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Over a hundred years after the first socialist revolution broke the global monopoly of capitalism, a new class of socialist-oriented socioeconomic development is coming to the fore. Capitalism is still dominant worldwide, although its hegemony is no longer undisputed, and humankind is now faced with a key existential challenge. This book proposes an alternative path to overcoming the worldwide crisis of globalized capitalism. It offers a novel, balanced and historically rooted interpretation of the successes and failures of socialist economic construction throughout the last century.The authors apply a multidisciplinary, holistic and purpose-based methodology to draw basic lessons from stylized facts, emerging in different areas of knowledge, ranging from political economy to biology, and from key national socioeconomic experiences, with a particular focus on China. The book is divided into three parts. The first is mainly theoretical and general in nature, identifying the major contributions bequeathed by the hard sciences to their social counterparts. Consistent with these findings, the authors offer a stylized interpretation of the contemporary state-of-the-art of the debate on the core concepts of economic science and advance a few elementary theories about what socialism in the 21st century could look like. The second and third parts analyze and discusses the core features of a few select experiences, which have evolved in certain countries since 1917, some of which are still unfolding.The book will find an audience among academics, researchers and students in the fields of economics, political science, history, and geography, as well as, policy makers, particularly in developing countries.
List of contents
Foreword by Francesco Schettino Part I: Capitalism and Socialism as Modes of Production 1. Introduction to Part I 2. The hard scientific underpinnings of XXIth century political economy 3. Modes of production and socioeconomic formations 4. Labor and value 5. Real competition, pending issues and the core propositions of the surplus approach 6. Real socialism and the law of value 7. The Meta-Mode of Production 8. Socialism under the Meta Mode of Production Part II: China's journey from the early agricultural reforms to the New Projectment Economy 9. Introduction To Part II 10. Macroeconomic Dynamics 11. Rural reforms and the rise of Non-Capitalist Market-Oriented Enterprises 12. The Large State-Owned Business Conglomerates 13. The National Financial System And The Strengthening of China's Monetary Sovereignty 14. The dynamics of the new economic and social formation 15. NDRC and SASAC: a quantum leap in China's planning and governance capabilities 16. The New Projectment Economy Part III: The other two members of the new class of SEF: Vietnam and Laos 17. Introduction to part III 18. Agricultural reforms and the launching of Doi Moi 19. Equitization
20. SOE, FDI, and simple commodity production 21. Employment, wages, and productivity 22. Accumulation, growth, and structural change 23. Finance 24. Development of productive forces and modernization in Vietnam and China 25. Poverty, inequality and human development 26. The differences between comrades Masina and Cerimele and us 27. Vietnam and China: brothers, not twins 28. Laos: the least developed member of the new class of SEFs
29. Concluding Remarks
