Detalji predmeta

• Stanje Polovno

Dobro očuvano
The real world of Democracy, Macpherson
Аутор - особа Macpherson, C.B.
Наслов The Real World of Democracy / by C.B. Macpherson
Врста грађе књига
Језик енглески
Година cop. 1966
Издавање и производња New York [etc.] : Oxford University Press, cop. 1966
Физички опис 67 str. ; 20 cm
ISBN 0-19-501534-7
Предметне одреднице Демократија, stare i nove dimenzije demokratije, neliberalna demokratija, komunstička demokratija, liberalna demokratija, mit maksimizacije, demokratija i ljudska prava, ros harison

In his 1964 CBC Massey Lectures C. B. Macpherson examines the rival ideas of democracy - the communist, Third World, and Western-liberal variants - and their impact on one another. He suggests that the West need not fear any challenge to liberal democracy if it is prepared to re-examine and alter its own values.
УДК 321.7 by Crawford Brough Macpherson

The Real World of Democracy
Front Cover
C. B. MacPherson
Anansi, 1992 - 100 pages
0 Reviews
In The Real World of Democracy, C. B. Macpherson examines the rival ideas of democracy — the communist, Third World, and Western-liberal variants — and their impacts on one another. Macpherson, who was a professor of political science at the University of Toronto and an Officer of the Order of Canada, suggests that the West need not fear any challenge to liberal democracy if it is prepared to re-examine and alter its own values.
« Less
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Related books

Second Treatise of Government
John Locke, C. B. Macpherson

Burke
Crawford Brough Macpherson

Democracy in Alberta
C. B. MacPherson

Judging Democracy
Haig Patapan

Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India
Rob Jenkins

The Success of India's Democracy
David K E Bruce Professor of International Affairsy and Professor of Politics Atul Kohli, Atul Kohli, Jan Breman, G. P. Hawthorn

Economic Reforms in New Democracies
Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira, Pereira, José María Maravall, Adam Przeworski

Organizing Democracy in Eastern Germany
Stephen Padgett
Other editions - View all

C.B. Macpherson was a renowned writer and academic who held the position of Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He was also an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Macpherson's books include Democracy in Alberta, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, Burke, and the Rise and Fall of Economic Justice,and Other Papers. He died in 1987.

This volume comprises of six lectures and was published in 1965. Some of the political conditions in the world has changed since then, namely the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of China, but the historical framework and theoretical content may be used to extrapolate a description of societies in the world today. All five previous lectures were given succinct summary in the sixth lecture, for which I'll provide some orientation here.

On the global stage (in the 60's), there are three types of democracies, the ideas underlying each are now in competition with one another. In the west, we have the liberal democracy. This democracy did not rise up directly from the ideal; rather, it came about out of necessity from the liberal and capitalist state which rose first. In the Soviet Union is the communist and non-liberal democracy. There, a vanguard arose to facilitate the transition of a class society into a non-classed society. In the underdeveloped non-liberal societies, such as recently liberated states in Africa, single party democracies were erected. The different political realities and the ideas underlying them are now in competition in such a way that we must question what it is that our democracy is aiming for and what values in our democracy we treasure most and must keep.

Something in common between the different forms of democracy is the ultimate goal of enabling each citizen to pursue and realize their full human potential. What are different between liberal and non-liberal democracies include the belief whether the goal could be achieved through a market-driven economy as is the case in liberal democracies.

An interesting point is that the market societies were built on the concept of scarcity. However, as automation vastly increased the amount of material production, the concept is becoming obsolete and can no longer function as a driving force for human endeavors. As automation is possible in the most advanced liberal societies as well in other societies, other polities do not view competition in the market as the necessary mediating force that secures liberties for all. Hence, the capitalist society is not needed before building one where each member could realize his potential.

The conclusion highlights the importance of moral advantage in determining which type of democracy will prevail. The determining factor would involve which polity can best secure for its citizens equal freedom to realize their essential humanity. The lecture ends on the need for advanced societies to contribute massive aid to underdeveloped countries; only actions of this sort will preserve their moral status in the eyes of the world.

I have skipped over many important points here. I think this book is worth reading if you are interested in seeing that the Western liberal democracy is in fact not the only type of democracy possible. Indeed, other polities have followed their unique historical trajectories. Their members believe, as we do, that their form of democracy is the best one. These lectures provide some essential points about how various types of democracy differ in their historical circumstances and strategic directions. The author admits that this book raises more questions than it answers, but it is a great introduction to how various democracies have manifested within the last century and how they differ from one anothe

“There is a good deal of muddle about democracy,” declared a man with a
soft and slightly drawling voice on 22 January 1965. So began a six-part lecture
series on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation delivered by a soft-spoken
scholar named Crawford Brough Macpherson (1911-1987), a world-renowned
political scientist.1 That such a “muddle” existed was, of course, hardly selfevident to the many Cold Warriors for whom “liberal democracy” – often
rendered “liberal-democracy” by Macpherson — was that coherent set of moral
principles and practices distinguishing our freedom from their totalitarianism.
By de-reifying and historicizing liberal democracy, relativizing it both spatially
and temporally, Macpherson’s lectures and short book sought to destabilize
Cold War polarities. Coming in the 1960s amid the worldwide turmoil of
decolonization and the global stand-off between capitalism and communism,
this was a noteworthy experiment in “iconoclasm,” in the estimation of world
historian Geoffrey Barraclough. 2 The iconoclast in question came from a
leading elite university not renowned as a centre of radicalism and a
distinguished leader in Canadian academic affairs. 3 The lecture series bore the
name of Vincent Massey, a revered Canadian Governor General, and was
delivered on the state-owned broadcasting service.
Macpherson was born into a middle-class Presbyterian family and spent
the greater part of his life in Toronto. After a stellar undergraduate career at
the University of Toronto, he studied at the London School of Economics under
such left intellectuals as Harold Laski (his supervisor) and R.H. Tawney (who
was more of an inspiration to him). He returned to the University of Toronto (U
of T) in 1935 and joined its Department of Political Economy, where he spent
most of his academic career from 1935 to 1982. The Political Theory of
Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (1962) was the book that won him
an international reputation that endures to this day: some commentators
regarded as original and insightful and others as eccentric and inappropriately
abstract. It was widely regarded as a Marxist text, insofar as it emphasized the
powerful influence on Hobbes and Locke of an orientation to an emerging
capitalist market.
Possessive Individualism inaugurated a phrase still in common currency,
and it undoubtedly constituted a high point in Macpherson’s career — it is the
one book of his that the world outside Canada is apt to remember. Yet it many
respects it can be viewed as having inaugurated a much more general “Moment
of Macpherson,” extending roughly from 1962 to 1973 — one that encompassed
1 The lectures were broadcast from 22 January to 26 February and rebroadcast from 10 March
to 14 April. They were also picked up by National Public Radio in the United States. Five of them
may be (and should be) listened to on-line: see By and large the printed version –
C.B. Macpherson, The Real World of Democracy (Toronto: Anansi, 2006) [hereafter RWD]
aligns with the oral, with the exception of Chapter Three on democracy’s “underdeveloped
variant.”
2 Geoffrey Barraclough, “Canadian Iconoclasm,” New Statesman, 25 March 1965. 3 Macpherson was head of the Canadian Political Science Association, a leader of the Canadian
Association of University Teachers, and was soon to be entrusted with the overhaul of the
undergraduate curriculum in the faculty of arts and science at the University of Toronto, by
general accord the country’s most prestigious university.
3
not just his famous volume, but a slew of articles and book reviews and a
controversial report in 1967 to U of T recommending the overhaul of its arts
and science curriculum. In these years the scholar was in his heyday.
Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval (1973) was arguably as formidable as