Editor’s Page

Our interview with the leader of the Italian Democratic Party of the Left, Massimo D’Alema, suggests the difficulties faced by European social democracy as it struggles to adjust to, but also to resist, the material and ideological power of the market. These difficulties are ours too, here in the United States, though we approach them without a party or political tradition that embodies an alternative view of social organization. American politics and society have always been peculiarly vulnerable to market forces, and today vulnerability is the painful everyday experience of many Americans. That experience is examined here in four articles. Bashi Fein describes the HMO revolution that followed hard upon Clinton’s failure to ...