Capitalism has not been created by the EU… Lászó Andor answers Tamás Krausz and Péter Szigeti
Constructing the Political. The Problem of Political by Carl Schmitt, Marx, Weber and the Neo-Marxists
During the rivalry between the advancing conservatism and the liberal approach, solutions offered by neo-Marxist social thought have the value of novelty. The regulated rivalry of forces in a standard form, within the frame of the rule of law, cannot be replaced by the exception of extraordinary circumstances or by the antagonistic contradictions of civil war situations or revolutionary conditions. The author describes the dynamic creation of the political as a dualism of political power and social-economical class rule. Reaching this end, he moves the focus from the static inner complexity of the world of phenomena to dynamics of constructing the political, where two directions are distinguished in the dialectic determination: an upstream (I) and a downstream (II).
Transition Movement
The ultimate goal of the transition movement is to develop a social-economic form by practice, which is able to satisfy social needs for everyone in a sustainable way, in an environment of shortages created by the climate change and increasing energy prices, a consequence of the depleting oil reserves. This requires radical cut backs on globalised production and transport and also meeting food and energy needs mostly from local sources in global network of local communities talking to each other. This vision contradicts the logic of global capitalism, although the movement is making an attempt to establish parallel economic and social institutions without open confrontation.
Surviving Financial Meltdown: Argentina’s Barter Networks
In this chapter of his Money and Liberation, the author describes how millions – in order to survive – started barter trade, one-to-one exchanges after the Argentinean economy collapsed at the end of 2001, throwing away free market and profit principles. They did not try to change the big system or take power themselves. What are the lessons from this case, when masses opted out of a failed capitalism?
The Guanxi in Asian Interstate Relations. Rethinking the China-centred Feudal Aid System
Until the second half of the 19th century, East and South-East Asian countries were linked by an interstate system, based on the rules of the Chinese Empire, which became known – following Western patterns – as a China-centred feudal aid system. This model is descriptive, thus it is not suitable capturing the inner logic and operational mechanism of these interstate relations. The present study is making an attempt to put the China-centred feudal aid system into its own context and to identify its institutional basis.