Is there such a thing as postcommunism? What are the central elements of the concept? What does postcommunism mean for us all? Postcommunism has joined the list of terms like postmodernity and postcolonialism that defines the spirit our age. Designed for undergraduate courses and an essential reference for those more familiar with the field, this authoritative text examines the validity and ramifications of the concept and places it in the broader context of global change. The emergence of communism was accompanied by the development of a critical body of thinking that questioned the basic assumptions of revolutionary socialism and that ultimately proved to be communism?s downfall. Sakwa shows how the apparent exhaustion of the revolutionary socialist alternative poses new challenges to the hegemony of the capitalist order itself. He examines the historical origins of postcommunism and its practice in countries that had previously been communist, and situates it in a larger theoretical perspective, focusing on the challenge of finding adequate forms for political and national community in an increasingly fragmented world. About the Author Richard Sakwa is Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He is the author of Soviet Politics (1998), Soviet Politics in Perspective (2nd edn, 1998), Gorbachev and His Reforms (1990) and Russian Politics and Society (2nd edn, 1996). He has also written numerous articles on Soviet history and contemporary Russian affairs. Table of ContentsIntroduction: Defining postcommunism: Statement of the problem Historical and philosophical context The long transcendence: The road to postcommunism - reformist revisionism The road to postcommunism - revolutionary revisionism The communist experience: The agony of communism The fall - the transcending revolutions of 1989-91 Self-transcendence and beyond Postcommunism in practice: The postcommunist syndrome - postcommunism versus democratization Economic transformation Democratic transition State reconstitution Social reinvention - civil society resurgent Party formation National reconfiguration International reorientation - new states in a new order Coming to terms with communism: Conscience, context and revolution Decommunization, expediency and natural justice Communists after communism Communism after communism Paradoxes and paradigms: Paradoxes The anti-revolutionary revolutions The anti-revolution (and everything else) ?betrayed? ?Political? economy and ?economical? politics Paradigms The end of communism?and of history? From ideology to culture Capitalism after communism Socialism after communism - paradigm regained? Postcommunism in perspective: Politics after communism - the death of the alternative? Transition and development The political aesthetics of postcommunism - reshaping subjectivity Postcommunism and the future - a postcommunist manifesto? Index