The Social Sciences Today

Abstract

The changes taking place in our society are fundamental and dramatic. Essentially what is happening is a change of the social order. No matter how many attempts are made to gloss over this process by reference to the notion that social formations do not exist, that neither socialism nor capitalism existed or currently exist, but only general civilization, one cannot avoid reality. The reality is that the system, at whose head and base was a totalitarian party and state, where state ownership prevailed and the population was leveled and essentially constituted one class (it was in this sense that the term "the state of all the people" was used), is being replaced by another, perhaps pluralistic order, with a mixed economy and differing forms of ownership. This is the best case. In the worst case, capitalism will be restored, and in its most barbaric form.