Towards Socialist Democracy (review)

Introduction

Martin Legassick has written an expansive polemical treatise on socialist democracy. His book Towards Socialist Democracy (2007) which is some 700 pages long, provides a detailed analysis on the question of socialist democracy supported by a formidable array of notes and bibliographic references. This is a timely and significant book because it deals with issues of great historical import, raising issues which go beyond the debates about limited social reform within the framework of extant social systems. The book restores the importance of thinking about a socialist democratic alternative to the dominant worldwide social system – global capitalism.

The book, written by a committed participant in the struggles against capitalism,¹ is also a systematic engagement with those who speak in defence of, or seek answers to, the problems associated with capitalism. It is clearly not intended for those who have no interest in, or are sceptical about, the promise of an alternative to global capitalism and the triumphalism of its present ideological dominance in discussions about the future of humanity.

The book is both a series of explanations about the nature of historically evolved social systems and an avalanche of refutations of dominant social conceptions, ideological systems, theories and practices and the power relations that are both a form and consequence of these. Its central proposition however is the elaboration and defence of ideas about socialist democracy and the conditions for its achievement. Germane to this is a perspective that re-iterates the view that another world – beyond the limits of global capitalism, is both possible and eminently necessary for the great majority of the world’s population and for the long term survival of humanity. It argues that to realise the potential of ‘modern industry, science and technique’ it is both obligatory and desirable to develop an ‘international system based on the democratic and harmonious planning of production on a global scale – a socialist society’ (2007:76). Legassick approvingly refers to George Monbiot who has argued that the task was ‘not to overthrow globalization, but to capture it, and use it as a vehicle for humanity’s first global democratic revolution’ (76).

In this endeavour, the strong argument of the book affirms and re-affirms, that the organised and politically conscious leadership of the working classes has the singularly important role since,

If the working class does not take power worldwide in the foreseeable future, the anarchy of capitalism threatens to create a level of global warming which would eliminate life on the planet. This is the final dreadful alternative posed by capitalism. Working-class power worldwide, by contrast, would point the way towards a harmonious, socially owned, democratic, planned economy on an international scale, opening the way to a classless society of abundance.

(576)

The book is written in the expectation that, at least amongst those who are critical of the dominant global system, there will be a more purposeful discussion about past attempts at socialist societies as alternatives to capitalism and about the asphyxiating grip of Stalinist conceptions of socialism throughout the world. In this regard we are assured that his use of the word ‘Stalinist’ is not as a term of derision but is intended to describe a particular ideological and theoretical system and its consequences for the development of a genuinely socialist democracy. To that extent, the book also represents an open and direct invitation to a debate about alternative approaches to socialist construction. Legassick studiously clarifies his standpoint on every issue that is explored, even while freely acknowledging (and engaging with) the criticisms against his perspectives.

The arguments of the book

Legassick’s conceptions about a socialist democracy are rooted in a series of standpoints located in historical description and analysis. His arguments are directed not only at a critique of the development of global capitalism but are also about the successes and failures of attempts at transcending capitalism by socialist systems. He examines both the track record of global capitalism and that of ‘actually existing socialisms’ – in particular its ‘Soviet’ form,² to provide a critique...