The Public and the Private: Introduction

Abstract

The Marxist twentieth century has come to an end. It started long before the Bolshevik revolution. Its final hour can be established with precision: it came when the Round Table negotiations started in Warsaw, in March 1988. This meant that the idea of transferring power to the non-communist opposition had gained acceptance among Soviet leaders. This fact had consequences going far beyond narrow political concerns. Before it, many intellectuals could have claimed that, although a lot of evil had been done in the people's paradise, the basic idea was sound. They may have had problems in explaining sources of the evil, yet they managed to live with them. Now, no serious person can take this stand. It is evident that sources of the evil were in the architecture of the communist order and, probing deeper, in the theoretical design of this order. This proposition should compel us to rethink the basic issues of social order, to re-examine the institutional foundations of human