Ebook: The State in Socialist Society

Students of Communist regimes or those that style themselves socialist
quickly become aware that the state formations which constitute a
large part of their concern are different in kind from those of the non-
socialist world. They are different in the scope of their powers and
their degree of intervention into society and the economy. They are
differently perceived by their citizens, and their rulers have different
modes of justifying or legitimating their regimes. The relationship
between the state and the individual, political parties, trade unions
and other partial organisations is, clearly, quite different from that
prevailing under Western liberal democracy. What this volume seeks
to do is to bring some of these threads together, to give an account of
the generic character of these state formations, and to notice at least
some of their species differentiation. Its aim is to provide an extensive
and varied picture both of Western and of indigenous theorising about
the nature of the state, and as representative a coverage of the
problems of its institutional development as is practicable within the
confines of one volume.