Hidden Revolutionary Processes in 1990s India?

The chapter considers the history of India, mainly in the last decades, in light of the contemporary situation, created by the decisive victory of the Hindu nationalist party. While India has not experienced a political revolution in the generally accepted sense, it is a noteworthy fact that the label „revolution“ has been used to describe varying developments during the last half-century. This raises conceptual questions. In particular, it needs to be clarified whether the idea of a „passive revolution“, a major structural change without the collective action and the struggle for social power that are associated with full-fledged revolution, is applicable. In India, it has been applied to Gandhi’s actvities, but also to those of his less charismatic disciples; but some scholars have doubted its relevance. The chapter argues for a cautious application of the concept, especially with regard to the rise of a new capitalist class.

Introduction

Problems of social revolutions and/or transformations belong to the classical agenda of social inquiry, as well as to the most prominent real and potential challenges encountered by contemporary societies. Among revolutionary events of the last decades, particular attention has been drawn to the changes that unfolded at the turn of the 1990s and brought the supposedly bipolar (in fact incipiently multipolar) world to an end. The downfall of East Central European Communist regimes in 1989 and of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the beginning of a new era, originally characterised on the one hand by the relaxation of international tensions and on the other by the ascendancy of Western unilateralism. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Soviet collapse prompts the authors of this book to reflect on revolutions and transformations, both from a long-term historical perspective and with regard to the post-Communist scene. The social changes unfolding in Eastern and Central Europe are not only epoch-making historical turns; their economic, social and political aspects, often confusing and unexpected, have also raised new questions and triggered debates about fundamental theoretical issues. Moreover, they have had a significant impact on developments elsewhere in the world, in both Western and developing countries.

From Civilisational Crisis to Revolutionary Transformation?

Strong perceptions of crises have been in the making since the 1970s. The plurality of crises results from dynamic transformations of politico-economic, societal and environmental conditions. Policies adapting to these crises decisively shaped the ‘neoliberal turn’ of Western societies, responding to economic, social and technological changes in ambiguous ways: they combine deregulation with new modes of control and certain civilising efforts. In this context, the global expansion of ostensibly free-market capitalism, accompanied by relocations of industries and new directions of technological innovation, has played a key role. This configuration affects global civilisational dynamics, now headed either towards further degradation of humanity and the planet or to the generation of something new. The question is whether a revolutionary transformation of both capitalism and civilisation could be on the horizon.

Environmental Crisis and Political Revolutions

The chapter argues for a complex inter-regional perspective on the crises of the last decade. In this context, the author revisits Habermas’s theory of crisis, developed in the 1970s primarily in connection with the problem of legitimation crisis in late capitalism, but in principle capable of accounting for a broader spectrum of crisis phenomena. The chapter stresses that the ecological background to political unrest – climatic change, overexploitation of resources, the threat of overpopulation – is very important. This specific constellation interacts with more global trends. It does not seem far-fetched to speak of a global crisis threatening the vey identity of advanced industrial civilisation; the key problem is an escalating conflict between the imperative of growth (pursued across the board from finance to technology) and the imperative of sustainability.

Matching Reforms of Political and Economic Systems of China

China’s socialist economic reform began in 1978. Its history can be divided into three stages. The first one lasted from 1978 to 1992, with the introduction of a system of contract responsibility system and the use of monetary incentives. The second one was from 1992 to 2001, with the introduction of a market system, regulating the productive activity of enterprises through market information. The third stage began in 2001; including the joining of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a more general linking up with the trends of globalisation. No matter what the future outcome of this transition will be, the incoherence of the reformed economic system and the only partly reformed political system has become evident. The prospects of China’s historical transition depend on how we can guarantee first, that the economic reform will still move in a socialist direction, and second, that political reform will match economic reform.

Can Political Participation Become Dangerous for Democracy? Participatory Experiences in Brazil and the Reactions Against Them

In Brazil, political participation is a recent phenomenon. In the late 1970s, social movements and some NGOs began to demand what they called a ‘right to participate’ in the control of the state and the decision-making processes of public policy. The Federal Constitution from 1988 created many instruments to involve stakeholders directly in the formulation and management of specific policies by foreseeing direct participation in them. Probably the best known mode of participation is participatory budgeting. It was first implemented in Porto Alegre in 1990 and, then, expanded to many cities in Brazil and the world. New forms of relationship between citizens and the state have been attempted – with success – at the various levels of government and in the treatment of a variety of public issues. But severe difficulties in the political representative system and the problem of social inequality are still subsistent.

Communists and Social Democrats in the 1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic

The abortive or briefly successful Central European revolutions after World War I have mostly been perceived as efforts to export Bolshevism beyond Russia´s borders. This is particularly misleading in regard to the Hungarian revolution, a much more complex phenomenon than has commonly been assumed. This chapter analyzes the events of 1918-1919 in detail and shows that there was no ready-made model that could be transferred from Russia to Hungary. Moreover, the role of the Social Democrats in the revolution was far too important for it to be labelled a Bolshevik one, and the revolutionary government had to deal with specific problems concerning the survival and retrenchment of the Hungarian state after the downfall of the Habsburg monarchy. The last section briefly analyses one of the most significant twentieth-century works on Marxist theory, Lukács‘s History and Class Consciousness, written as a postscript to the Hungarian revolution.

The Transformation of Capitalism and the Limits of Democracy

Capitalism has undergone a number of important transformations and challenges. Within the West, capitalism responded to these problems with Keynesian solutions, creating an expanded social contract and growing middle class. But alongside its triumphalism with the fall of the Soviet Union, capitalism was reaching its own limits of expansion within the Keynesian model. Without an external threat, capitalism was free to focus on the wage structures and social benefits that restricted corporate profitability. The middle class had reached their limits and the working class had overreached theirs. Neoliberalism, led by financialisation, transformed capitalism into an updated model of its pre-Keynesian existence. Capitalism was rapidly transforming from a nation-centric system into a global structure of accumulation and power. Austerity in the developed North and structural adjustment programmes in the developing South resulted from a break with industrial-era national capitalism.

Revolutions, Transformations, Civilisations: Prolegomena to a Paradigm Reorientation

The chapter deals with some enduring controversies and dilemmas in the comparative history and theory of revolutions. On the level of definitions, four major issues are considered: The distinction between relatively rapid transformations, politically induced and socially significant, and long-term transformative processes; the difference between revolutions from above and from below; the role of violence; and the relationship between revolution and progress. On the level of explanation and interpretation, the most prominent issue concerns the respective roles of power and ideology. This is further linked to questions of war and revolution, the changing combination of internal and international factors, and the problem of revolutionary agency. Finally, the civilisational approach to revolutions, as outlined by S.N. Eisenstadt, is discussed with particular reference to modernity as a new civilisation.

A Trialogue on Revolution and Transformation

The text deals with issues of revolution and transformations in the theoretical and empirical ways. The trialogue focuses on the significance and the consequences of social changes after 1989. Prompted by the 25th anniversary of the Soviet collapse in 1991, the text reflects on revolutions around the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, and the following situation and significant transformations in Central Europe and in the world, not least the return to capitalism and the consequences of privatisation. It also proposes also more general conceptual analyses of revolutions and transformations in social, economic and political spheres, and draws attention to revolutionary transformations that may be less striking but in the long run all the more important. Finally, several scenarios for further social development are noted, ranging from positive to dangerously agonistic perspectives.