The Making of Council Democracy

State Transformation and Radical Possibilities
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-33196-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales)

Buch, Englisch, 186 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 440 g

Reihe: Critiques and Alternatives to Capitalism

“Council democracy” is a particular form of democratic socialism that strives towards democratic self-governance on the basis of active, free, and associated individuals working cooperatively within a federated council system. Both in political practice and in social theory, “council democracy” has resurfaced periodically in the past, most notably in the interwar period, in the “long 1960s,” and since the turn of the 21st century. This book offers a novel theoretical and methodological approach to the study of “council democracy.” It focuses on the processes that led to the emergence of two of the foundational and most radical instances of “council democratic” movements in Germany during the German Revolution (1918-1919) and in Italy during the biennio rosso (1919-1920). With all their diversities, ambiguities, and shortcomings, these movements, in varying degrees, sought democratic alternatives to autocratic relations, from local to state levels, and to economic relations, from workplace to national levels. The book shows how the processes through which state-led war mobilization transformed the contours of class struggle laid the ground for the emergence of “council democratic” movements with specific characteristics in Germany and Italy and not in the United Kingdom and France.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Amini, Babak

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: The Making of the “Council Democratic” Movement in Germany

Chapter 3: The Making of the “Council Democratic” Movement in Italy

Chapter 4: War Mobilization in the United Kingdom and France

Chapter 5: The Making of “Council Democracy” in a Comparative Perspective

Chapter 6: Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Babak Amini is a lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia. He is the co-editor of “Classical Sociology and the First World War” (Journal of Classical Sociology, 2024) and Routledge Handbook of Marx’s Capital: A Global History of Translation, Dissemination and Reception (Routledge, 2025).