The Radiant Past: Ideology and Reality in Hungary's Road to Capitalism

by Michael Burawoy, János Lukács

Overview

Communism, once heralded as the "radiant future" of all humanity, has now become part of Eastern Europe's past. What does the record say about the legacy of communism as an organizational system?

Michael Burawoy and Janos Lukacs consider this question from the standpoint of the Hungarian working class. Between 1983 and 1990 the authors carried out intensive studies in two core Hungarian industries, machine building and steel production, to produce the first extended participant-observation study of work and politics in state socialism.

"A fascinating and engagingly written eyewitness report on proletarian life in the waning years of goulash communism. . . . A richly rewarding book, one that should interest political scientists in a variety of subfields, from area specialists and comparativists to political economists, as well as those interested in Marxist and post-Marxist theory."—Elizabeth Kiss, American Political Science Review

"A very rich book. . . . It does not merely offer another theory of transition, but also presents a clear interpretive scheme, combined with sociological theory and vivid ethnographic description."—Ireneusz Bialecki, Contemporary Sociology

"Its informed skepticism of post-Communist liberal euphoria, its concern for workers, and its fine ethnographic details make this work valuable."—"àkos Róna-Tas, American Journal of Sociology

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226080420
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	09/01/1994
Edition description:	1
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Michael Burawoy is associate professor of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the co-editor (with Theda Skocpol) of Marxist Inquiries: Studies of Labor, Class, and States, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. A Sociological Diary
Part One: Ideology Versus Reality: Bánki
2. Piece Rates, Hungarian Style
3. Mythologies of Industrial Work
Part Two: Ideology as Reality: The Lenin Steel Works
4. Production in a Shortage Economy
5. Painting Socialism
Conclusion
6. The Radiant Future
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Discusses diseases most likely to be encountered by practitioners. Some 200 clear images with concise commentary. No bibliography. Based on intensive study in Hungarian heavy industry, 1983-90, argues that communism there collapsed from the top, not the bottom, and that the average worker will experience no benefit in the change to capitalism. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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