Communism as an Idea

In the nineteenth century Europe, where it was first used, communism emerged as an idea aiming for a free world where everything was subject to common ownership. The concept of "communism" extends from the French Revolution to the "real socialism" experiences of the twentieth century, from Cabet's utopia called "Ikaria" to Marx and Engels' predictions of a classless and exploitation-free society, from Lenin's and Mao's writings on state and political theory to all aspects of society. It has been used in various forms in a wide range of names extending to the names of various parties established in the world.

The concept of "communism", which suffered a certain loss of prestige in the 1980s, when neoliberalism was on the rise and various transformations were experienced in the Soviet Union, was completely discredited with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of various "real socialism" experiences around the world, and many thinkers and politicians He joyfully wrote the concept's death warrant. The failure of political movements and regimes based on the concept of communism has been declared as the failure of the idea of communism. This is how the left's long, dark night began.

Communism as an Idea consists of texts presented to the conference of the same name organized by the Birbeck Institute of Humanities in London in March 2009. The authors who attended the conference and contributed to the book start from the idea that "the long night of the left is about to end" and emphasize that the "idea of communism" as a radical political and philosophical idea is still important in the context of the social, economic and political crises of the 2000s. In the discussion framed by Alain Badiou, the authors analyze in depth the concepts of "equality", "freedom", "justice" and their connection with the "idea of communism", based on various fields such as philosophy, political theory and literary criticism. In the book, the analyzes made by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri on "Common Being" are also examined based on the problematic of the idea of communism.



Number of Pages: 272

Year of Printing: 2011


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Details Publications

First Print Year: 2011

Number of Pages: 272

Language Turkish