抄録
The communist experiment in the 20th century was one of most important experiences in the domain of social sciences.It started from a very high humanistic idea and ended with a complete failure.In order to avoid repeating the same disastrous enterprise, we have to learn from this failure seriously.It is evident that the founders of the communism committed grave errors.Marx and his followers thougth that they can easily control the whole economy once they seize the state power.There were two errors in this believe.The economy was not as simple as they thought it to be.Organization such as the State was not as omnipotent as they understood it to be.The lesson to learn from the communist failure is that the society is much more complex than we normally suppose it to be.In the buisness of changing the society, a good intention was often rewarded with some serious side effects.After such a painfull experieence as the communist experiment, it is normal that people want to abandon the idea of a new society, which is designed by some rationalist caluculations.But, is it right for the social scientists to abandon themselves to the conservative defeatism, which denies any possibility of social improvement by human design?The communist failure originates in the attempt to change everything at once without questioning if it is possible at all. There are many customs and institutions which can be successfully changed for the benefit of the majority of people.What we should know is the science to distinguish what is possible to change and what is impossible to change.This is the very wisdom Reinhold Niebuhr wanted have in one of his famous prayers.This must also be the problem that social scientists should attack, if they want to contribute to a better society.
