2 SOCIAL SCIENTIST contradictions within the former socialist societies showing that socialism disintegrated without realising the demand for socio-economic rationality which was at the base of the reform movements in the Soviet Union and East Europe. This issue also carries two further contributions from the broad area of political and social theory. A critique of the state of the art of institutionalised teaching and research is an integral part of assessing its adequacy for fulfilling the emancipatory role of the university. Sarah Joseph sees political theory as a relatively underdeveloped and marginalised branch of political science in India. She notes a disjunction between the methodology of political science and research (often behaviourist and empirical in its assumptions) and the level of discussion in political theory where such methodologies have been 'discredited*. Joseph notes the dependency of political theory on "western* theory and its agendas and emphasises the need to make it relevant in India overcoming its alienness. The desire to make political theory relevant and indigenous does not however mean for Joseph indifference to international changes in agendas for political analyses and renewed interest in values, norms, interpretative strategies and theoretical heritages. Among such heritages the tradition of the so-called Frankfurt School of critical theory is now firmly established as an inalienable factor in contemporary theoretical discourses in the social sciences and to the extent that this corrects (or supplements) the largely anglo-american orientation of the social sciences in India it is probably welcome. A critical examination of the 'site* of this theory is part of the process of generating positions which are adequate for the complexities of our times. Shaswati Mazumdar's paper is published with a view to generate debate in these pages on this theory. Mazumdar contends that Jurgen Habermas* theory of communicative action does not reflect the power relations which control communication at global, continental and national levels and that the theory appropriates rationality as occidental rationality. Mazumdar is careful to note the important role Habermas played in combating rightist tendencies in Europe but suggests that the aporia of the enlightenment project remain unresolved. ANIL BHATTI