The theory of Wallerstein, writes the author, is one of the progressive anti-capitalist/ anti-systemic theories, which analyse the hierarchical structure and antagonistic contradictions of the capitalism, interpreted as a world system, at the highest scholarly level. At the same time, the inherent contradictions of this theory cannot be hided. It missed to develop a theory of social forms, that can be found at Marx, and says little about the historic features of the soviet and state socialist development and has not really integrated them into the theory. Nevertheless, the theory of Wallerstein is open and can be developed further with a critical angle.

The art of the painter from the Netherlands, despite its anarchist and irrational features, is a true picture of the age of transition, the death agony of feudalism and the birth of capitalism. Immense changes characterised that time: the feudal order was falling apart and the bourgeoisie of the towns attacked the old order and demanded rights. His art is of a world torn by conflicting powers, from which reason was ousted, where animal spirits ruled, the world of force and terror, when reality became a nightmare. That is, a world quite similar to ours.

The study outlines the main characteristics of the workers policies followed in the GDR and Hungary from the 1960s, and tries to answer why the labour class getting rid of the paternalistic control of the state party has not opposed the coming new, capitalist system. The welfare dictatorships tried to purchase the political support of the workers by promising a higher consumer satisfaction, while actual leftist solutions were closed for the masses.

The author is analysing the collapse of state socialism and the return of the illusion of the self-regulating market by using the tools of Polanyi. This transition fits in the third wave of marketisation and commodification, which results in the withdrawal of social rights, the unbounded power of money and transforming nature to a commodity. The researcher sums up the experience of Hungary, before and after the system change, he describes how the attempts for self-governance failed, that would have been a real alternative to the market economy reaching hegemony.

The history of the workers councils in 1989 had many progressive elements especially that employees by using the 1956 experience of workers self-governance have tried again to gain control over production and to establish constitutional guarantees for their ownership. The article recapitulates historic events emphasizing critical points, which bear lessons for a future movement of workers self-governance.