Book Description
"Michael Albert is an important thinker who takes us beyond radical denunciations and pretentious â€Â~analysis' to a thoughtful, profound meditation on what a good society can be like."-Howard Zinn
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"It is to Michael Albert's everlasting credit that he has worked tirelessly to grapple with the very difficult questions of what a truly democratic economy might look like, and how it might work. Albert's thoughtful contribution deserves wide attention."-Robert W. McChesney
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In this lucid political memoir, veteran anti-capitalist activist Michael Albert offers an ardent defense of the project to transform global inequality. Albert, a uniquely visionary figure, recounts a life of uncompromised commitment to creating change one step at a time. Whether chronicling the battles against the Vietnam War waged on Boston campuses or the challenges of creating living, breathing alternative social models, Albert brings a keen and unwavering sense of justice to his work, pointing the way forward for the next generation.
Customer Reviews:
Essential reading for activists prone to pessimism/hopelessness.......2007-09-03
This book made me profoundly hopeful, yet also somewhat sad. Albert offers such excellent analysis of present-day society, such excellent ideas for organizations, movement strategies, and such inspiring vision for a post-capitalist future, that I am left feeling hopeful that these ideas will eventually come to resonate with great masses of people. Yet I also feel sad, and somewhat bitter because this book also contains biting criticism of the American Left. We don't think strategically, we don't engage in serious debate, and Albert suggests that many of us are engaging in activism merely to feel better about ourselves, to fight the good fight, to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror, but without the conviction or the desire to actually win new liberating social institutions. The fact that no prominent Left media, such as Monthly Review, Counterpunch, the Progressive, In These Times, etc., will even touch parecon is but one example of our myopia. It is no exaggeration to assert that the future of the Left depends greatly on our taking seriously what Michael Albert has to say.
Radical History: Remembering Tomorrow: A Memoir.......2007-03-16
This is a wonderful personal memoir of the last fifty years as viewed and lived by one of the more important revolutionaries of our time. Among other subjects Michael Albert takes us through the years of establishing South End Press, Z Magazine and Znet, all of which he helped create. His
description of his relationship with Noam Chomsky as well as his analysis
of Chomsky the man and Chomsky the pursuer of social justice is worth the
price of the book, but he provides us with many more gems.
The book also details Albert's involvement in the peace movement when
he was a student at MIT with the intention of becoming a scientist. Politics intervened, however, and aside from radical politics he embarked
on a career as an economist. This would eventually lead him to begin mapping out the vision of what a post-capitalist society would look like.
This system he calls paracon, short for participatory economics.
The book also details the various prices a committed revolutionary
must pay, losing friends along the way, having one's best work largely
ignored and struggling to raise funds for important projects. Mr. Albert
also details his personal life, particularly his long relationship with
Lydia Sargent who has been his closest ally in most of his projects through the years.
I have admired Michael Albert, from afar, for many years, but that
admiration took a giant leap with the reading of this book. My only criticism is over his statement that he doesn't think he is a very good
writer. If inspiring a reader is a reflection of good writing then Mr.
Albert is indeed a fine writer.
Book Description
"What do you want?" is a constant query put to economic and globalization activists decrying current poverty, alienation and degradation. In this highly praised new work, destined to attract worldwide attention and support, Michael Albert provides an answer: Participatory Economics, "Parecon" for short—a new economy, an alternative to capitalism, built on familiar values including solidarity, equity, diversity and people democratically controlling their own lives, but utilizing original institutions fully described and defended in the book.
Customer Reviews:
very badly written.......2007-04-03
Definitely. We cannot count on Mr. Albert's ideas to move away from capitalism.
There is no "after capitalism".......2006-11-21
Because there is no "before capitalism." A stupid, stupid book designed to trick people into communism.
Better books on participatory economics out there.......2006-03-17
To find out about participatory economics, I read two books, The ABCs of Political Economy by Robin Hahnel and Parecon by Michael Albert. I would recommend the former over the latter. Admittedly, they cover somewhat different ground. The former critiques basic concepts in neoclassical economics in light of political economy and is not meant as a detailed exposition of participatory economics (parecon). But in defending political economy, Hahnel explains the moral foundations behind parecon's system of remuneration and parecon's critique of markets much more clearly and concisely than Albert does. And Albert's book is so turgid and repetitive that you arguably get a clearer picture of the parecon system (and of the various criticisms of the model) from Hahnel's one chapter on the subject than you do from Albert's whole book. Hahnel's book is a model of how to popularize complex ideas without condescension or oversimplification. You finish the book feeling he has equipped you to think for yourself. In his care to craft comprehensible prose, Hahnel is consistent with his own belief in popular democracy and open debate. Hahnel also practices what he preaches by debating with alternative points of view, quoting from other authors, referring to other traditions, and providing ample footnotes.
By contrast, Albert's style contradicts his avowed commitment to democracy and non hierarchical discourse. He writes like a member of the "coordinator" class he condemns. His writing exemplifies what Richard Lanham, in the tradition of Orwell, has called the "official style," a style laden with abstract nouns linked by prepositional phrases and passive verbs, a style designed not to communicate ideas clearly, but to overawe the reader with pseudo-scientific abstractions connoting bureaucratic mastery over reality. Moreover, unlike Hahnel, Albert largely ignores the long tradition of other authors who have speculated on the subject of life after capitalism and provides no footnotes or endnotes and only a very skimpy bibliography. He does not review other proposed systems of non-market, democratic planning and dismisses market socialism in only 1 1/2 pages as another version of class society. He thereby does little to discourage readers from fallaciously inferring that if they oppose capitalism they must favor the particular system he is proposing (notice how even the book's title, "Parecon: Life After Capitalism," encourages this fallacy). Although he does rehearse various criticisms of parecon, his summary of critics is cursory and brusque, his defense of himself long-winded and blustering. Hahnel, by contrast, carefully and respectfully articulates other perspectives before stating his own position.
In case you think I'm being too harsh, here are two examples of Albert's style (you could find similar sentences on almost every page):
"Different abilities to benefit from competitive exchange can also result from more accurate predictions about uncertain consequences or from differential knowledge of the terms of exchange (which in turn could stem from genetic differences in this particular 'talent' or differences in training or, more often, from different access to relevant information)."
As Lanham notes, in bureaucratic prose like this, you never know who is doing what to whom; agents and actions are obscured beneath heaps of abstract nouns. But that sentence was easier to digest than many. Try this one:
"Suppose in place of top-down central planning and competitive market exchange, we opt for cooperative, informed decision-making via structures that ensure actors a say in decisions in proportion as outcomes affect them and that provide access to accurate valuations as well as appropriate training and confidence to develop and communicate preferences--that is, we opt for allocation that fosters council-centered participatory self-management, remuneration for effort and sacrifice, balanced job complexes, proper valuations of collective and ecological impacts, and classlessness."
This is a defense of participatory economics written as if by a government policy wonk. For a clearer, more concise and effective defense, I'd turn to Hahnel.
It starts the ball rolling..........2005-06-04
If you're a Hobbesian type who feels that life is brutish, short, and that people are basically animals that need to be continually monitored, goaded into working, etc., then you'll probably find Albert's views offensive. TINA doctrine, (There Is No Alternative), is a powerful ideological force which Albert seeks to counteract. At the heart of this book is the concept of human nature and how this affects the ability to construct a more just economic system.
The first argument in support of TINA is typically along the lines of "without work and punishment, what would motivate people, because they are basically selfish?" Albert's latter chapters address this philosophical yet reality-based question head-on. He uses a compelling example. If you saw a large adult grab an ice cream cone out of a child's hand, pushing the child to the ground, what would you do? Albert says that of course, most of us would be outraged and may even come to the defense of the child. If humans are so animalistic and depraved, then why aren't more people pushing and shoving? Could it be that the forces around us, versus only our "inner selves," push and shove on us to make it more difficult to be good samaratins. Despite 24 hour, "me first," "screw you, hooray for me" individualism married to ultra-social-Darwinistic capitalism, people care about others and the values of commnity. Of course the state wants to convince us that we are under constant threat and that it is the police that keeps order. Oh really? Then why do they lose control of a crowd during a riot? I guess we need one policeman per person to keep us in check. Maybe we have such a thing as inner humanity and morality, which actually lessens the need for a police state.
I've often found another TINA defense funny. People often act that if capitalism weren't around to monitor people, the motive to work would mysteriously vanish. My response is, how do (did) tribes survive? Did Native American groups just sit around and starve without the "benevolent" foreman to "motivate" them along? Do local villages in all parts of the world today lounge around, waiting to be given direction? Heavens to Betsey, how DID any of us achieve human progress and purpose before capitalism? I mean, it's all of 300 years old. Compare that to, say, Ancient Egypt, and there's no contest, right? Albert aruges that work, producing value, is an essential part of being human. It is the alienating kinds of labor that the majority of the world is involved in that's the problem. Note that the top 20% who get to experience more autonomous and creative work ususally scratch their head trying to figure out why everyone is "whining." Albert points out that this same group also gets a) paid more even though they experience less harsh labor conditions, and b) gets more of a say in important political decisions! Under our current system, the message is "one-dollar-one-vote." If you aren't college eduated, you don't deserve a living wage, etc.
Albert rightly points to examples of unemployed communities taking back factories and turning them into productive entities. The only difference is that THEY, the WORKERS are the ones doing it, not state-owned socialism or market capitalism. The activism of the unemployed (who most automatically picture as lounging around and being stubborn at the same time) is tremendous in South and Central America.
It would take some time to implement Albert's ideas, mostly because the ideology of capitalism is more entrenched than we realize. Our entire system of hierarchy, where education supposedly equals merit (typically measured and reinforced via standardized tests), comes to bear in even the most liberal of the upper 20%. "I wouldn't want to do MENIAL work. That's what I went to college for" as if menial work isn't valuable and that we simply expect certain groups to do it (after all, they deserve to do it because they aren't smart or special like us).
I recommend this book for those interested in learning something new about something old...human nature.
Just another attempt at brainwashing the masses.......2004-02-17
This book is good for two audiences:
1. People who are socialists and want to read more ways they can implement their big plans to destroy capitalism.
2. People who are reasonable/capitalists who want to read a laughable proposal to unite the masses and bring down the great evil capitalist societies of the world.
So basically this book is suitable for anyone. But seriously, it is simply another way to say "Down with successful people! I deserve an equal share of the economic pie just because I'm a human and I'm equal to everyone else!" and other familiar chants of the far, far left wing. It's actually quite amazing to me that people still propose such nonsensical "progressive" ideas to implement socialism and can keep a straight face. Some people are incapable of reason and/or learning apparently. This book tries to counter the common (as in common-sense) attacks on socialism and uses the familiar notion that past attempts at socialism were different or implemented incorrectly and that this new great revolutionary book has the answers to make sure the next attempt is successful.
Amazon.com
The intellectual left has been largely adrift since the fall of communism. Some illusions having collapsed with the Berlin Wall, many liberals have sought vainly for some substantial support for their instinctive beliefs. Wallerstein, a distinguished historian and sociologist who teaches in Paris and New York and a champion of the left in the Marxist tradition, seeks to provide some of that intellectual buttressing. He calls for the rejection by the left of liberalism, which he sees as a failed centrist tactic. Rational reform on the basis of liberal assumptions of continued economic growth is no longer sustainable, he argues. This collection of his articles between 1991 and 1995 details his ideas for a radically decentralized and democratized approach to replace liberalism.
Book Description
In After Liberalism, the distinguished historian and political scientist Immanuel Wallerstein examines the process of disintegration of our modern world-system and speculates on the changes that may occur during the next few decades. He explores the historical choices before us and suggests paths for reconstructing our world-system on a more rational and socially equitable basis.
Customer Reviews:
Not a light read.......2004-10-28
Wallerstein's ideas can certainly be thought-provoking and even entertaining. In this regard, 'After Liberalism' does not disappoint. But the text jumps around from one theme to another, leaving us with a rather hazy argument as to what might be coming 'after.' If you are to undertake an adventure with Wallerstein of this kind I would recommend 'The Essential Wallerstein' over this book.
To All Activists--Read This Book!!!.......2001-03-12
I read this book for a college course, and I must say that it is a great book. It outlines not only the problems with how political action has worked in the past, but also gives insight into what may need to be done to create a sustainable future. I find myself referencing this book all the time.
Understanding world,people and social life.......1999-04-14
Some books help us in understanding some key concepts.Exactly 'After Liberalism' is one of these,and Wallerstein serves a very different view to the reader in solving complex problems of internatinal relations and even daily life.
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Theology after Liberalism: Classic and Contemporary Readings (Blackwell Readings in Modern Theology)
George Schner
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
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Religious Studies
ASIN: 0631205640 |
Book Description
This Reader brings together texts which articulate or debate with the mode of theology most commonly identified as post-liberal. It provides an introduction to this major contemporary theological option for students of systematic theology.The wide sampling of theological writing represented here seeks to move beyond the dominant conventions of modern theology, by retrieving aspects of the classical Christian tradition and exploring its potential for creative and constructive theology in the modern context.The volume, introduced by two substantial editorial essays, is divided into three sections. First, there are readings which treat major doctrinal areas as they have been handled by 'post-liberal' theologians. Second, there are readings which treat issues of the methods, norms and sources of theology. Third, there are critiques of 'post-liberal' theology from a variety of perspectives. Each reading is introduced and contextualized by the editors.
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- Innovative, enticing and practical postmodern political theory
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Liberty after Liberalism: Civic Republicanism in a Global Age
Lawrence Quill
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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ASIN: 1403942498
Release Date: 2005-11-10 |
Book Description
Liberty after Liberalism frees the concept of the active citizen from both the territorial confines of the nation-state and the limits imposed by republican, city-state models. Lawrence Quill advances a theory of global republicanism, one that is able to respond directly to the changing realities of political life. By adopting a "publicly ironic" approach to politics, Quill revives the idea of public freedom within a global context thereby providing an important supplement to contemporary theories of cosmopolitan democracy.
Customer Reviews:
Innovative, enticing and practical postmodern political theory.......2006-04-02
This is a stimulating and original piece of work. Quill maps out the history of liberal and republican political theories and re-interprets them in this age of globalisation. At the heart of this book is a new definition of citizenship which questions the cherished beliefs in liberalism confined as they have been by the narrow boundary of the nation state. No longer are we simply citizens of a particular country but `world citizens' where our government's dealings in other parts of the world are questioned and protested against.
Quill's term for this new state of world citizenship is `cosmorepublicanism'. Technological advances have changed the face of the planet - the world has become a smaller place (`postmodern geographies') - and changed the way that power is gained and used. But new technologies have also ushered in the new form of resistance and protest outlined in this book. Communication, the specific example here being the internet (political involvement is a just a `click of a mouse away'), has enabled people to forge allegiances, not based on identities constrained by physical/national borders, but more likely to be based on a self-determined morality.
`Liberty after Liberalism' spends a fair amount of space in a historical outlining of liberal and republican theories. However, Quill goes further than a descriptive approach to his subject by suggesting a `nomadic' approach to political activism, appropriate to, and enabled by, cyber spatial communications.
The cosmo-rebuplican is `autonomous, tolerant, open-minded and willing to change their opinions through reasoned debates'. Being such a person involves an ironic element, which is about the necessity of realising the limits of one's power yet still doing what one can. It's about believing in something passionately, yet questioningly, and being open to changing one's views in the future.
Quill's book skirts the border of the `academic' versus `popular' political book. It deserves to attract readers beyond academia. Whilst I think it needs a little less academic theory and both more political reportage of examples of cosmorepublican activism and the sorts of moral transgressions such world citizens find themselves acting against, Quill's arguments and ideas deserve the sort of audience that Naomi Klein's `No Logo' enjoyed.
There are elements of a politicised existentialism in Quill's outline of the cosmorepublican citizen. Hopefully Quill will follow up this work with a more detailed outline of just what being an `authentic' world citizen might entail. For now, `Liberty after Liberlaism' is an exciting and thought provoking work. It is an innovative look at the way technology has changed our world, both the actions of our governments, and of the citizen, who is now more likely to look beyond narrow labels of nationality and towards their humanity; something that is shared by everyone of us.
Book Description
In this trenchant challenge to social engineering, Paul Gottfried analyzes a patricide: the slaying of nineteenth-century liberalism by the managerial state. Many people, of course, realize that liberalism no longer connotes distributed powers and bourgeois moral standards, the need to protect civil society from an encroaching state, or the virtues of vigorous self-government. Many also know that today's "liberals" have far different goals from those of their predecessors, aiming as they do largely to combat prejudice, to provide social services and welfare benefits, and to defend expressive and "lifestyle" freedoms. Paul Gottfried does more than analyze these historical facts, however. He builds on them to show why it matters that the managerial state has replaced traditional liberalism: the new regimes of social engineers, he maintains, are elitists, and their rule is consensual only in the sense that it is unopposed by any widespread organized opposition.
Throughout the western world, increasingly uprooted populations unthinkingly accept centralized controls in exchange for a variety of entitlements. In their frightening passivity, Gottfried locates the quandary for traditionalist and populist adversaries of the welfare state. How can opponents of administrative elites show the public that those who provide, however ineptly, for their material needs are the enemies of democratic self-rule and of independent decision making in family life? If we do not wake up, Gottfried warns, the political debate may soon be over, despite sporadic and ideologically confused populist rumblings in both Europe and the United States.
Download Description
In this trenchant challenge to social engineering, Paul Gottfried analyzes a patricide: the slaying of nineteenth-century liberalism by the managerial state. Many people, of course, realize that liberalism no longer connotes distributed powers and bourgeois moral standards, the need to protect civil society from an encroaching state, or the virtues of vigorous self-government. Many also know that today's "liberals" have far different goals from those of their predecessors, aiming as they do largely to combat prejudice, to provide social services and welfare benefits, and to defend expressive and "lifestyle" freedoms. Paul Gottfried does more than analyze these historical facts, however. He builds on them to show why it matters that the managerial state has replaced traditional liberalism: the new regimes of social engineers, he maintains, are elitists, and their rule is consensual only in the sense that it is unopposed by any widespread organized opposition. Throughout the western world, increasingly uprooted populations unthinkingly accept centralized controls in exchange for a variety of entitlements. In their frightening passivity, Gottfried locates the quandary for traditionalist and populist adversaries of the welfare state. How can opponents of administrative elites show the public that those who provide, however ineptly, for their material needs are the enemies of democratic self-rule and of independent decision making in family life? If we do not wake up, Gottfried warns, the political debate may soon be over, despite sporadic and ideologically confused populist rumblings in both Europe and the United States.
Customer Reviews:
The Rise of the Managerial State........2004-08-14
_After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State_ by Paul Gottfried is a very powerful and important book which shows specifically how a discontinuity existing between nineteenth century liberalism and its twentieth century version has made possible the rise of a "managerial state". Such a state has made self determination an impossibility, given the rise of a managerial elite to safeguard the public from its own "authoritarian" tendencies. Gottfried traces the corruption and discontinuity in liberalism to such figures as Jean Jacques Rousseau (who felt that man must be "forced to be free"), John Stuart Mill (who ended up advocating socialist policies), and especially John Dewey - all of whom abandoned the free market principles of original liberals. The influence of Dewey among the educational establishment cannot be underestimated. In the twentieth century the two world wars brought out a conflict between three separate types of state: the fascist state of Mussolini (which had "gone beserk" allying itself with Adolf Hitler), the communist state of Josef Stalin, and the modern managerial/welfare state brought about through New Deal legislation by FDR. During the war, the communists joined the side of the Allies and destroyed fascism, only later to die a death of their own subsequently that century. This leaves us today with the managerial state, which seeks to spread a "global democratic faith" throughout the world, while negating and containing the influences of traditional sources of community, particularly religion. The new state is pluralistic and multiculturalist (meaning that any friction that arises between different races and ethnic groups must be curtailed in alignment with the "moralistic" teachings of the managerial elite). Also, the elite seek to redistribute income by means of democracy and stoking the flames of class warfare and envy. In the United States in particular, but even more so in the European nations, the nation has been coopted by elites as a global location for massive immigration from the third world (justified by appealing to the rhetoric of "human rights", invented by the New Class precisely for this purpose). Any attempt at dissent from the dominating paradigm is shouted down as "insensitivity" or worse as outright "fascism" - a term which is consistently abused and used to stigmatize all those who adhere to traditional notions of self government. According to Gottfried, both socialist Left and neoconservative "Right" adhere strongly to these principles regarding them as near articles of faith because they allow the two dominant parties of the elite to maintain their power. Gottfried also points to a Jewish-Puritanical influence which has sought to contain dissent, particularly through moralism (which amounts to preaching an anti-racist, sensitivity-based social gospel), and shows how all beliefs contrary to this value system are deemed to be a product of "mental illness", thereby giving a therapeutic role to the elite. Such a case is particularly emblematic of Adorno's post-World War II studies in the "authoritarian personality". With the rise of political correctness in the university system, coupled with a racist national policy of affirmative action, which can be arbitrarily extended, education has been subverted and all means of dissent have been stifled. Amazingly however, the populace does not support generally the goals of the elite, which has led many who are particularly disturbed by New Class social engineering to appeal to direct democracy. Gottfried also shows how populist resistance to the managerial state has built up and found expression in movements both in the United States and Europe. For example, Gottfried cites former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, who appealed to the tradition of an isolationist, nationalist "Old Right" as well as traditional Catholicism, and the National Front of Le Pen in France which sought to deal effectively with the immigration problem for France. Also, Gottfried notes that "postmodernist rightists" such as Alain de Benoist in France successful criticize the current state, despite disgusting attempts by postmodernist leftists such as Jacques Derrida to entirely censor them. Indeed, Gottfried provides several examples of precisely how "anti-hate legislation" is used as a weapon of tyranny by the elite managerial class to maintain their power. Unfortunately, while populist resistance does exist, it has also been severely marginalized. Gottfried seems unable to fully predict the future of the managerial state, though he obviously supports populist resistance and secessionary movements. One issue that remains important though I believe is not fully dealt with by Gottfried is how to rectify calls for a completely free market with cultural conservativism and restoration of tradition. Afterall, a completely free market would presumably have no restrictions on such things as drugs, abortions, pornography, or prostitution, things which would have to be prevented by appeals to traditional morality and religion. Also, it is difficult to see how such a thing could avoid falling into outright barbarism. In sum, however, while the future for democratic liberalism and self-determination looks bleak, given the rise of an elite class who intend to enforce their values on all citizens, populist resistance is possible, and is perhaps the only way towards counter-revolution.
Sobering Assessment of the Therapeutic Managerial State.......2003-06-18
Overall, this is a thoughtful and erudite work, which offers a sobering assessment of the therapeutic managerial state. First, Gottfried purports that there is such a thing and explains its evolution from the Welfare State of yesteryears. The managerial state is ruled by an entrenched oligarchy of administrative elites, judicial activists and social engineers. These for the most part unelected and unaccountable elites frequently promote economic and social policies (e.g. runaway immigration; multiculturalism) in sharp opposition to public opinion. They like progressive education proponent John Dewey hope to remold society with an egalitarian ideology, which has the effect of hyperatomizing the individual and tends to dissolute the traditional social bonds of civil society. Thus as conservative sociologist Robert Nisbet points out, the intermediary institutions between individual and state (e.g. community, church, civil associations, etc.) are weakened and destroyed in the process. The elites entrenched in the managerial state are philosophically the bastard children of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Stuart Mill. They warmly embrace Mill's crude utilitarian ethic to legitimize their cow-prodding the citizenry through dubious social experiments and Rousseau's concept of a "general will" where the inept masses are the "forced to be free." They couple their elitism with behaviorist psychology to manipulate the masses. The locus of legitimacy that the elites cling to is the apparent absence of an organized opposition. Thus Gottfried surmises that the traditional polity of nineteenth century liberalism has been displaced by a new regime of plutocrats-social engineers, administrative elites and judicial activists-that subject the population to therapeutic rule. In their world, political opposition is frequently classified as mentally ill or sick while the masses are made victims and dependents of the managerial state.
Gottfried points out that what is today called liberalism has no fixed essence. But there exists is a great deal of discontinuity between classical liberalism, which emphasized the need to protect civil society from an encroaching and overbearing state. What passes for liberalism in the twentieth century is altogether different, hence the title of the book: "After Liberalism." The modern incarnation of liberalism perhaps may be distinguished by its other connotation of "progressivism." Gottfried tacitly traces the modern liberalism of today to the nineteenth century liberalism of John Dewey, Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Mill. The very fact that so many early radicals called themselves liberals is how `liberalism' was perhaps "hijacked" and evolved into its present ideology. Though, Gottfried points out that one must contextualize liberalism to understand and trace its developments.
Gottfried offers an analysis of the populist right's opposition to the therapeutic state in Europe and America with a realistic look at the movement's strengths and weaknesses. He also makes clear that there is resignation of a sizable part of those ostensibly on the 'right' to the therapeutic state. The neoconservative camp composed largely of northeastern Catholics and former radical Jews from the Left, feel that the post-New Deal therapeutic state shouldn't be toppled, but we should merely utilize its machinery for purportedly 'conservative' ends. William J. Bennett endeavored to do just this as the national education czar. Since neoconservatism is the mainstream current on the `Right,' we may infer the surrender of the `right' ipso facto to the managerial state. Gottfried remains somewhat dismal about hopes for mounting opposition to the therapeutic state. In his essay, "Reconfiguring the Political Landscape," published in Spring of 1995 in Telos, Gottfried notes, "The restoration of genuine self-government requires structural decentralization and, above all, the derailing of the present political class. Without that, it is unlikely that there will be any accountability from insulated public administrators, rotating collectors of patronage, or judicial social engineers." Thus a campaign to dismantle the managerial state would require removing the entrenched elite, perhaps impeaching and replacing judicial activists on the bench and outright dismantling of various bureaucracies of the managerial state. Such a campaign would run concomitant with a restoration of the Tenth Amendment and a devolution revolution where power returns to the states. This would require us to rediscover the principle of subsidiarity, which is to say, the government that governs closest to home and to the constituent governs the best.
An indispensable guide.......2003-03-02
*After Liberalism* is the best treatment yet published of the historical deformation of liberalism -- the replacement of bourgeois classical liberalism by the managerial socialism of modern liberalism. Anyone interested in how this substitution came to pass should read Professor Gottfried's book. In fact, reading it twice would be a good idea. This is a very compact, carefully constructed work that rewards close examination.
Some of the reviews of this book have been very far off the mark. At no point does Gottfried resort to cheerleading for anybody here; he maintains a critical distance from his material throughout. He analyzes the weaknesses as well as the strengths of conservative and populist thinkers and movements, while also giving left-liberals and postmodernists their due. Those who come to this book looking for partisan affirmation are going to be sorely disappointed. *After Liberalism* is, above all, scholarship, not special pleading.
Yesterday's News.......2003-02-19
Warmed over Weber. The usual "nice" distinctions between liberalism and democracy, and the endorsement of populism a la the neocons and Leo Strauss. You can almost mistake it for a postmodern lefty critique. And in many ways there are overlaps in the conservative agenda which celebrates localism and tradition, and the post-modern left which celebrates the same thing under different and catchier names. But there's a few early tip-offs that the map given in the intro is not the territory covered in the book.
There's the apparent acceptance of the bad science behind the "The Bell Curve" coming early on. It seems like muddy thinking or maybe just a slip. But then there's the discussion of Carl Schmitt's ideas. Gottfried's discussion of Schmitt makes him seem like an interesting theorist, but he never mentions Schmitt was a poster boy for the Nazis of the "good intellectual." Not an automatic disqualifier, but still something Gottfried should have mentioned. Then, the very careful discussion of Le Pen. Which I enjoyed and thought had some good insights, but still was not completely honest in its assessment of Le Pen.
I picked up this book partly because of the positive blurb by John Lukacs on the cover (and also quoted here I see.) I like John Lukacs as an historian and read his autobiography. One of the things I was attracted to in Lukacs was that he (as a European conservative) truly despised Reagan's policies.
I can see therefore why Lukacs would like some parts of this book, especially Gottfried's characterization of the therapeutic managerial state as an entity that both the Left and Right endorse and use to advance their agendas. In Reagan's case, the welfare part of the welfare state was squeezed, and the military-industrial part of the managerial state was given a big bonus. In either case, he used the mechanism of the managerial state to enforce his will regardless of ends -- the means of the managerial state is the same.
There's some thought-provoking stuff in here, and I appreciated the attempt to find some larger framework to discuss the biggest problem confronting politics today -- that no one is very interested anymore, a problem which Gottfried I think lays properly at the door of the managerial state. And I appreciated that he found some of the old lefty sociologists and historians of value such as C. Wright Mills and Christopher Lasch. But all in all except for the one insight of the existence of the managerial state fleshed out with the usual suspects, this is pretty thin gruel. Worth the $...I paid at a used book store, but just barely. If you really want to understand the history and power of the managerial state and its adoption of the therapeutic mode, read Kafka.
Thumbs Down.......2003-01-29
If you oppose political correctness, as I do, you will find Gottfried's cumbersome arguments to be an embarrassment. There are so many good books in this genre, such as Dinesh D'Souza's "Illiberal Education" and Roger Kimball's "Tenured Radicals" that this book is a liability to the cause of improving standards in academic discourse.
Stylistically, this is among the least articulate that I have ever read. The reason is poor writing, not academic sophistication (there is little to no sophistication here). The author believes that nothing Pat Buchanan ever said is wrong--and he'll fight you ten rounds if you disagree. If that's not bad enough, his grasp of European history is embarrassingly weak.
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After the New Social Democracy: Social Welfare for the 21st Century
Tony Fitzpatrick
Manufacturer: Manchester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0719064775 |
Book Description
Social democracy has made a political comeback in recent years, especially under the influence of the Third Way. However, not everyone in convinces that Third Way social democracy is the best means of reviving the Left's project. This book explains why and offers an alternative approach. Bringing together a range of social and political theories this book engages with some of the most important contemporary debates regarding the present direction and future of the Left.
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- Concise, Sharp and Suggestive
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Democracy After Liberalism: Pragmatism and Deliberative Politics
Robert B. Talisse
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Why Deliberative Democracy?
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Truth, Politics, Morality: Pragmatism and Deliberation
ASIN: 0415950198 |
Book Description
Can a democratic society propose an account of its practices and institutions that is at once adequately robust to answer antidemocrats and sufficiently inclusive to ein the assent of citizens who disagree about philosophical, moral, and religious essentials? A robust theory will draw upon controversial philosophical premises, and will thereby fail to respect the deep pluralism characteristic of a free society. Anything less than a robust philosophical theory, however, will raise questions of why anyone should prefer democracy to mild oligarchy or peaceful tyranny.
In Democracy After Liberalism, Robert B. Talisse critically evaluates liberalism, the dominant attempt in the tradition of political philosophy to provide a philosophical foundation for democracy. Combining recent work on deliberative democracy with C. S. Peirce's pragmatism, Talisse argues for an epistemic conception of deliberative democracy to meet this need. Although the resulting view is not liberal, it eschews the problems confronting communitarianism by insisting that the formative role of the state is epistemological rather than moral.
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Concise, Sharp and Suggestive.......2005-05-07
This short book covers more ground than most twice its length. Talisse argues that popular forms of liberalism (Rawls, Rorty, Galston) cannot meet their own standard of neutral justification. He then offers a fascinating epistemological defense of democracy. My only complaint is this book could have been longer. Sometimes the arguments move very quickly and the conclusions in the final chapter could have been expanded. But as it is, this book is lean and to the point.
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After Liberalism: Essays in Search of Freedom, Virtue, and Order
Manufacturer: Stoddart
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ASIN: 0773730710 |
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After New Labour: Social Theory and Centre-Left Politics
Will Leggett
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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ASIN: 1403946590
Release Date: 2005-10-27 |
Book Description
This timely book assesses the legacy of both the Third Way and its critics. Analyzing the relationship between social theory and political strategy, it outlines the basis of a post-New Labour project. Collapsing the boundaries between sociology and political science, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in center-left renewal.
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