Contenu du sommaire : La démocratie en défaut

Vladimir Tismaneanu, Human Rights, Peace and East European Dissent A mutual suspicion seems to govern the dialogue between Western peaceniks and East European dissidents. Western pacifists tend to single out the United States as the chief responsible for the maddening arms race and the threat to global stability, thus suspecting East European dissidents of malevolent attitudes not only towards the Communist authoritarian bureaucracies, but also against the very idea of socialism. They tend to regard the URSS as a country like any other, to be blind to the dangers created by Soviet expansionism and to ignore the everyday repressive context of totalitarian regimes. At the other pole, East European dissidents groups are beleaguered minorities, harassed by the secret police, isolated from the larger community. They think that the struggle for peace has been biased by the official peace movements and it cannot be separated from the major issue of freedom and human rights. Recently, a kind of calibration between both movements has become more likely than in the past, as shown by the memorandum signed in common in Vienna in November 1986, and addressed to "citizens, social groups, and governments" of each side of European divide.

Michael Löwy, Yes to the rights of men, no to the cold war. An Answer to V. Tismaneanu The discourse of the cold war is in decline but is far from having disappeared, both in the West and in the East. Tismaneanu' s paper, without doubt sincere, is nevertheless an example of the Western brand. But there is a growing number of individuals, on both sides of "the wall" which refuse to choose between the two military and ideological blocs. is a growing number of individuals, on both sides of "the wall" which refuse to choose between the two military and ideological blocs.

Pierre- André Taguieff, Civilisation versus barbary ? A critical archeology of a few contemporary ideological corruptions (nationalism, humanitarianism, imperialism) Nationalism is studied on the basis of the oppositions : national/foreign, universal/particular, friend/enemy, superior/ inferior, in turn in : the "committed philosophers » of French anti-German propaganda under the 3rd Republic (nationalism implying xenophobia and universalism, the core of French ideological particularism, being a universalist patriotism) ; the Enlightenment's doctrine of compassion (neo-religious character of humanitarianism which, in romanticism, assumes a missionary role and fuses with patriotic exaltation) ; the personalized and "rationalist" humanism of Julien Benda (or anti- fanatical fanaticism) ; the illusions of integral political individualism ; the most recent misadventures of abstract universalism : contemporary anti-racist ideology, a hegemonic variant (the ultimate lack of differentiation of mankind by the universal abolition of frontiers and the fraternity of communities), in which the anti-nationalism implied in the progressivism which aims at the ethno-cultural uniformisation of the world by means of the assimilation of all with all, is also contained in the nationalist framework of the community of equal brothers raised to the sum of the nations in their entirety. The maximal ideological corruption of the demand of universality appears, historically, to be represented by modern imperialism of which the driving force remains a nationalist myth of some sort.

Simone Bonnafous, The French press and « immigrant news » Did the period 1974-1984 effectively witness the gradual production of a consensus on immigration by the main French majority and opposition parties ? If so, what is its basis and its relationship to the « extremes » on the political scene ? This article attempts to reply to this question by analysing the referential strategies of ten « political » newpapers (belonging to parties, or representing a specific viewpoint) : Militant, Le /National, Minute, Le Quotidien, Le Figaro, Le Nouvel Observateur, Libération, L'Unité, L'Humanité Dimanche, and Lutte Ouvrière.

Ulysses Santamaria and Alain Manville, Marx : Between Radical Idealism and Anarchic Individualism The road to Marx's thought supposes as its condition a movement of radical depositioning in relation to the classically established guidelines for journeying through his work. Marx's thought, in opposition to any interpretation which sees therein a reflection on the social sphere, defines a radical form of individualism which is intended as the absolute criticism of any desire to construct a new order, an individualism which allows absolutely nothing which might obstruct the value of the meaning of autonomy to prevail.

Alain Brossat, Brecht and Lukacs ; Stalinists in their context In this article, the author outlines a paradox the analysis of which appears to him stimulating for the understanding of Stalinism : while Brecht and Lukacs were diametrically opposed to each other in the well-known literary and aesthetic discussion in which they engaged, their positions were closer and they appear as « twin stars » when their situation as intellectuals under Stalinism is considered. Seen from this angle, the Brecht-Lukacs relationship, the convergent elements of which can be found in their respective attitudes to Stalinism and in their « Stalinist » way of thinking, gives us an opportunity of exploring the infinitely complex relationship between intellectuals and Communism in the 1930's. An « arranged marriage » rather than a profession of faith, the conversion of Brecht and Lukacs to Stalinism, sheds an often unexpected light on what was the « commitment » of the radical intelligentsia between the wars.

Liliane Crips, Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), a social-democratic eugenist In the present context of « uncertainty » as regards the Nazi crimes, the concealing or the condemning of the work of the celebrated German sexologist, Magnus Hirschfeld, illustrates the difficulty of discerning precisely to what extent scientism, which was very common at the beginning of this century in Europe intellectual circles, played a role in the move of a whole society towards barbarism. In particular, the question arises as regards eugenics which developed originally amongst the « modernists », in reaction to submission to the « intangible » biological laws put forward by the churches. Now Hirschfeld, amongst the personalities most detested by the Nazis under the Weimar Republic is today accused by some of having contributed to preparing public opinion for the aberrations of national-socialist eugenics. On the contrary, we shall attempt here to demonstrate the humanist nature of his theoretical and practical positions.