After Liberalism

Fülszöveg

Ill After Liberalism, the distinguished historian and poh'tical sdcntiii Iniiuaiiuel Matlcrstcin examines the proccss of disintegration of our modern world-system and speculates on the changes that may occur during the next few decades. He explores the historical clioiccs before us and suggests paths for reconstructing our world-system on a tiioiv rational and socially equitable basis.
FROM THE INTRODUCTION:
"The destruction of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent dissolution ofthe U.S.S.R. have been celebrated as the fall of the Communisms and the collapse of Marxism-Leninism as an ideological force in the modern world. This is no doubt correct. These events have also been celebrated as the final triumph of liberalism as an ideology. This is a total misperception of reality. Quite the contrary, these same events marked euen more the collapse of liberalism and our definitive entry into the world 'after liberalism.'. . .
"This rejection of liberal refonnisni is being implemented... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Ill After Liberalism, the distinguished historian and poh'tical sdcntiii Iniiuaiiuel Matlcrstcin examines the proccss of disintegration of our modern world-system and speculates on the changes that may occur during the next few decades. He explores the historical clioiccs before us and suggests paths for reconstructing our world-system on a tiioiv rational and socially equitable basis.
FROM THE INTRODUCTION:
"The destruction of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent dissolution ofthe U.S.S.R. have been celebrated as the fall of the Communisms and the collapse of Marxism-Leninism as an ideological force in the modern world. This is no doubt correct. These events have also been celebrated as the final triumph of liberalism as an ideology. This is a total misperception of reality. Quite the contrary, these same events marked euen more the collapse of liberalism and our definitive entry into the world 'after liberalism.'. . .
"This rejection of liberal refonnisni is being implemented now in the United States under the label of the Contract With America, as it is being simultaneously force-fed to countries all over the world by ministrations of the International Monetary Fund. These overtly reactionary policies will probably stimulate a political backlash in the United States, as has been happening already in Eastern Europe, because these policies worsen rather than improve the immediate economic situation ofthe majority ofthe population. But this backlash will not mean a return to a belief in liberal reformism. It will merely mean that a doctrine that combines a take adulation of tlie market with legislation against the poor and the strangers, which is what is being peddled today by reinvigorated reactionaries, cannot offer a viable substitute for the failed promises of reformism. In any case, my argument is not theirs. Mine is the view of those who uphold . . . the 'modernity of liberation." I think we need to take a sober look at the history of liberalism in order to see what we can salvage tVom the wreckage, and to see iiow we can struggle under the ditticult conditions, and with the ambitious legacy, that liberalism has bequeathed to the world.' Vissza