Transformative politics

Socialism, like other political ideologies, is struggling with the turmoil of present-day politics. Long-standing institutions have lost their footing, mass parties are shrinking, citizens distrust their leaders, and ecological threats now loom larger than the nation-state. Globalized markets and politics add to the confusion, leaving people uncertain whom to credit or blame for what happens to them.

Anthony Butler revisits the legacy and prospects of the left with a fresh argument. He contends that, of all the modern ideologies, socialism is the one able to reinvent itself in response to these pressures. Treating socialism as a form of transformative politics, he traces its distinctive method of pairing a dispassionate reading of social conditions with highly ambitious plans for changing them.

Butler presents socialism as a continuous tradition that persists rather than following the latest trends. This durability, he suggests, is what equips it in a special way to confront the hazards of contemporary politics.