ABSTRACT
Academicians do not have a particularly good record in anticipating political outcomes or providing interpretations of complex political phenomena. About two decades ago, some of the world’s most notable scholars informed us that we could not expect “communism”—Marxist-Leninist political systems—to simply “go away.” The United States would be compelled to deal with communism as an “unending.. .reality.” As compensation, and at almost precisely the same time, we were also told that we need no longer concern ourselves about “fascism.” 1 If not extinct, it was all but irrelevant. 2
