Book Review: Far East: Toward Economic Cooperation in Asia
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900136 |
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| Author | Nik Cavell |
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooK
Rmsw
1M5
Communists)
to
call
it
into
question,
which
the
best
of
the
sixteen
articles
in
this
collection
do
with
considerable force.
Wolfgang
Leon-
hard
deftly
sketches
the
tortuous
course
by
which
the
new
Programme
emerged
some
forty-two
years
after
its
unfulfilled predecessor
(both
documents
are
printed
in
the
appendix).
George
Lichtheim, in
perhaps
the
liveliest
and
most
original
contribution
in
the
book, shows
respect
for
the
mind
of
Karl
Marx
and
contempt
for
the
Programme,
which
he
interprets
as
a
design
for
socialism,
not
communism,
in
the
classical
Marxist
meanings
of
these
terms.
Victor
Frank
discusses
the Program-
me in
connection
with
peaceful
coexistence and
Richard
Pipes
relates
it
to
the
perennial,
basic
question
of
the
relation
between
nationality
and
Communism.
Alfred
Zauberman
deals
with
the
economic
feasibility
of
the
programme
in
a
general
sense,
while
Simon
Kabysh
deals
effec-
tively
with
the
grave
obstacles to
its
fulfilment
posed
by
agriculture.
S.
V.
Utechin
shows
how
the
Programme
represents
important
reversals
of
policy
in
education
as
compared
to
Khruschev's
earlier
policies
in
this
field.
There
are
some
interesting
and
relevant
passages
in
the
remainder
of
the
book,
but
these
other
articles tend
to
be
essays
on
Communism
that
could
have
been
published
with
little
alteration
had
there
been
no
new
Programme.
Despite
the merits
of
the
best
of
these essays
(especially
Peter
Wiles' on
labour
and
wages
under
full
Communism
and
Leonard Schapiro's
on
the
new
party
rules),
it
may
be
regretted
that
the
editors
preferred
a
larger,
more
uneven
and
diffuse
book
to
a more
forceful
one
of
about
half
the
size.
Finally,
the
work
as
a
whole
pardonably
suffers
from its
lack
of
perspective
on
the historical importance
of
the
new
Programme
of
the
cpsu. Unlike
Khrushchev, none
of
the
commentators
in
this
collection
grant
the
Programme
anything
like
the
intellectual
status
of
The
Com-
munist
Manifesto,
and
they
doubt
that
it
will
have more
than
incidental
impact
on
the
history
of
the
U.S.S.R.
or
world
Communism.
While
Schapiro
and
Pipes
allude
to
the
potential
importance
of
the
Programme
as
propaganda in
the
under-developed
countries,
it
seems
questionable
that
this
turgid
promissory
note
is
likely
to
increase
the
attractiveness
of
the
Soviet
propaganda
on
rapid,
non-capitalist
economic
growth
which
is
already
widely
disseminated.
McMaster
University
ROBERT
H.
McNEA
Far
East
TowARD
ECONOMIC
COOPRA0ION
IN
ASA.
The
United
Nations
Economic
Commission
for
Asia
and
the
Far
East.
By
David
Wightman.
1963.
(New
Haven:
Yale
University
Press.
Montreal:
McGill
University.
xii,
400pp.
$7.50)
The
author
of
this
excellent account
of
the birth,
growth
and
history
of
the
U.N.
Economic
Commission
for
Asia
and
the
Far
East
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