Rethinking Alternatives with Marx: Economy, Ecology and Migration

Leninism, depending on the regime type. The chapter closes with a discussion of regime changes and emphasizes the need for an opposition to attack a regime’s framework in order to induce change. However, the vastness of categories offered to study these regimes feels overwhelming at times. This is not a book that offers its argument in a conventional narrative form; rather, it presents itself in the form of a textbook or encyclopedia. For this purpose, each chapter comes with a QR code that leads to a PowerPoint summarizing the central points of each lecture, including its many graphs and figures. Thus, The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes would lend itself as a source for both undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of Political Science, Political Sociology or Economy, Eastern European Studies, or similar fields. It can also serve as a rich resource for the study of regimes, for which any of the ideal typical categories presented in the book would serve as an insightful starting point for further study. What the book is also not, which I found tricky at times, is an empirical analysis of regimes of post-socialist countries. Even though Magyar and Madlovics are upfront about their goal of delivering ideal typical categories, rather than categories that simply attempt to directly reflect empirical reality, it is not quite clear what methodology the authors’ categories are based on in the first place. Often, it appears that broad statements are made without providing data to back them up. For instance, in Chapter Three, which deals with actors, Magyar and Madlovics argue that ‘‘in the postcommunist region, what we can typically observe is a lack of separation of spheres of social action’’ (p. 135); yet the authors do not demonstrate how this, or other observations, have been made. At other times it appears unclear why certain sources are cited over other possible sources, for instance when Stalin is presented as the only source to demonstrate what party power means in a Marxist-Leninist framework (p. 240). Despite my desire to learn more about its methodological underpinnings, I found The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes to be a very timely and important read. I particularly appreciated the book’s contribution of providing a framework for the understanding of former socialist countries that is not measured against western regimes but that delivers its own analytical tools and perspectives. The focus on the role of a separation of spheres of social action and the ways in which a lack of separation can contribute to corruption, bribery, or organized crime seemed interesting not only when trying to understand post-socialist countries but also for expanding our understanding of these mechanisms for the possible study of western regimes that are faced with similar issues. Thus, I can envision The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes as a source for the study of various types of regimes, including the United States.