In connection with the first Hungarian publication of the book by the late "father" of neoliberalism called Road to serfdom, the reviewer discusses the topicality of Hayek's ideas. He regards it as important that during the domination of fascism and Stalinism, Hayek discussed his ideas strongly opposed to the state in defence of democracy. Andor points out Hayek's inconsistency when he fails to extend his correct criticism of despotism to the conditions inside the factory, i.e. economic despotism. At the same time, he underlines the applicability of Hayek's ideas against the trends of monopoly and concentration of the international economy.
Category Archives: Former issues
Rome against the Wall Street?
Similarly to Abascal-Jaen, Löwy too, discusses the Vatican's relationship to capitalism and analyses the encyclical letter called Centesimus Annus. He interprets the role of the Church as a third force in the context of capitalism-socialism, and he too, arrives at the final conclusion that the anticapitalist remarks of the encyclical letter do not offer an alternative but rather serve the easing of the existing capitalism and thus its indirect justification.
The 100th anniversary of the birth of Antonio Gramsci
The author provides a review of the events of the Gramsci centenary. He discusses in detail the addresses delivered at the Gramsci conference in Formia in 1989, enumerates the schools of Gramsci research in Italy, reviews the reception of Gramsci in Hungary and reports on the Gramsci conference held in Szeged in 1991.
The future of religion: reconstruction of socialism or restoration of nationalism? (Excerpt)
The author sees the collapse of the East European systems as advantageous from the point of view of the future of left-wing thinking. Similarly to Betto, he too points to the common roots of Christian and Marxist norms whose essence is the inseparable unity of solidarity and individual autonomy and he juxtaposes this to the other line of thought of the age, the nationalism involving the interests of multinational capital.
Stalin and historigraphy – thopughts on the bigraphy by Deutscher
In connection with the Hungarian edition of I. Deutscher's book on Stalin, the reviewer underlines three circles of problems: the analysis of Stalin's personality, the social-institutional background of Stalinism and the integration of the Stalinist "primary accumulation of capital" into the idea of world system, stressing the important role played by the war culture of modern capitalist civilisation, that is agression as industrial enterprise and intellectual product.