By Noberto Bobbio
Can democracy provide a path to socialism? Can civil rights and democratic institutions be protected and developed in a socialist society? Does our view of the nature and value of democracy affect our understanding of socialism itself? In a world with regimes which profess to be socialist, which socialism is worth defending today?
In this powerful and provocative volume, Norberto Bobbio - the foremost political theorist in Italy today - re-examines the uneasy relation between socialism and democracy. He argues that Marxist theory has failed to provide an adequate account of the nature and role of the state in socialist society and he defends the concept of representative democracy. Bobbio's arguments sparked off a lively debate in Italy and this volume includes an essay by Bobbio on Marxism and international relations and his classic text on Gramsci's conception of civil society.
With erudition as well as passion. Bobbio addresses some of the key theoretical and political questions of our times. No one interested in the future of socialism and democracy, in the East as well as the West, can afford to neglect his work.
Published 1986