Chapter 9: Communism and Postcommunism

False consciousness

False consciousness

________- failure to understand the nature of ones exploitation; essentially amounts to "buying into "the superstructure.

Dialectical materialism

________- process of historical change that is not evolutionary but revolutionary.

Local cells

________: basic party organizations to which members are assigned.

Exploitation results

________ when one person or group extracts the surplus value from another.

Perestroika

________- literally, restructuring; the policy of political and economic liberalization implemented in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

Economic stagnation

________: innovation and efficiency completely disappear.

Shock therapy

________- a process of rapid marketization.

Central Committee

________: legislative- like body of a communist party.

Superstructure

________- all noneconomic institutions in a society (e.g., religion, culture, national identity); these ideas and values derive from the base and serve to legitimize the current system of exploitation.

Nomenklatura

________- politically sensitive or influential jobs in the state, society, or economy that were staffed by people chosen or approved by the Communist Party.

Politburo

________ " (Political Bureau): "top policy- making executive body of a communist party.

Glasnost

________: free media and reduced censorship, making management and administration open to public debate.

Privatization

________: the transfer of state- held property into private hands.

Central planning

________: a communist economic system in which the state explicitly allocates resources by planning what should be produced and in what amounts, the final price of goods, and where they should be sold.

Base

the economic system of a society, made up of technology (the means of production) and class relations between people (the relations of production)

Bourgeoisie

the property-owning class

Surplus value of labor

the value invested in any human-made good that can be used by another individual

Vanguard of the proletariat

Lenins argument that because of false consciousness, an elite communist party would have to carry out revolution; otherwise, historical conditions would not automatically lead to capitalisms demise

Proletariat

the working class