The twentieth century was an era of socialist revolutionary transformations and significant social-democratic reforms. By the twenty-first century, these socialist inspired movements have largely disappeared, their ideologies have been disavowed, and their institutions dismantled and replaced by global neoliberal capitalism.

This book explores the social, political and economic forces driving these movements in Western Europe and in the USSR, explaining their initial triumphs and how they eventually faltered under the influence of global neoliberalism. David Lane examines the nature and appeal of neoliberal capitalism and analyses current social and political proposals for its reform or replacement, including statist forms of capitalism; social-democratic and ecological globalization reforms; self-sustaining autonomous communities; and globalised forms of social-democracy or socialism.

Outlining his own proposal to replace global neoliberal capitalism with political systems based on a combination of market socialism and state planning, Lane provides important insights for ways forward, and a challenge for parties seeking political and economic alternatives.