The famous economist, member of the Academy of Sciences, and a well-known left-wing politician, died last year, leaving behind his comments on Janos Kornai's assessment of the economic reforms of the 1960s. He was an active participant of the reform process for three decades, and in this article he calls the new generations for a thorough study of the period and practice of reforms in Hungary.

A review of The Socialist System, a comprehensive work by the well-known Harvard economist Janos Kornai. The reviewer compares Kornai's theses to the findings of leading international historians, and draws some grave, but not entirely unexpected consequences.

Conventional debt management has only deepened the economic and social misery of many countries in the Third World. The so-called treatment offered by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank cannot be a solution to the problem. A breakthrough towards development is possible only with a substantial debt relief, i.e. a partial or full cancellation of foreign debts.

It is a favourite thesis of right-wing critics of progressive politics that the Jacobin period of the French revolution was a prototype of all totalitarian regimes, including state socialism. The author presents a revision of the story of 1793-4, and concludes that this was a unique period when popular movements of the time reached the highest possible level of influence.

Péter Szigeti, József Mocsáry, Károly Lóránt and László Andor explain what is a market economy in their opinion and what is not, and whether it is meaningful to add adjectives to the phrase, e.g. "socialist market economy".