Salvador Allende, President of Chile was murdered twenty five years ago. The agression that was politically supported by the United States stopped a remarkable experiment of socialism and democracy.

The liberalization of international trade does not'lead to either the increase of general welfare or a convergence of national economies. On the contrary, there are many ways how liberalization improves the positions of the well-off nation states and accelerates the relative or absolute impoverishment of the poor. In the recent decades, this process took place with the help of GATT and WTO.

The homoneous world order was created by the world markets, though it is very much an ecological phenomenon. The attempts of creating a rational world rule have led to the exhaustion of resources. The globalization of economic life and of ecological crises mounts a new challenge against the current system of political regulation.

The Dialectic of Enlightenment was perhaps the most important critique of the enlightenment by Marxist authors, and also a most remarkable contribution of the Frankfurt School.

We are waiting nearly 20 years in Hungary for a recovery from economic crisis and hope to see the "end of the tunnel." So far neither austerity measures imposed as a reflex by the economic policy nor structural reforms – market reforms and the system change – put an end to the crisis. Problems of slowdown in economic growth and external balance, that come back time to time, so far have only been increased by the social and economic changes caused by the system change. In the present issue, Eszmélet publishes articles criticising the Hungarian economic policy also giving proposals for probably more successful alternative economic policies that could be followed by the state. Further articles investigate the global economy and the Europe Hungary wants to join. Is the economic policy more independent and successful elsewhere? Who make the most important economic decisions? What are the experiences of catching-up countries? What are the consequences of foreign capital import in developing countries?

Articles also analyse the inner circles of power, the history of the Hungarian left-wing movement in Transylvania as well as the tensioned relationship between Hungarian Roma and the majority society.

Table of contents

1. magyar : Domestic capital, foreign capital
2. Tanyi Attila : Is there an alternative economic policy?
3. Mandel Miklós : The twilight of monetary dictatorship
4. Farkas Péter : Uneven development in the world economy
5. Ulrich Busch : Foreign capital in the transition process
6. Vastag Margó : Marginal notes to Ulrich Busch’s article
7. Remák Edit : Georg Ritzer on the mcdonaldisation of society
8. Márkus Péter : The beast from inside – Korten on corporations ruling the world
9. Csorba Gergely : Europe inorporated
10. Szikszai Szabolcs : Dollars and Sense
11. Szira Tamás : The anatomy of the political elite
12. Wiener György : Power relations and govermental structures in Hungary 988-1994
13. Gáll Ernő : Looking back on the Hungarian left in Transylvania
14. Diósi Ágnes : Inside or outside? The Roma minority and the Hungarian society