It is a favourite thesis of right-wing critics of progressive politics that the Jacobin period of the French revolution was a prototype of all totalitarian regimes, including state socialism. The author presents a revision of the story of 1793-4, and concludes that this was a unique period when popular movements of the time reached the highest possible level of influence.
Category Archives: Former issues
Can a socialist market economy exist?
Péter Szigeti, József Mocsáry, Károly Lóránt and László Andor explain what is a market economy in their opinion and what is not, and whether it is meaningful to add adjectives to the phrase, e.g. "socialist market economy".
Some features of the privatisation in Hungary
An assessment of the economic policy and social environment of the privatisation process, with reference to the available data. In the authors opinion, the strengthening of the private sector in the transitional economies has begun, but it is not exclusively privatisation that provides the main driving force behind that. Due to the hard financial situation of the entrepreneurial sphere, the circle of the privatised firms is far from stable. Through bad debts, the nationalised banking sector appeares as a prime owner of many, and formally privatised companies .
The role of foreign capital in the transformation of Eastern Europe
The paper aims to promote a shift in focus towards the role of foreign capital in the economic transformation of ex-communist countries. It looks briefly at the context of the transnationalisation of economic activity, and looks at the objectives of foreign capital in the region, by examining the patterns of direct investment since 1990. Then the author reviews the impact of foreign capital on host countries, as well as policy responses of the region's governments.
No. 20 | (Winter 1993)
Compared to what we have promised earlier, due to the excessive feed of articles, we have changed the content of this issue of Eszmélet a bit. Articles on social policy (completed with additional ones) will be published in the next issue; thus giving more room to the present main topic namely questions of social democracy. Most of the articles analyses this substantial theoretical and practical current in the past, present and future. Above this, a long article continues the analysis of the Kádár-era of which examination started in the latest issue. Further topics in history, self-government and economy are also addressed.
Table of contents
- Krausz Tamás : Is socialdemocracy coming or going? – A few preliminary remarks to this issue
- Erényi Tibor : Success and difficulties of socialdemocracy from a historic point of view
- Varga Lajos : Socialdemocrats and Hungary’s modernisation
- Olga Velikanova : Lenin’s figure in the public culture in the 20s
- Maróthy János : Involuntary Socialism? – Cultural policy in capitalism
- Kádár Zsuzsa : Documents on the pre-set court trial of György Marosán
- Gunnar Myrdal : Planning and democracy
- Aleksandr Buzgalin : Russian economic theory: from crisis to a new paradigm?
- Szigeti Péter : Socialdemocracy: from where to where? – Merits and weaknesses
- Viktor G. Arszlanov : Three revolutions
- Agárdi Péter : Approaches to the cultural policy issues of the Kádár-era
- Szabó László : Thesis on the extension of employee shareholding in Hungary
- Eva Samaranch Gallén, Ramón Franquesca Artés : Self-government in Spain
- Tütő László : A radical socialdemocrat. Expanding the portrait of Pál Justus the thinker
- Tőkei Ferenc : Messages from the 19th century Marx on socialdemocracy