Front cover image for Dictatorship, state planning, and social theory in the German Democratic Republic

Dictatorship, state planning, and social theory in the German Democratic Republic

This book examines the way communist East Germany worked from the point of view of its experts in law, economics, philosophy and cybernetics. The state-socialist countries aimed for a post-capitalist modernization, which they hoped to achieve by way of dictatorship. This failed combination of dictatorship and social transformation contains lessons that remain relevant today.
Print Book, English, 2006
Digitally printed 1. pbk. version View all formats and editions
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006
x, 220 s. : illustrations
9780521820905, 9780521030076, 0521820901, 0521030072
474857829
List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction: modernization, modernity and the plan; 1. The economics of state socialism: productivity and the law of value; 2. The legal theory of state socialism: socialist legality, the laws of historical development and the plan; 3. Philosophy and state socialism: consciousness, dialectical materialism and hope; 4. From planning metaphysics to cybernetics: planning, technique and politics after revisionism; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.