ABSTRACT
Old rules serve players very poorly in a new game — especially when the stakes are as high as cultural, economic and political survival. One does not have to be a futurist to recognize that some long-standing and fundamental rules of the social policy game have dramatically changed in the post-war decades — and not just for some nations, not just, for instance, for technologically advanced capitalist countries — but for all. The changes have been different for less-developed nations and peoples, but none the less important because they have taken a somewhat different form there. Not even the iron curtain has proven a sufficient shield against major changes in the context of work and in the cultural fabric of the peoples who make up the nations of this planet.
