The problems and the real economic and social structure of the village, and the reasons and trends of its today almost catastrophic situation are mostly unknown to the leftist readers and political movements. Without conscious structural changes the anachronistic agriculture and the fragmented farm structure formed on the ruins of the co-operative system that was destroyed after the change of regime, continue to be the certain sources of poverty and backwardness.

After the change of regime, the political elite started a new division of land by ignoring any domestic and international trend. The surpassed alternative of the "Hungarian farmer" promised and promises no prospects for the country and the villages. Unfortunately, it is not the inventors who have to pay for this Don Quijotic idea.

For about two decades there is little difference between the social democratic parties and the social liberals in the decisive questions of economy and social politics. Therefore it can be internationally important that in Germany a new political formation, the Linkspartei came to the fore. This significant experiment led by the experienced and charismatic politicians, Gregor Gysi and Oskar Lafontaine can re-arrange the political fragmentation in Germany.

Can the philosophy (and any social science) have social relevance or is it only the business of scholars? Does an intellectual have to – or can an intellectual – play a public role or he or she is predestined to formulate (often unpractical) theses that are taught at the university? The author addresses this question on the occasion of the centenary Sartre-conference organised in Rome.

Table of contents

1. Barry K. Gills : Prophet in the desert. Andre Gunder Frank (1929-2005)
2. Andre Gunder Frank : The king is naked
3. Kees van der Pijl : The aesthetics of the empire and the defeat of the left
4. François Houtart : Is there an alternative to world capitalism?
5. David Harvey : The new imperialism and the global economy of deprivation. (Interview)
6. Andre Mommen : The essay examines the impact of globalization
7. Anwar Shaikh : The economic mythology of neoliberalism
8. Vigvári Gábor : Ten years after the Bokros-package. Comparative study of the anniversary articles in the Hungarian media
9. Lóránt Károly : The neoliberal politics of the European Union. From theory to practice
10. Andor László : Empire or whatever you want
11. Kiss Viktor : The alternatives of the reform politics – to the margin of a privately published book
12. Mocsáry József : The hour of justice. Thoughts on the village and agriculture
13. Laki László : The country and the villages “after agriculture”
14. Hajdu János : The Linkspartei comes to the fore in Germany
15. Szabó Tibor : Jean-Paul Sartre, the disputed intellectual