ABSTRACT
The resurgence of the vision of "the great, just society" implicit in the explosion of the New Left in the industrialized West bequeathed important radical residuals in the cultural field but was short-lived. Most definite is the growth of socialist influence in intellectual circles. Without any doubt, the socialist influence is strongest and most widespread in its negating dimension. The Soviet model of socialism, that is, the model on which both the Soviet Union and most East European regimes are based, is at present discredited among radical movements and groups of all shades and orientations. The upsurge in the influence of socialist ideas and movements in industrialized democracies did occur, despite the experience of communist practice in power. The trend to the left in the intellectual and political realms is distinctly uneven in different countries, both in intensity and in manifestation.
