Human Development and Socialist Institutional Transformation: Continual Incremental Changes and Radical Breaks

Abstract

In the light of new historical experiences of popular struggle to build alternatives to capitalism, debates about the process of social change are unavoidable. Intolerable social conditions under capitalism may fuel resentment and rebellion. The development of productive forces may render possible a society in which all can share equally and freely in a decent, secure, fulfilling existence. The realization of such a society depends on human beings becoming aware of their powers and possibilities, and consciously transforming their world and themselves. Yet how can such consciousness develop under capitalism’s alienating social conditions? As Mehmet Ufuk Tutan and Al Campbell put it in their contribution: “To build the new society one needs transformed humans, but to have transformed humans one needs a new society.” They argue that this chicken-and-egg problem can be resolved dialectically, but requires an understanding of how change occurs, alternating between processes of incremental change and moments of radical rupture.