Counting the cost of bureaucracy
Socialist Outlook newspaper1990sPaul ClarkeTranscribed or corrected by hand from the printed page.
Power and Money. Written by Ernest Mandel, Verso Books, £10.95
The biggest tragedy for socialism in modern times was Stalinism – the coming to power of a bureaucratic caste in the Soviet Union, and then its extension into eastern Europe.
Revolutionary socialists have had to battle against the ugly face of 'actually existing socialism', for much of the 20th century accepted as the reality of the socialist project, by opponents and champions alike.
But is bureaucracy rational? Max Weber, one of the great non-marxist theorists of bureaucracy, thought so. For him, a key characteristic of bureaucracy is expertise, a vital attribute of those who govern.
Ernest Mandel, in his new book, fiercely contests that bureaucracy, in its capitalist and Soviet manifestations, is rational. The fate of the Soviet Union is eloquent here. A bigger and bigger bureaucracy administered society in a less and less rational fashion, leading to ultimate collapse.
Mandel ranges over the key questions for socialists of how and why the mass workers organisations became bureaucratised; and the character and role of the Stalinist bureaucracies.
He includes a vigorous defence of the notion that the Soviet elite was in fact a bureaucratic caste and not a new ruling class. Indeed the fact that it was not a new ruling class helps to explain is historical fragility and the rapidity of its collapse.
Most important for socialists is the question of whether bureaucracy is inevitable. Is the idea of a society directly administered by its citizens a utopia? Will power and money always dominate the mass of ordinary people?
No prizes for guessing Mandel's answer. His book is a formidable weapon in the struggle against the dictatorship of power and money, in either its capitalist or Stalinist manifestations.