Beyond Hegemony

The author examines why governments in Russia and elsewhere that claimed to carry out Marx's vision of democracy and equality ended up authoritarian and eventually fell apart.

Schecter contends that much of Marx's critique still holds, but that it needs to be extended with ideas from Nietzsche, Foucault, and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, as well as the libertarian socialism of G.D.H. Cole.

The result is a new account of political legitimacy, one that points toward a way beyond liberal democracy without repeating the authoritarian course taken by state socialism.