The German council movements arose through mass strikes and soldier mutinies towards the end of the First World War. They brought down the German monarchy, founded several short-lived council republics, and dramatically transformed European politics. Building Power to Change the World reconstructs how participants in the German council movements struggled for a democratic socialist society. It examines their attempts to democratize politics, the economy, and society through building powerful worker-led organisations and cultivating workers' political agency. Drawing from the practices of the council movements and the writings of theorists such as Rosa Luxemburg, Anton Pannekoek and Karl Kautsky, Building Power to Change the World returns to their radical vision of a self-determining society and their political program of democratization and socialization. It presents a powerful argument for renewed attention to the political theories of this historical period and for their ongoing relevance for democratic politics today.

About the Author
James Muldoon is a Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Exeter. He is the editor of Council Democracy: Towards a Democratic Socialist Politics (Routledge, 2018), The German Revolution and Political Theory (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and Trumping the Mainstream: The Conquest of Mainstream Democratic Politics by Far-Right Populism (Routledge, 2018).


Book Information
ISBN 9780198856627
Author James Muldoon
Format Hardback
Page Count 208
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 440g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 160mm * 17mm