In the contemporary world, the ideas, rights and ambitions represented by the legacy of enlightenment have been devalued. Restoring the respect of the public sphere and citizen rights requires the re-capturing of the public spaces that have been occupied by financial interest. (First published in Le Monde Diplomatique)

Entertaining and perplexing views from the first half of the 20th century on capitalism, communism, money, business, community, as well as their origins and difficulties of their application. According to the author, the essence of capitalism is „not that some have capital but that the majority only earns wages and does not possess capital".

In early 1988, a study announced the end of the system change but actual developments have refuted this revelation. The new government had new ideas concerning ownership rights and the employee ownership programs have been put on the agenda again. The so-called Russian crisis has shaken all East Europe that can cause long lasting political consequences. Meanwhile a new turning point has been reached in the permanent system change in the western part of East Europe in the EU and NATO integration. This issue of Eszmélet addresses these topics and questions.

Table of contents

1. Rácz Margit, Csapody Tamás : NATO and EU accessions. Between the rock and the hard place
2. Bárdos-Féltoronyi Miklós : From periphery to periphery
3. Agárdi Péter : Conservatism or concentration of power?
4. Kiss Aranka : Ten years of employee ownership in Hungary
5. Len Krimerman : The uncertain future of employee ownership
6. Somogyi Csaba : The future of Mitbestimmung in Germany
7. Corey Rosen : ESOP in the US
8. Chitra Somayaji : Workers’ cooperatives
9. John Ross : Privatisation scandals in Russia
10. David M. Kotz : Capitalsut collapse
11. Németh György : Dilemmas of the pension reform in Hungary
12. Krausz Tamás : Ferencvaros, 1956
13. Benjamin Barber : McWorld versus democracy
14. Bernard Cassen : Ten commandments of the superiority of citizen interests
15. Gilbert Keith Chesterton : Private property versus individual enterprise
16. Sándor Karikó : Lukacs and Marx

Western philosophical literature presents Lukacs as „an authentic follower" of Karl Marx. The paper tests this hypothesis by comparing the conceptual frameworks of the two authors, and focusing on categories like labour, production and society.

The Spring of 1999 is the time when Hungary joins NATO. When a referendum was held about the expansion of NATO, it was also promised that this move would accelerate the Eastward enlargement of the EU too. Two renowned experts, Margit Racz and Tamas Csapody explain the dynamic of the double integration with some more realism.