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Former issues

No. 12 | (Winter 1991)

Eszmélet organised the 1st Theoretical Conference of Journals of Social-critique at the Youth Centre in Csillebérc Budapest on April 10-12, 1991. In this issue, we present selected writings of the participants of the conference (it can be the written version of the speeches made or a different study) and of invited persons who could not come (like Bidet, Laibman, Mészáros or Samary).  We ask our readers to take into account that the original audience of most of the articles translated here were domestic readers of foreign journals, where the authors live. Nevertheless, we hope that articles reflecting the views of British, American, Italian, Austrian, French of Polish authors do have interesting points for Hungarian readers, since most of the studies focus on developments in East Europe, where we live.

In addition to articles related to the conference, we present two writings of André Gunder Frank from the Netherlands. This the continuation of our series presenting the 36 most renowned leftist thinkers that was started with publishing writings from Immanuel Wallerstein and that will be continued soon with articles from Samir Amin. (We have to note that the two articles of Wallerstein, the studies of Gunder Frank and the articles to be published from Amin all were sent to Eszmélet by the authors themselves.)

Table of contents
  1. Conference of journals of social-critique, Budapest 1991- Brief account
  2. Gus Fagan : Hungary – The collapse of Kadarism
  3. Andrea Komlosy, Hannes Hofbauer : Restructuring (Eastern) Europe
  4. Luciana Castellina : Remaning an Italian communist – reflections on the “death of socialism”
  5. Vietorisz Tamás : The global information economy, privatisation, and the future of socialism
  6. Jacques Bidet : A metastructural theory of modernity
  7. Barry K. Gills, Andre Gunder Frank : The cumulation of accumulation
  8. Andre Gunder Frank : Marketing demokracy in an undemocratic market
  9. David Laibman : Toward a working theory of the socialist economy
  10. Mészáros István : The decreasing rate of utilisation and the capitalist state
  11. Catherine Samary : The necessary self-government
  12. Bartosz Julian : Deep down – for undisjoinable values – Theses for the conference in Budapest on April 11-12, 1991
  13. Hungarian literaure on the system change 1989-1991
  14. Short introduction of journals present at the conference on April 11-12, 1991
Former issues

No. 9 | (Spring 1991)

Table of contents
  1. Bill Lomax : The world turned upside down. The revolutions in Hungary 1956 and 1989
  2. Marton Imre : Western Europe in the grip of a rearranging world
  3. John Rees : New imperialism
  4. Tót Éva : How do the households defend themselves? – Conversation with sociologist Endre Sík
  5. Ékes Ildikó : How do we live ten years before the turn of the century? – A survey with questionnaires involving 6,000 households
  6. Tátrai Gábor : The 1990 general elections – Conversation with György Wiener
  7. Márkus Péter : Modernisation theories in the Hungarian social sciences in the ’80s – A plan
  8. Mocsáry József : Hungary and state capitalism – Thesis concerning the interpretation of the economic paradoxes of our history after 1949
  9. Szalai Pál : Will ideas of István Bibó win?
  10. Vigvári András : Reform and the change of system – A plan to the history of the Hungarian economic policy and reform
  11. Szabó András György : Is Marxism modern?
  12. Democracy
  13. On the Forum of Citizens’ Initiative
  14. Power has to be controlled – Conversation with András Hegedűs about the Workers’ Academy now being organised
  15. Charter of the Federation for Social Democracy 1990
  16. Szak Péter Otmár : Index and bibliography of Eszmélet, volumes 1-8.
  17. Kapitány Ágnes, Kapitány Gábor : Politics and/or society
Former issues

Hungary and state capitalism – Thesis concerning the interpretation of the economic paradoxes of our history after 1949

The author joins those approaches which do not regard the system left behind as socialism from the point of view of formation theory but determine it as state capitalism. He depicts the analogies of this „state capitalism" in various third world economies and analyses the operation of these systems as their inner structural-power relations. He arrives at the conclusion that the present changes leave the state capitalist structures untouched and this way, it is impossible to break out from the mistaken circles of the „third world". The author sees the solution in a mixed economy kept in balance with antimonopoly measures which is characterised by private property of small enterprises as well as workers' ownership of large companies.
Former issues

Will ideas of István Bibó win?

This article analyses the change of regime in Hungary, 1989-90. The author mostly stresses those steps of different political movements which "depraved" the changes. He establishes that the main tendencies were present already within the frameworks of the Kádárian policy. He states that a kind of pragmatic and illusionless rationalism characterizes the common sense of Hungarian people today. He takes a stand for a radical reformism based on reality which is built from below and which -in contradiction to the political practice in a narrow sense – concentrates on the protection of human interests and the labourers' ownership.
Former issues

Reform and the change of system – A plan to the history of the Hungarian economic policy and reform

The study analyses the Hungarian reform process, its elements, stages and dimensions from a new angle. He puts its concrete facts, changes on the scale of the developments of the power relations of the world; he discusses the role played by the struggle, decisions and mistakes of the domestic power groups; he points out that those leading the Hungarian reforms were more ready for the change of system than for the de-mocratisation of the system. He underlines the outstanding function of the reform of ownership in the change of system while stressing that under the realistic conditions of the present time, the reform of the ownership relations in itself cannot lead out from the economic crisis… He also emphasises that the same factors hinder development today which made the previous system collapse. He discusses the chances of the various privatisation possibilities and warns against the illusions which induce expectations that copying the modern market economy would lead to the solution of Hungary's problems. At the same time, he argues that the development of the producing sector and the change of the production structure are fundamentally important.