ABSTRACT
In the Roundtable talks of 1989, hundreds of people participated, altogether in three delegations. We have a great deal of data about the social and political background of the 573 former participants. 1 In the following, I analyze the political motivation, early life, and social background of the negotiators. As mentioned above, by using the term “legislators,” I refer to Bauman’s theory of intellectuals. He claimed that the role of public intellectuals was transforming. While they used to be in the center of policy making, thus they were “legislators,” by now their role is more limited in modern societies. Instead of drafting laws, literally or symbolically, their role is restrained to translation or interpretation between different social groups. Intellectuals today are functioning as interpreters, who help different segments of modern, multicultural societies to communicate with each other. 2
