, Reconstructing Marxism advances, at this critical juncture in the history of Marxism, a challenging new research program.

An attempt to resolve long-standing problems in contemporary class theory. The text brings together major critics of the author's work, and Wright's own responses and reformulation in the light of the criticisms.

Leading sociologist examines how different readings of class enrich our understanding of capitalismFew ideas are more contested today than ';class.' Some have declared its death, while others insist on its centrality to contemporary capitalism. It is said its relevance is limited to explaining individuals' economic conditions and opportunities, while at the same time argued that it is a structural feature of macro-power relations. In Understanding Class, leading left sociologist Erik Olin Wright interrogates the divergent meanings of this fundamental concept in order to develop a more integrated framework of class analysis. Beginning with the treatment of class in Marx and Weber, proceeding through the writings of Charles Tilly, Thomas Piketty, Guy Standing, and others, and finally examining how class struggle and class compromise play out in contemporary society, Understanding Class provides a compelling view of how to think about the complexity of class in the world today.

A comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. Building on a work analyzing the class system in the developed world, as well as exploring the problem of the transition to a socialist alternative, it reconstructs the core values and feasible goals for Left theorists and political actors.

The forms of liberal democracy developed in the 19th century seem increasingly ill-suited to the problems we face in the 21st. This dilemma has given rise to a deliberative democracy, and this text explores four contemporary cases in which the principles have been at least partially instituted.

After opening with an account of the author's awakening to Marxism, this book goes on to review its central principles as a social science, paying particular heed to feminist concepts and the meaning of inequality. It concludes by exploring possible futures under capitalism and socialism.

One of the major works of the new American Marxism, Wright’s book draws a challenging new class map of the United States and other, comparable, advanced capitalist countries today. It also discusses the various classical theories of economic crisis in the West and their relevance to the current recession, and contrasts the way in which the major political problem of bureaucracy was confronted by two great antagonistsWeber and Lenin. A concluding essay brings together the practical lessons of these theoretical analyses, in an examination of the problems of left governments coming to power in capitalist states.