Progressives, Pluralists, and the Problems of the State

Progressives, Pluralists, and the Problems of the State

Author: Marc Stears

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2002-06-13

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0191544698

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In the first three decades of the twentieth century, two groups of radical political theorists-one American and one British-were bound together in a unique ideological relationship. Pluralists, Progressives, and the Problems of the State provides the first comprehensive examination of the intellectual dialogue that constituted that bond. Drawing on extensive original archival research and employing conceptual, institutional and historical analysis, the book examines the efforts of these two initially distinctive political movements to forge a single ideology capable of motivating far-reaching reform in both of their countries. In so doing it challenges traditional narratives emphasizing the exceptional development of American progressivism and British socialism, arguing instead that the intellectual aspirations and political programmes of both were constantly shaped and reshaped by international ideological exchange. Such an analysis transforms our understanding of the complex political demands of these movements and enables the works of their leading protagonists, including G.D. H. Cole, Herbert Croly, Harold Laski, and Walter Lippmann, to emerge as rich and sophisticated contributions to modern political thought.


Progressives, Pluralists, and the Problems of the State

Progressives, Pluralists, and the Problems of the State

Author: Marc Stears

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2002-06-13

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0198296762

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Examining the close relationship between leading groups of British socialists and American progressives in the first three decades of the 20th century, this book employs new methods of conceptual and institutional analysis.


The Pluralist Theory of the State

The Pluralist Theory of the State

Author: Paul Q. Hirst

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-08-03

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 1134967225

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English political pluralism is a challenging school of political thought, neglected in recent years but now enjoying a revival of interest. It is particularly relevant today because it offers a critique of centralized sovereign state power. The leading theorists of the pluralist state were G.D.H. Cole, J.N. Figgis and H.J. Laski, and this volume brings together their most important ideas, making accessible a crucial body of work on radical political theory. It includes their major writings, mostly out of print and difficult to obtain, and here gathered together in an anthology for the first time. Current in the first two decades of this century, English political pluralism offered a convincing critique of state sovereignty and proposed a decentralized and federated form of authority - pluralism - in which the affairs of society would be conducted by self-governing and independent associations. Paul Hirst's comprehensive introduction situates English political pluralism historically and gives a critical account of its main theoretical themes and the debate surrounding them. The book will be of interest to those who see radical reform as vital for the future health of democracy, to students of political theory and the history of political thought and also to students of jurisprudence and legal theory interested in the pluralist debate as it affects the concept of legal sovereignty.


Modern Pluralism

Modern Pluralism

Author: Mark Bevir

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-04-19

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 110701767X

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The first history of one of the most important intellectual movements of the modern era.


Natural Rights Individualism and Progressivism in American Political Philosophy: Volume 29, Part 2

Natural Rights Individualism and Progressivism in American Political Philosophy: Volume 29, Part 2

Author: Ellen Frankel Paul

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-08-27

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 1107641942

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"In 1776, the American Declaration of Independence appealed to "the Laws of nature and of Nature's God" and affirmed "these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness . . . ." In 1935, John Dewey, professor of philosophy at Columbia University, declared, "Natural rights and natural liberties exist only in the kingdom of mythological social zoology." These opposing pronouncements on natural rights represent two separate and antithetical American political traditions: natural rights individualism, the original Lockean tradition of the Founding; and Progressivism, the collectivist reaction to individualism which arose initially in the newly established universities in the decades following the Civil War"--


Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy

Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy

Author: Sidney M. Milkis

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2009-09-14

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0700618171

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Led by Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party made the 1912 campaign a passionate contest for the soul of the American people. Promoting an ambitious program of economic, social, and political reform-"New Nationalism"-that posed profound challenges to constitutional government, TR and his Progressive supporters provoked an extraordinary debate about the future of the country. Sidney Milkis revisits this emotionally charged contest to show how a party seemingly consumed by its leader's ambition dominated the election and left an enduring legacy that set in motion the rise of mass democracy and the expansion of national administrative power. Milkis depicts the Progressive Party as a collective enterprise of activists, spearheaded by TR, who pursued a program of reform dedicated to direct democracy and social justice and a balance between rights and civic duty. These reformers hoped to create a new concept of citizenship that would fulfill the lofty aspirations of "we the people" in a quest for a "more perfect union"-a quest hampered by fierce infighting over civil rights and antitrust policy. Milkis shows that the Progressive campaign aroused not just an important debate over reforms but also a battle for the very meaning of Progressivism. He describes how Roosevelt gave focus to the party with his dedication to "pure democracy"-even shoehorning judicial recall into his professed "true conservative" stance. Although this pledge to make the American people "masters of their Constitution" provoked considerable controversy, Milkis contends that the Progressives were not all that far removed from the more nationally minded of the Founders. As Milkis reveals, the party's faith in a more plebiscitary form of democracy would ultimately rob it of the very organization it needed in order to survive after Roosevelt. Yet the Progressive Party's program of social reform and "direct democracy" has reverberated through American politics-especially in 2008, with Barack Obama appealing to similar instincts. By probing the deep historical roots of contemporary developments in American politics, his book shows that Progressivism continues to shape American politics a century later.


Alternatives to State-Socialism in Britain

Alternatives to State-Socialism in Britain

Author: Peter Ackers

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-12-01

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 3319341626

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This book poses a major revisionist challenge to 20th century British labour history, aiming to look beyond the Marxist and Fabian exclusion of working class experience, notably religion and self-help, in order to exaggerate ‘labour movement’ class cohesion. Instead of a ‘forward march’ to secular state-socialism, the research presented here is devoted to a rich diversity of social movements and ideas. In this collection of essays, the editors establish the liberal-pluralist tradition, with the following chapters covering three distinct sections. Part One, ‘Other Forms of Association’ covers subjects such as trade unions, the Co-operative Party, women’s community activism and Protestant Nonconformity. Part Two, ‘Other Leaders’, covers employer Edward Cadbury; Trades Union Congress leader Walter Citrine; and the electricians’ leader, Frank Chapple. Part Three, ‘Other Intellectuals’, considers G.D.H. Cole, Michael Young and left libertarianism by Stuart White. Readers interested in the British Labour movement will find this an invaluable resource.


Pluralism

Pluralism

Author: Rainer Eisfeld

Publisher: Verlag Barbara Budrich

Published: 2006-04-20

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 384741299X

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The book focuses on the study of democratic processes. Special emphasis is put (1) on the existence of a diversity of (e. g. socio-economic, ethno-cultural,.) interests and the transformation of this diversity into public policies, (2) on the participatory features of democracy and on barriers to individual and group participation due to disparities in economic and political resources.


Demanding Democracy

Demanding Democracy

Author: Marc Stears

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013-03-03

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0691157901

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What today's political thinkers can learn from the radical democratic movements of twentieth-century America This is a major work of history and political theory that traces radical democratic thought in America across the twentieth century, seeking to recover ideas that could reenergize democratic activism today. The question of how citizens should behave as they struggle to create a more democratic society has haunted the United States throughout its history. Should citizens restrict themselves to patient persuasion or take to the streets and seek to impose change? Marc Stears argues that anyone who continues to wrestle with these questions could learn from the radical democratic tradition that was forged in the twentieth century by political activists, including progressives, trade unionists, civil rights campaigners, and members of the student New Left. These activists and their movements insisted that American campaigners for democratic change should be free to strike out in whatever ways they thought necessary, so long as their actions enhanced the political virtues of citizens and contributed to the eventual triumph of the democratic cause. Reevaluating the moral and strategic arguments, and the triumphs and excesses, of this radical democratic tradition, Stears contends that it still offers a compelling account of citizen behavior—one that is fairer, more inclusive, and more truly democratic than those advanced by political theorists today.


The Public's Law

The Public's Law

Author: Blake Emerson

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0190682876

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The Public's Law is a theory and history of democracy in the American administrative state. The book describes how American Progressive thinkers - such as John Dewey, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Woodrow Wilson - developed a democratic understanding of the state from their study of Hegelian political thought. G.W.F. Hegel understood the state as an institution that regulated society in the interest of freedom. This normative account of the state distinguished his view from later German theorists, such as Max Weber, who adopted a technocratic conception of bureaucracy, and others, such as Carl Schmitt, who prioritized the will of the chief executive. The Progressives embraced Hegel's view of the connection between bureaucracy and freedom, but sought to democratize his concept of the state. They agreed that welfare services, economic regulation, and official discretion were needed to guarantee conditions for self-determination. But they stressed that the people should participate deeply in administrative policymaking. This Progressive ideal influenced administrative programs during the New Deal. It also sheds light on interventions in the War on Poverty and the Second Reconstruction, as well as on the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. The book develops a normative theory of the state on the basis of this intellectual and institutional history, with implications for deliberative democratic theory, constitutional theory, and administrative law. On this view, the administrative state should provide regulation and social services through deliberative procedures, rather than hinge its legitimacy on presidential authority or economistic reasoning.