‘A Socialism for the Twenty-First Century: Towards the ‘Full and Free Development of Every Individual’’ by Tony Smith reviewed by Stephen Darling
In A Socialism for the Twenty-First Century, Tony Smith argues for “a feasible and superior alternative” (120) to capitalism in the form of republican socialism. At its core, republicanism rests on two principles: self-governance and freedom from domination (4–8). For Smith, these principles express an explicitly anti-authoritarian stance, summed up in the formulation “self-governance without domination” (24). The result is a vision of socialism that is clearly anti-authoritarian—unlike the state-socialist models of the former USSR or present-day China. From the outset, Smith aims to develop a model that goes beyond historical instances of “really existing socialism.” Because those experiences shaped…