Ideological Contributions
Steffan's contributions represent one of the most relevant references to analyse the theoretical and practical implications of the Marxist anticapitalist leftist movements that followed the fall of the USSR. His contributions suggest an alternative economic, political and social project, which the alter-globalistic movements lacked during the 1990s.
In his book The Socialism of the 21st century, Steffan explains the theoretical basis of the new socialism, which finds its most practical application in the revolutionary process of Venezuela, and to a lesser extent in the neighbouring countries of Bolivia and Ecuador. Dieterich is an advisor of the Venezuelan government.
Some of his most important books are "Global Society" and "Latin America: From Colonization to Globalization", which he wrote in cooperation with Noam Chomsky.
His ideas have raised several controversies especially in Venezuela. The Marxist theoretician Alan Woods has written a whole book against his allegedly reformist positions, Reformism or Revolution - A Reply to Heinz Dieterich. However, his relationship with the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has deteriorated essentially because of the lack of rigor with which Chávez understands and applies the concept of socialism. On 15 August 2011 he submitted an article to the website kaosenlared.net where he explains the reasons behind his definitive break-off with Chávez.
Read more about this topic: Heinz Dieterich
Famous quotes containing the word ideological:
“Everything ideological possesses meaning: it represents, depicts, or stands for something lying outside itself. In other words, it is a sign. Without signs there is no ideology.”
—V.N. (Valintin Nikolaevic)