Cet article analyse la situation des femmes dans la Pologne post-stalinienne à partir de la notion féministe de backlash utilisée par Susan Faludi à propos de l’Amérique des années 1980. Dans le cas polonais, le backlash concerne la participation des femmes au marché du travail et les discours sur les rôles sociaux qu’elles doivent assumer. Il est un élément d’une nouvelle stratégie de légitimation du pouvoir communiste qui donne la preuve de son caractère national et traditionnel en restaurant (...) un ordre de genre en matière de sphère privée et de famille. Avec comme conséquence le fait que la situation des femmes se définit par la coexistence ambiguë d’émancipation et de tradition. (shrink)

The role of the state has occupied centre stage in the development of economics as an independent discipline and is one of the most contentious issues addressed by contemporary economists and political economists. The immediate post-war years saw a swing in economic theory towards interventionism, motivated by the urgent need for reconstruction in advanced capitalist countries, the establishment of socialism in parts of Asia and Eastern Europe, and the liberation of many developing nations from colonialism. After a quarter of a (...) century of interventionist policies, a vigourous backlash against state intervention began with the discrediting of welfare statism in advanced capitalist countries, grew through the spread of liberalisation programmes among developing nations during the 1980s, and culminated in the dismantling of socialist central planning since 1989. In this volume, ten distinguished contributors examine patterns of interventionism and anit-interventionism in a wide variety of historical, political and institutional contexts and within different theoretical traditions. Their primary focus is on the internal factors which shape the role of the state and determine its effectiveness in promoting economic change. They explain the growing disenchantment with the Neo-Liberal, anti-interventionist programme--even in Eastern Europe and the former USSR, where the initial optimism in the efficacy of the free market is fading fast. The overall conclusion of the empirical and theoretical analysis is that the simplistic notion of politics fundamental to Neo-Liberal arguments makes them at best misleading and at worst deceitful. Although one can talk of certain general principles, there is no hard and fast rule to determine the optimal degree and the desirable areas of state intervention, which can only be determined in the concrete historical, institutional, and geographical context. The challenge is to form a new synthesis in which the valid insights of Neo-Liberalism are stripped of their ideological baggage and intergrated into a wider and more objective intellectual framework. (shrink)

In light of Perry Anderson's recent re-Iaunch of New Left Review, and the publication of Gregory Elliott's Perry Anderson: The Merciless Laboratory of History, it is perhaps an opportune moment for Marxists to assess Anderson's contribution to socialist strategic thought. At the heart of Anderson's manifesto is the claim that the principal aspect of the past decade ‘can be defined as the virtually uncontested consolidation, and universal diffusion, of neoliberalism'. There is, obviously, something in this claim. However, Anderson also briefly (...) notes, amongst other counter-currents, the labour upsurge in France in 1995, but dismisses the significance of these events with the claim that ‘capital has comprehensively beaten back all threats to its rule'. Anderson compares the context of the launch of the first New Left Review with that of the present day. He writes that, back then, a third of the planet had broken with capitalism, the discrediting of Stalinism in 1956 had unleashed a vital process of the rediscovery of authentic Marxism, while, culturally, there had been a qualitative break with the conformism of the 1950s. Today, by contrast, American capitalism has reasserted its international primacy, European social-democratic governments are implementing policies designed to follow the American model, Japan is suffering from a slump, while the Russian catastrophe has produced no popular backlash. Moreover, the Western powers have recently asserted themselves successfully in the Balkans, and, despite upsurges against capital in the 1990s, ‘no collective agency able to match the power of capital is yet on the horizon’. How are socialists to respond to this diagnosis? In this essay, I want to locate the logic of Anderson's interpretation of the present conjuncture within the context of his previous strategic claims. I will argue that, while socialists will always have much to learn from Anderson, strategically his thought has systematically suffered from a form of political impressionism. This suggests that his interpretation of the present conjuncture may fail the test of history. (shrink)

Generous parental leave policies are popular in a number of countries around the world and are usually seen as a sign of the ‘family friendliness’ of the state. Relying on in-depth interviews with mothers on parental leave in Hungary, the authors argue that the context in which the policies are implemented should be examined when evaluating their consequences. In semi-peripheral, resource-poor Hungary lengthy parental leave policies turn women into an invisible ‘reserve army of labourers’. While their employment is mostly unaccounted (...) for in aggregate statistics, and political discourse suggests that their ‘job’ is to look after children, nevertheless many women do end up doing some work for wages during the almost five years they spend on parental leave. However, given the rigidity of the labour market and rampant discrimination against mothers with small children, their chances of obtaining formal employment are small. They therefore resort to doing ad hoc, temporary, informal work, which is often underpaid and well below their qualifications. Thus generous family policies do not necessarily indicate the ‘women friendliness’ of the state and may not lead to the relatively favourable trade-off between stable public sector work and lower wages suggested recently by comparative researchers. Instead, in this specific context, which combines legacies of state socialism, a backlash against women’s emancipation before 1990 and a peripheral, vulnerable labour market, familialist policies are associated with a high degree of marginalisation for women with small children in which the state is at best complicit, at worst, an active agent. (shrink)

The books under review exemplify some of the finest recent work on the historically informed political economy of Central and Eastern Europe. While different in their conceptual frameworks and geographical foci, the titles converge in the advancement of nuanced and convincing arguments, displaying both theoretical acuity and empirical depth to great effect. Bartel, Fabry, and Pula all share a resolute dedication to illuminating the under-explored provenances of neoliberalism and/or globalization in the region, that predate the annus mirabilis of 1989. Their (...) contributions situate the ‘Eastern bloc’ states within the contours of evolving global political economy and the existential crises engulfing capitalism and ‘actually existing socialism’ during the 1970s and beyond. The authors expound on the intricate web of global capital accumulation, geopolitical competition, and skilful diplomatic strategy, which served to dismantle the ‘Iron Curtain’. Two contributions further assess the postscripts of the 1989 revolutions. (shrink)

How did intellectuals react to the economic crisis of 2007-2008 and its long-term backlash? What did they learn from the main twentieth-century political and social experiences, in order to make a new sense of the traditional cultures of the Left? In order to answer these crucial issues, this proposal will analyze the paths of the well-known historians E. Hobsbawm and T. Judt and their apparently similar, but actually different reactions to the crisis. First, I will focus on their respective (...) books: How to Change the World and Ill Fares the Land. On the one hand, Hobsbawm?s critical approach to the post-1991 world, shaped by his lifelong fidelity to Marxism and his persistent sympathy for the Russian Revolution, was connected to his catastrophic vision of the end of the both conflicting and collaborative dynamics between capitalism and socialism. On the other hand, Judt?s re-thinking of the social-democratic tradition, compelled by the global transformations of the social question, was inspired by his connections with the East Central European dissidents? anti-totalitarian liberalism and by his critical approach to the engagement of the French intellectuals. Second, I will investigate their different interpretations of the?Golden Age? of post-1945 Europe and of the causes of its crisis. Third, I will show how, in spite of their common reference to Marx, late Hobsbawm?s and Judt?s historical visions - respectively combined with determinism and moralism - provide opposite ways of coping with the legacies of the 20th century and of criticizing the language of neoliberal economy within the Left. nema. (shrink)

La nature exacte du rapport de Foucault aux Lumières n’est pas aisée à déterminer. Cet article part de l’hypothèse selon laquelle Foucault lit l’héritage des Lumières au prisme de la tradition socialiste ultérieure, c’est-à-dire au prisme des différentes variantes du projet d’émancipation né dans le sillage de la critique socio-politique des Lumières et de la Révolution française. Foucault est hostile à l’idée même d’un idéal de libération globale et universellement valable, c’est pourquoi il s’emploie à déconstruire les fondements philosophiques (...) d’une telle idée : le rationalisme, le progressisme et l’humanisme modernes, qui trouvent leur source au xviii e siècle. Cet objectif est un fil rouge qui donne une cohérence à sa trajectoire intellectuelle malgré les évolutions qui s’y font jour. (shrink)

Pour un Américain vivant en France, spécialisé dans l’histoire du socialisme français au XIXe siècle, et, plus particulièrement dans la pensée de Pierre-Joseph Proudhon comme moi, je ne pouvais que trouver absurde la campagne lancée six mois après l’investiture du président Barack Obama par les militants les plus extrémistes du Parti Républicain,..

This article deals with the process through which party leaders in the Parti Socialiste were selected in the eighties and the nineties. Despite theparty congress's entitlement to elect leaders, the critical factor in winning the leadership has been endorsement by predecessors. G. Spitaels and Ph. Busquin are cases in point.The congress merely serves as a ritual, as a consequence of which the outcome of the vote is highly predictable, influenced as it is by party events and role-expectations. Socialist party (...) leaders have a wide arsenal at their disposal to rule the party in a rather autoritarian way; a classic example being the plebisciteBusquin provoked in 1994 to expand bis power. How, by whom and to what extent they obtain and enforce this autoritarian power are key questions in this study. (shrink)

Une revue socialiste méconnue, Révolte (1931-1934), donne à voir l’expression de « l’esprit des années trente » dans une SFIO marquée par la sortie de guerre et la défaite de Tours. Au sein de cette petite tribune parisienne, un groupe de jeunes militants cherche à rénover la doctrine socialiste, « chose vieille, trop connue », et à redresser la « vieille maison » pour qu’elle puisse conquérir les masses nouvelles et assumer enfin ses responsabilités en prenant le pouvoir. (...) Cette « Classe 22 », génération tout à la fois effrayée et fascinée par la modernité de l’après-guerre, élabore un discours et une pensée propres et singuliers, qui ne trouvent que peu d’échos dans la gauche française. Étouffée par un Parti qui cherche à maintenir coûte que coûte l’unité d’une famille socialiste fragile, puis invisibilisée par le Front populaire qui est le triomphe de la génération suivante, la Classe 22 échoue à exister. Cette génération entravée donne tout de même à voir la manière dont le phénomène de « l’esprit des années trente » a infusé dans le socialisme français. (shrink)

Cet article porte sur la question des conditions historiques et sociales de la démocratie, objet de réflexion permanent dans les écrits politiques de Lukács, et singulièrement entre 1945 et 1951, quand il s’engage dans les débats, en Hongrie et à l’échelle européenne, sur la situation politique de l’après-guerre. C’est aussi sous cet angle que Lukács développe ses idées en faveur d’une nouvelle forme de démocratie sociale. On reconstitue ici les arguments historiques et théoriques de Lukács contre la démocratie représentative libérale (...) et et l’on présente la conception inédite de la démocratie socialiste qu’il défend. Mais on analyse aussi l’évaluation lukácsienne du fascisme et son rôle fondamental dans le discrédit de la « réalité politique » de la démocratie traditionnelle. (shrink)

Résumé La défense du marché dans la tradition socialiste libérale est instrumentale : le marché est toléré lorsqu’il permet de produire des richesses en abondance que l’on peut redistribuer ex post. De son côté, la justification républicaine du marché, telle que présentée dans les travaux de Pettit, vise à réduire la domination dans l’échange. Cet article soutient qu’une telle justification nécessite d’être renforcée en l’adossant à un égalitarisme matériel, garant d’un échange entre égaux, établi ex ante.

La crise du socialisme est devenue un lieu commun de la pensée politique et s’explique par la conjonction de plusieurs évolutions contemporaines. À écouter certains discours qui, il n’y a pas si longtemps, décrivaient, à l’image de Bernard-Henry Lévy, le socialisme, comme un « grand cadavre à la renverse », être socialiste aujourd’hui, c’est d’abord être le représentant..

v. 1. De la Renaștere la epoca "Luminilor".

The contemporary development of socialist economy is featured not only by high dynamics, but also by essential structural and qualitative changes. The economic policy and the socialist planning in particular tendtowards optimalization of economic growth, then to engage for its proper directions, structure and rythmicality. The every year growing national product ought to be, as it is possible, most suitable and useful for implementation of threefold objective: 1° the better satisfaction with the necessities of population, 2° the quicker modernization of (...) the national economy, and 3° the effective development of the foreign trade as well as the international cooperation.The superiority of a set of social criteria is becoming the general assumption of economic policy. A vision of the future human being and the mature society is determining prospective objectives and aims of the development as well is indicating ways and means for their realization by economic policy.The economic growth is not objective by itself, but has to serve for a comprehensive social advancement. At the same time the factors of social advancement advantageously impact the labour productivity and otherwisethey perform a role of additional stimulatives of the economic growth.The objectives of social advancement should be realized gradually basing on staging patterns of systematic raise of the living standards of the population. A hierarchy and a sequence of satisfaction with the both individual and collective necessities demand a skillful application of the criteria of the economic and social choice. We are using here the principle of social and economic rationality.Hence the factors of social advancement, involving the scientific and technical progress, belang to the fundumatel elements of the present economic and social policy. At the same time objectives and means of modern economic and social advancement are here strictly interlaced. (shrink)

Recently, several articles have asserted that corporate social responsibility programs have gone too far and need to be reigned in. These critics have charged that corporate social responsibility is to be regarded with skepticism and that any changes in corporate accountability should be superficial at best. I will examine a␣number of these objections; I conclude that these critiques are largely ill founded, but that their increasing frequency in popular media is a cause for concern. I argue that these purported objections (...) are better understood as one part of a long-term cycle that generally accompanies positive moral change in institutions. Using the feminist movement as a touchstone, I examine the similarities between backlash against the movement for corporate accountability as compared to backlash against feminists. I␣also suggest ways in which successful strategies adopted by feminists could be used effectively to communicate the aims of those working to increase awareness of business accountability. (shrink)

Backlashing is a perennial challenge for human rights. Its manifestation in various forms including the repudiation of human rights standards or resistance to being evaluated by them has made the phenomena central to the discourses on human rights. The backlash or reversal of progress, a strong negative reaction, and counter reactions have been witnessed in various settings across the world. An analysis of the phenomena what can be called the backlash analysis is done in light of specific rights (...) like LGBT rights, women’s sexual and reproductive freedom, rights of immigrants and ethnic and religious minorities. The analysis also covers the behaviour of institutions and movements. The backlashers have been identified as state institutions, a group of states, movements and non-state actors. With growing attention on the subject, it is of great value to ascertain whether there a way to comprehensively understand it? (shrink)

Dans une lettre d’avril 1967, Jan Patočka évoque la situation philosophique en Tchécoslovaquie : le « thème [«Marxisme et phénoménologie» est] très moderne ici, puisque le marxisme tel qu’on le comprend actuellement chez nous ne saurait se passer d’un appui extérieur, et la phénoménologie, surtout heideggérienne, paraît à beaucoup très apte à lui rendre ce service ». Le phénoménologue tchèque fait non seulement référence aux conférences que ses amis et anciens secrétaires de Husserl, Eugen Fi...