The crisis of socialism is at the same time the crisis of social democracy. The author denies the concept that social democracy could become a paradigm trend even without an appropriate theoretical basis. He also debates the view that through the paternalism of the welfare state, the historical achievement of social democracy, it would have lost its progressive character. He points out that the multis are much more aggressive when interfering in the "spontaneous processes". If social democracy can be criticised for anything, then it is the far too strong absence of criticism towards representative democracy (to the expense of the mechanism of direct democracy that can be put up against international capital gaining strength with globalisation).
Category Archives: Former issues
No. 16 | (Winter 1992)
After Immanuel Wallerstein and Andre Gunder Frank, now writings of Samir Amin are on the line to present the classics of the New Left in Eszmélet. It is a special honour to us that Amir has sent us 12 of his articles both published and unpublished, out of which four is presented in this issue. He has also sent his book The Empire of Chaos that is valued here by Imre Márton. The next to be presented is Giovanni Arrighi, of whom we publish a longer article here and an additional one in the following issue. Publishing the works of classic authors, to whom Étienne Balibar can also be counted, does not mean at all that we respect them without any criticism. That is why we have been pleased by the contribution of László K. Zalai who is arguing with the standpoint of Wallerstein. The very aim of us publishing the works of outstanding thinkers is to inseminate the theoretical thinking in Hungary.
The section under Variations on a Theme now is a selection of articles from Marx Centouno discussing the Gulf-War and its consequences.
Table of contents
- Samir Amin : Thirty years of criticism of the Soviet system (1960-1990)
- Bodács Emil : Europeanism – yesterday and today. Changes in the historical and geopolitical idea of Europe
- Samir Amin : The Third World is once again a storm zone
- Andre Gunder Frank : The political economy of the North-South conflict
- Marco Bonzio : The “Gulf” imperialism. Thoughts and assumptions on the present stage of development of the capitalist mode of production
- Roger Burbach : The tragedy of the American democracy
- Pip Hinman : War against the environment in Central America
- Thesis of an alternative European development
- Michel Husson : The liberal decade: Towards a capitalism in polarisation
- John Ross : The rise of world poverty
- Alexande Adler : East and South: the triumph of the human rights or the defeat of the human reason??
- Samir Amin : Notes on transnationalisation
- Samir Amin : A note on the concept of delinking
- Giovanni Arrighi : The illusion of development. Renewal of the concept of semi-pheriphery
- Étienne Balibar : From class struggle to struggle without clases
- Zalai K. László : The myth of reality. On the ideological-methodological shortcomings of Wallerstein’s development criticism
- k. g. : What is the thing for which the heroes of “world freedom” have sacrificed their lives?
- Marton Imre : Are the historical possibilities of the left getting exhaused?
- Andor László : Schumacher in Hungary
- One up for science
No. 14 | (Summer 1992)
Different from our previous practice, this double issue of Eszmélet is organised around not only one but three main topics: "Religion and leftism", "Capitalism for beginners" and the "Hatered and the psychology of genocide". The three thematic blocks follow each other in this order.
Table of contents
- Konrád György, Kósa Ferenc, Tőkei Ferenc, Kapitány Gábor : Marxism, politics and moral – roundtable discussion
- Jaen Adolfo Abascal : About the (apparently) inner conflict of the Roman Catholic Church (excerpts)
- Frei Betto : Christianity and Marxism
- Michael Löwy : Rome against the Wall Street?
- Rudolf J. Siebert : The future of religion: reconstruction of socialism or restoration of nationalism? (Excerpt)
- Sara Wilsky : Neofascism – threat or a temporary feature of disorientation crisis in the new Federal Republic
- The future of politically oriented art pieces in public space – Resolutions and minutes of the Budapest City Council on
- Balogh Sándor : Society and crime
- Christoph Butterwege : New German nationalism, great power chauvinism and revanchism
- Kapitány Ágnes, Kapitány Gábor : Belief and ethics in society
- Staub Ervin : Genocide and mass murder: cultural-social and psychological origins
- Szoboszlai György : Constitutional transformation in Hungary
- Vigvári András : Privatisation in Western and Central-Eastern Europe – some lessons
- Harald Werner : Psychological dimensions of the Gulf War
- Kapitány Gábor : Interview with György Bulányi
- Hoch Róbert : The economic liberalism and the danger of a right-shift
- A few ingenious methods to syphon off the profit of weaker economies
- Fascism
- Andor László : Hayek -today
- Kéri Elemér : The 100th anniversary of the birth of Antonio Gramsci
- Krausz Tamás : Stalin and historigraphy – thopughts on the bigraphy by Deutscher
The economic liberalism and the danger of a right-shift
The short study warns against the grave dangers of applying a shock therapy in Hungary. The sinking of two thirds of society bears the danger of the gaining ground of right-wing radicalism.
Marxism, politics and moral – roundtable discussion
The participants of the round-table (György Konrád, Ferenc Kósa, Ferenc Tőkei) analyse the question of the moral responsibility of Marxist movement. Did Marx have a personal responsibility in all that what has come forth from his theory? Where do ethics and morality get separated in the political practice? Is it possible to harmonize (and if yes, then how) the points of view of politics and ethics?