Carl Pletsch

The Three Worlds, or the Division of Social Scientific Labor, circa 1950–1975

Our ideas of tradition, culture, and ideology found their places in the social scientific discourse of the 1950s and 1960s as part of modernization theory. This supposed theory was heir to ancient occidental habits of mythological thinking about history, as is well known.1 But the reorientation of these ideas in the postwar years was guided more specifically by the novel division of the globe into three conceptual “worlds” in response to the Cold War.

“The Socialist Nation of the German Democratic Republic” or The Asymmetry in Nation and Ideology between the Two Germanies

contrast to the definition of the nation current in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), we may well ask whether it makes any difference. In spite of the furor aroused by this idea in the West German press, non-Germans may legitimately wonder whether it is not silly to quibble over whether to call the GDR a separate state or a separate nation. In response to such doubts, I would first note that it took the West Germans twenty years to call the GDR by its name and recognize it as a

Class, nationalism and identity politics

How do things stand with the concept of class? Is class still a useful category of analysis? Is it still a rallying cry for political action, even among progressives? I recently attended a meeting sponsored by a progressive coalition. People had gathered to work on a strategy to defeat legislation that might be introduced to dismantle affirmative action. As we were discussing a mission statement, I suggested that we include the idea of class, in order to draw broader support and to diffuse the criticism that affirmative action caters only to particular minority groups. The dozen other people in attendance politely but unanimously vetoed my suggestion. They argued that including class would distract attention from the minority groups that affirmative action was designed to assist. This argument was not self‐serving. Nor was it socially conservative, for the group went on to include a clause indicating that it would work to abolish capitalism. Rather, the argument seemed motivated by vicarious identity poli...