The article deals with the ideology of postmodernism as it is cur­rently debated in the international intelligentsia and in academia, and which makes itself felt in "identity politics" of race, gender and sexual preference. It suggests that "identity politics", and their the­oretical sources, are symptoms of and not a solution to the breakup of a phase of capital accumulation, and the resulting breakup of the long received ideas of the international left.

Historical evidence shows, as early as the case of Mesopotamia, that progressive social formations could take shape in a premature form long before they achieved a historic breakthrough, and conso­lidated excluding the possibility of return to previous forms. The study of antic, feudalistic, and capitalist formations from this point of view allows the author to draw some interesting conclusions about the future of socialism.

The United States and Japan can be described through two quite different models of capitalism. These differences can be shown on all levels: from the one of the enterprises through enterprise structuring up to the role played by ministries, as well as from the point of view of economics, politics or culture. The two models are rivaling at the present and there is no evidence available yet to predict which results this competition will lead to.

Recent years have witnessed the development of new attempts to conceptualize capitalist accumulation, including the maturation of ca­pitalist economies and their passing through stages of development. Focusing on the so-called Fordist period of capitalism, Kotz's com­parative analysis provides a survey of two present-day schools of thought – the Regulation Theory and the Social Structures of Accu­mulation schoo.