Budgetary Policy and the Crisis of the Welfare State  

The federal budget for the fiscal year 1980 proposes a socially regressive shift in national priorities. It uses fiscal policy to engender higher levels of unemployment. It shifts the burden of fighting inflation to those least able to bear it, …



On “Containment” in Asia  

A qualified victory in Southeast Asia was recently claimed by C. L. Sulzberger of the New York Times (January 29, 1967). The containment of China—assertedly the basic objective of U.S. policies in Southeast Asia, reaffirmed as such by Secretary of …



U.S. Economic Policy: From FDR to LBJ  

None of the basic issues in economic policy have been resolved in the years during which the Democrats have governed; wage and price norms, the distribution of the tax burden, the level and direction of public expenditures, all remain controversial. …



Why Vote for Johnson?  

The Goldwater nomination marks a new departure in American politics. For the first time, a Presidential candidate lends focus to the conservative and reactionary forces in both parties. Goldwater is basically the candidate of the well-connected bureaucrat of the Mitchell …



Prospects For The New Nations  

I take issue with Lewis Coser on the following major grounds: 1) He discusses the political evolution of the developing countries in isolation from their ties, past and present, with  the West. Yet, their prospects cannot be assayed without examining …



Notes on the U. S. Political Economy  

The 1960-61 recession has displayed two contradictory characteristics: it has been the mildest postwar recession when measured in terms of the cutbacks in output, capital investments and inventories, but the worst in terms of unemployment and business failures. The paradox …



Poverty In The United States  

One fourth of the American people is poor or lives at the margin of poverty. The poverty from which they suffer is not a “case” problem, amenable to solution by social work, nor does it occur merely in “pockets” which …





Prosperity Without Welfare  

The economic upswing of the past ten to twelve years has come to an end. Full employment, prevalent for most of this period, is now in jeopardy. Though enjoined by law to maintain full employment, the government has deliberately abetted …





Germany: Unity and Rearmament  

As this is being written, Bonn’s parliament is voting for German rearmament. This caps the policy of “restoration” pursued during recent years by the U.S. in Western Europe; at the same time it introduces additional elements of rigidity not merely …



Communications  

Russia: Methods of Analysis In his article (DISSENT, Summer 1954) Mr. Deutscher asks whether a higher level of civilization corresponds to a higher level of economic development and whether a mass increase in literacy induces progress toward democracy. To such …



Can Subsidies Save the Farmer?  

For the past eighty years the basic economic cause of agrarian movements in the U. S., as well as of government efforts to subsidize agriculture, has been the difference between prices received and prices paid by the farmer. None of …



The Uprising of June 17  

The June uprising in East Germany was not merely an incident in the resistance that has become part of daily life in the satellite areas; for this time the whole character of the resistance was suddenly, dramatically lifted to a new stage.