Daedalus articles from June 1994

Daedalus archives from June 1994

Preface to the issue "After Communism: What?" (Daedalus Summer 1994 issue that addresses the current state of communism and political structures in Europe, Russia and other countries in the post-Cold War era) (After Communism: What?) (Editorial)
June 22, 1994... THE TITLE OF THIS ISSUE, "After Communism: What?," may be thought an exercise in prophecy, an attempt to outline what the world is likely to be in the year 2000 or even beyond. No such vain ambition explains this issue; its intentions are...

Nineteen eighty-nine: the end of which European era? (the lingering impact of the removal of the Berlin Wall and its symbolic representation of an era that goes back to the 19th century) (After Communism: What?) (Editorial)
June 22, 1994... POST-WAR EUROPE WAS ERECTED upon a foundation of myths and forgetting. This is not as cynical or as dismissive as it may appear; the myths were often positive and helpful, there was much that needed to be forgotten, and the results, especially...

After empire: what? (post-Soviet Union politics and Russia's political reforms) (After Communism: What?)
June 22, 1994... FOR TWO-THIRDS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY the lands and peoples of the Soviet Union were defined and studied in terms of their common Soviet, or communist, identity. Eastern Europe was similarly defined for almost half a century (although...

Getting by without government: everyday life in Russia. (political transformation in Russia) (After Communism: What?)
June 22, 1994... We are making such a large turn that it is beyond anyone's dreams. No other people has experienced what has happened to us.(1) --Mikhail Gorbacbev TO DESCRIBE RUSSIA AS A SOCIETY in transition is politically convenient because it...

Russia: lost and found. (challenges for US foreign policy and other western nations in dealing with the new Russia) (After Communism: What?)
June 22, 1994... AMERICA'S RELATIONSHIP WITH RUSSIA and the other postcommunist countries well illustrates George Bernard Shaw's theory that there are two great misfortunes in life--not getting your heart's desire and getting it. For over four decades, the...

Europe's new frontiers: remapping Europe. (political aftermath of the end of the Cold War) (After Communism: What?)
June 22, 1994... THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL SYMBOLIZED the end of the partition of Europe, of a bipolar system which was called Yalta. Once the initial euphoria over the triumph of democracy and the reunification of the continent blew over, new dividing lines...

European paradigms: East and West, 1945-1994. (analysis of the cultural factors that have changed Western and Eastern Europe since the end of World War II) (After Communism: What?)
June 22, 1994... THE LAST FEW DECADES HAVE TAUGHT us once again something that we have often forgotten and are likely to continue to forget: culture is not a luxury. In slightly melodramatic terms, culture is a question of life and death for human societies. To...

Postcommunism: the problems of democratic construction. (Central and Eastern politics) (After Communism: What?)
June 22, 1994... IN ANALYZING THE STATE OF EUROPE, it may be tempting to begin with a quote from Yeats' Second Coming, but that would be for effect only, no second apocalypse is on offer. I do not believe that some "rough beast, its hour come at last, slouches...

Elites in search of a political formula. (finding ways to enhance the transition to democracy in the former communist nations of Eastern Europe) (After Communism: What?)
June 22, 1994... This legal and moral basis, or principle, on which the power of the political class rests, is what we have elsewhere called the political formula. It answers a real need...so universally felt, of governing and knowing that one is governed not...

The postmortem victory of communism. (impact of the lack of preparation in Eastern and Central Europe for the transformation to democratic and free market systems) (After Communism: What?)
June 22, 1994... I "THE COLD WAR IS OVER, THE WEST WON...The Soviet Union. . has collapsed. . . ." This is not a factual, retrospective historical statement. These words were spoken by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1984 before Gorbachev took office.(1)...

The culture of scholarship in Europe today. (the prospects for change in Central and Eastern European universities) (After Communism: What?)
June 22, 1994... THE PRODUCTION AND THE TRANSMISSION OF knowledge are essential activities in all modern societies. Any reflection on Europe today would be incomplete if its unique culture of scholarship did not figure, if the process of building professional...

Philosophical and political thought in Europe today. (assessment of the impact of change in traditional social beliefs and cultural ideology) (Notes from the Past) (Column)
June 22, 1994... What is going on in European political and philosophical thinking? The question looks as natural as natural could be. Can it be answered? Of course, it can: as the Schoolmen said, and quite rightly, from the reality of a thing you can always...