Abstract

The crisis of contemporary political science and social science, in general, reflects
the crisis in both capitalism and socialism. The search for theoretical alternatives in order to resolve
the crisis has involved redirection rather than a new direction. This paper first examines
various post-forms of society, specifically post-liberalism, post-imperialism, and post-Marxism
and affirms that, while these conceptions may be innovative and provocative, nevertheless
they do not allow for the shaping of new paradigms. Second, the paper critically examines
major themes of the 1990s and concludes with the observation that intellectuals differ over the
direction of development once questions become of fundamental preference for capitalism or
socialism; over questions of the state because of their use of either class or non-class analyses;
and over questions of socialism and democracy because of their inclination to favor either
indirect or direct forms of participation in the political process. Thus, the preference for either
capitalism or socialism may shape ideals and distort realities so that the production of new
ideas may be nothing other than the reproduction of old ideas in a new guise.

JEL Classification: P51.