This work reconsiders the prospects for socialism in the post-Soviet era. It explores the origins and the various components of the broad current of socialist thought, as well as the implications of Marx's economic theories for socialism. The Western debate on the rationality of a socialist economy, starting in the 1920s and continuing to the present is also assessed. It inquires into the nature, the achievements, and the character of the systemic change in the socialist economies of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and China. The central message of the book is the acknowledgement of the existence of a broad range of alternatives for future socialism which can be chosen flexibly by the people of each society.
