Social and Behavioral Sciences | Open Access Articles

A New Gilded Age: Corporate Power And Socialism In The 21st Century, Eljeer Hawkins

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Building on the author’s experience and accumulated knowledge from years as a left activist, this essay articulates the similarities between our current moment and the original Gilded Age of the late 19^thand early 20^thcenturies. The conclusion presented here is that when there is extreme wealth inequality, increased exploitation, and attempts to normalize oppression and bigotry, resistance emerges. This is precisely what we have been seeing around the world, most notably in the US. The eventual successes or failures of the developing socialist movement will be determined by how well we learn from history, rearticulate our theories, …

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The Significance And Shortcomings Of Karl Marx, Chris Wright

Class, Race and Corporate Power

In this essay I explain both why Karl Marx remains an important thinker and why he is in some respects inadequate. I focus on the central issue of 'materialism vs. idealism,' and briefly explore ways in which contemporary intellectuals still haven't assimilated the insights of historical materialism. In the last section of the paper I examine the greatest weakness of Marxism, its theory of proletarian revolution, and propose an alternative conceptualization that both updates the theory for the twenty-first century and is more faithful to historical materialism than Marx's own conception was.

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Socialism & Universal Basic Income, Bryant W. Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The idea of universal basic income (UBI) has taken on new life as people experience greater inequality and greater exploitation than ever before—combined with the recurrence of the historically-cyclical fear of mass unemployment driven by rapid advancements in automation technologies. But the idea of providing every person with a certain amount of money, regardless of their socioeconomic status or (in)ability to or (dis)interest in working, is far from universally-accepted by socialists. This essay offers replies to three common socialist criticisms of various basic income proposals, in an effort to defend the radical potential of UBI; a potential that is consonant …

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A New Gilded Age: Corporate Power And Socialism In The 21st Century, Eljeer Hawkins

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The Significance And Shortcomings Of Karl Marx, Chris Wright

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Socialism & Universal Basic Income, Bryant W. Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power