Suchergebnisse

Social facts and policies can be understood only in light of our own perceptions. This holds true with a vengeance where ethnicity, nationhood, or nationalism are concerned. All through the twentieth century this syndromecum-terminological chain has played an extensive, puzzling and usually unpredicted part in structuring social life and political action. New ethnic identities (for example, Tanzania'ism or Indonesian'ism) with their related designations and loyalties have cometo the fore with a speed that reveals the transitional and relational nature of ethnic phenomena. The same holds true for the ups and downs of acute nationalism. On the other hand, many throughout the world would agree with the great Catalonian historian, Pierre Vilar, whose internationalist values are not in doubt, that "in the relationship between my own life and history, nationals problems seem to overwhelm all others." However one may conceptualize ethnicity and nationalism, their political impact has provided a major and continuous dimension of social action.

A review of the talk given by Otto Latsis -- an economist & assistant editor of the Soviet Communist Party journal Communist at a 1989 Oxford (England) meeting on "Gorbachev and the European Left." The theoretical underpinnings of USSR economic policies were still based on Joseph Stalin's texts when perestroika (restructuring) started in 1985. An alternative economic program worked out by the Party intellectuals earlier, despite hopes for a rapid take-off after a short transitional period, brought inflation & scarcity of basic consumer goods. In 1989 the authorities allocated food produce according to the consumer's family. One reason for the total collapse of the Soviet market in 1989 lies in the government's economic inexperience, but the most important factor is the specific form of power of Soviet monopolistic ministries. Otto Latsis argues that the next step of perestroika should be to reduce the power of ministerial managers through political intervention, leading to the free development of institutions of public authority playing the central role in national economic transformation. A. Devic