Twenty years has passed since the Age of Extremes was published. Despite of the relative shortness of this period it shows new or newly seen changes on the global scene. The direction and magnitude of these changes are still not clear but this does not lift the need for analysing them and to investigate the possible social and political actions stemming from them.

See the original article in New Left Review 61, January-February 2010.

"Personal responsibility cannot be taken by so many of our fellow countrymen. The society should take it that provides neither sufficient jobs nor income for them," concludes the well known leftist economist in his study written for the European Social Watch 2010 report.

The study presents the economic development of China over the past two or three decades, reviewing economic policy and social dilemmas as well. Since the early 1980s, Beijing gave an ever increasing role for market initiatives and achieved immense success in the evolution of productive forces but had to face the specific outcomes of the market oriented development like unemployment and income polarization. State regulation and planning were used to tame these negative effects but it is questionable whether these two different "logics" can live together on the long term.

This analysis shows that the present conflict between the Kyrgyzes and the Uzbeks is not a rebirth of a traditional "ethnic conflict" but sprang from the internal fight between the different fractions of the Kyrgyz elite. The tension was artificially agitated to meet specific economic and political goals. The author also outlines the social roots and international background of the conflict.