The Unperfect Society: Beyond the New Class

The importance of Milovan Djilas's reflections on Communism is heightened not only by the personal suffering he has undergone to make them known, during some nine years as a political prisoner in Yugoslavia, but also by his dramatic experience as an administrator in that Communist state. In "The Unperfect Society," he goes beyond the disillusionment of his earlier book, "The New Class," and examines the origins and claims of Communist ideology. He finds that communism, like all utopianisms, became dangerous because it confuses aims with means, ideas with realities, mankind with men. He also declares that although some Communist societies will persist, Communist ideology is in a state of disintegration and is no longer acceptable – even to Communist leaders – as a means of social organization. Djilas delivered the manuscript of "The Unperfect Society" when he visited the United States in the fall of 1968.