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A discussion of the future of critical theory, focusing on the legacy of Theodor W. Adorno's work & whether it is possible to ground critical theory on neo-Kantian foundations. The diminishing importance of the work of Max Horkheimer is discussed, as is the theory of artificial negativity formulated by the third generation of critical theorists. This theory postulated that as certain social spheres become more rationalized, the social whole will become more irrational, permitting the reintroduction of new relations of domination under the pretense of eliminating old ones. Also discussed is the collapse of communism in relation to critical theory & the rise of the culture industry.

For the US, the end of the Cold war entails exhaustion of military Keynesianism & of the legitimacy of massive deficit spending as a means to regulate steady economic growth. Consequently, the collapse of communism is having the unintended consequence of reintroducing disfunctions responsible for the Great Depression. They were never effectively resolved, but only contained by an increasingly unmanageable welfare/warfare state. Thus, far from representing the collapse of an alternative system, the crisis of bureaucratic centralism in the former Soviet empire turns out to be due to a much more intense & brutal institutionalization of the very same political strategies deployed in the West. On closer analysis, liberalism & Marxism-Leninism reveal themselves to be different versions of the same Enlightenment ideology. The problem with both Eastern & Western versions of bureaucratic centralism is that they are ultimately unmanageable, & their crises are another symptom of the obsolescence of the traditional nation-state. Growing patterns of national disintegration worldwide signal long-repressed populist unrest. This populism, however, has yet to find its adequate institutional expression. In this context, the US finds itself confronted with the need to reconsider a modified version of antebellum federalism, unshackled by the massive central bureaucratic apparatus that has become identified with federalism for over a century. Modified AA

It is argued that only radical reforms in the nature of the USSR's political system & fundamental economic relations -- including a reintroduction of private ownership of means of production, free markets in capital & labor, & integration in the capitalist world -- will benefit the country during the current crisis. Continuing the Soviet ideological agenda, even in light of marketization & democratization measures, has not been successful in producing economic improvements. The passage from totalitarianism to civil society will require more than glasnost & perestroika; the present regime must completely dissolve. One approach to implementing difficult economic reforms -- authoritarian perestroika -- revokes democratic procedures & enforces economic plans. But this plan failed during Mikhail Gorbachev's first two years in office. It is concluded that Soviet dictatorship is delegitimated & cannot be rehabilitated. J. Sadler

Reflections are offered by the current editor on the twenty-year history of Telos, an academic journal devoted to Western Marxism & critical theory. Founded by a group of graduate students at the State U of New York, Buffalo, Telos began as an effort to revitalize US philosophy in the late 1960s by rediscovering European thought & Western Marxism. Telos's early rejection of the structuralism of Louis Althusser is accounted for, as is the journal's interest in phenomenology, GB philosophy of science, & critical theory. As Telos began to develop its project of a phenomenologically-grounded critical theory, the New Left began to disintegrate, rendering the journal a political orphan. During the 1970s & 1980s, the focus of Telos shifted to the new historicism, theories of modernization, & the rejuvenation of critical theory via the work of Jurgen Habermas. W. Howard

On the twentieth anniversary of 1968, recollections of that year by many chroniclers ("mythologizers") reveal not only the glorification of their youth, but the political agendas of the 1980s. The mythologizers come from three groups: those committed neoconservatives who saw 1968 as a catastrophe & are now holding comfortable moderate liberal positions; born-again liberals who belong to the current intellectual elite; & those who supposedly have remained committed for two decades to their 1968 ideals. Because of their commitment to myth, the mythologizers cannot reconstruct why 1968 happened, nor why it failed. The treatments by the three groups of the myths of the end of US world hegemony, a single world system, the international communist conspiracy, & gender & race, are discussed, & an alternative analysis of 1968 is offered. In the 1960s generalized corruption was blamed on a state defending corporate capitalist interests against all other groups. This systemic crisis could not be solved by administrative measures, so an alternative grass-roots infrastructure developed; before it could mature, however, the bureaucracy compromised & absorbed the most receptive countercultural elements. M. Pflum

It is contended that, despite the Right's political, social, & cultural hegemony in the US during the 1980s -- resulting in three Republican presidential victories -- conservative ideology is fragmented. This paradox is reflected in the failure -- or, at best, quasi-success -- of right-wing initiatives on issues ranging from school prayer, to taxation, to foreign policy. Further, the Republican party, which has been paying only lip service to cultural populism, is meeting strong resistance against its commitment to wealth & privilege. Had the Democratic party been able to mobilize its divergent forces, the right wing might have fallen some time ago, but the liberals have been equally unable to achieve hegemony. This situation has led to political chaos, which can be expected to continue for the foreseeable future. J. W. Stanton

Discussed is the concept of one-dimensionality, which is seen to have been outdated in the early 1960s because the phase of capitalist development it describes was already in the process of being superseded. The critical theory which formulated the thesis is examined & found wanting owing to the unwillingness of orthodox Marxists to break with traditional thought. The role of psychoanalysis in Marxist critical theory is discussed. The processes of homogenization & depersonalization are analyzed & related to the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, & the rise of criminality. The international context of the elimination of specificity & otherness is examined. A. Rubins.