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Was Communism Doomed?

Human Nature, Psychology and the Communist Economy

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Simon Kemp

    1. Dept of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

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  • Combines theories of economics, politics and psychology to form an interdisciplinary and global overview of the topic

  • Provides readers with a global overview of the Communist economic system

  • Acts as a timely addition to Marxist revival literature

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 1-4

  3. The Aims of Communism

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 5-27

  4. What Is Success for a Communist Economic System?

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 29-53

  5. A Short History of Communism

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 55-92

  6. Possible Psychological Flaws in Communism

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 93-104

  7. The Coordination Problem

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 105-134

  8. Incentives

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 135-166

  9. Psychological Ownership

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 167-194

  10. Learned Helplessness, Locus of Control, Self-Efficacy

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 195-214

  11. Does Communism Empower Evil?

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 215-240

  12. Conclusions

    • Simon Kemp
    Pages 241-255

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 257-277
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores whether the ideology of communism was doomed to failure due to psychological rather than structural flaws. Does communism fail because there is not enough individual incentive and does it discourage psychological ownership? If so, does it produce learned helplessness and therefore empower evil? This book considers such questions, both with respect to how communism actually functioned and how it could have functioned using examples from Eastern Europe and the USSR itself during the 20th century. It reviews both the ideology of communism and its history, as well as the basic but difficult question of how one might decide whether an economic system can be defined as successful or not. 

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dept of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Simon Kemp

About the author

Simon Kemp is Professor of Psychology at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, with long-standing interests in economic psychology and the history of psychology. His previous books include Public Goods and Private Wants: A Psychological Approach to Government Spending and Medieval Psychology. He has also been editor of the Journal of Economic Psychology. 

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