Democratic Socialism or Social Fascism?

Lewis Coser’s article provides an analysis of the past and a projection into the future. It breaks ground and offers stimulating new perspectives on the latter topic; it offers less that is novel in its analytical exposition of the former.

I have little quarrel with Coser’s analysis of the breakup of Communist unity. He is quite right in rejecting single-factor causality, be it nationalism, ideology, or stages of development. Like many others before him, he very correctly points out that ideology and nationalism provide interdependent and highly enmeshed motivations, and that stages of development do not explain why a decade ago China was much more reasonable and moderate in its policies than the Soviet Union. His valu...