There was a time, in this century, when liberals championed the working class, when Democrats were indisputably the party of those who worked rather than invested for a living. Today, however, most Americans have come to see liberals as drifting and aimless, somehow lacking in backbone and moral fiber, beholden to radical ideologies that have little to do with the average American's life. Few incidents cast this phenomenon into greater relief than George Bush's successful tarring of Michael Dukakis as a liberal in 1988--and, tellingly, Dukakis's subsequent flight from the liberal tradition.

How has it come to this? Why have liberals allowed themselves to be so portrayed? In this book, Gordon MacInnes--state senator, fiscal conservative, frustrated Democrat, and a man who believes deeply in America's civic culture--reveals how progressive forces have retreated from the battle of ideas, at great cost. Squarely at the nexus of race, poverty, and politics, Wrong for All the Right Reasons charts the sources of liberal decline and the high costs of conservative rule.

Tracing the origins of the liberal retreat to the fall-out over Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's report on the black family in the 1960s, MacInnes claims that white liberals have somewhere along the way stopped taking black people seriously enough to argue with them. Continuously put on the desfensive, liberals have been unable to forge an aggressive, proactive agenda of that addresses the needs of working-class and poor Americans. This has led to a breakdown of honest dialogue which to this day continues to plague liberal Democrats, as evidenced by Bill Bradley's withdrawal from active party politics last fall.

Finding room for optimism in the groundswell of grass-roots progressivism, Wrong for All the Right Reasons is a timely, necessary call to arms for liberal, progressive Democrats, outlining ways in which they can reverse their party's dangerous decline.

"Cosmopolitanism in the contemporary debate is firmly based in the Western tradition of liberal thought, which is culturally situated. The liberal conception of self alienates nature and childhood and its internal logic justifies colonialism and carries patriarchal and racialized baggage. Cosmopolitan Liberalism is a critique of the Western tradition of liberal thought and an effort to overcome the philosophical boundaries of individualism towards a more inclusive and open conception. It seeks to expand the theoretical basis of individuality beyond its own limitations towards the ideal of universal love and the moral principle of compassion which are compatible with all world cosmologies--liberal and non-liberal. Cosmopolitan Liberalism is a reflection on what it is that all human beings owe one another in spite of the many humanly created borders that set us apart"--Provided by publisher.

This book demonstrates that liberalism is more deeply embedded in the structure of modern international political economic order than is usually realized, and that at present there is a contested process of the "globalization of liberalism." As well as exploring liberalism's usefulness for understanding how international relations work, this book offers several critical perspectives on the liberal structure of modern international society, and places international liberalism in a global context by examining responses to liberalism in China, India, and the Middle East.

Liberalism at the Crossroads offers succinct, accessible, and well-written surveys of the ideas of the leading participants in the contemporary philosophical debate about liberalism. Christopher Wolfe brings together analyses of leading liberal thinkers from across the spectrum as well as influential critics of liberalism, including John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Robert Nozick, Michael Sandel, Richard Rorty, Joseph Raz, and William Galston. For the second edition, each chapter has been thoroughly revised, and new chapters on Susan Moller Okin, Richard Posner, and John Finnis have been added to include representatives of liberal feminism, law and economics, and natural law. The result is an invaluable overview of contemporary political theory, ideal for both students and scholars.

This book provides the first biographical study of Charles Pelham Villiers (1802-1898), whose long UK parliamentary career spanned numerous government administrations under twenty different prime ministers. An aristocrat from a privileged background, Villiers was elected to Parliament as a Radical in 1835 and subsequently served the constituency of Wolverhampton for sixty-three years until his death in 1898. A staunch Liberal free trader throughout his life, Villiers played a pre-eminent role in the Anti-Corn Law League as its parliamentary champion, introduced an important series of Poor Law reforms and later split with William Gladstone over the issue of Irish Home Rule, turning thereafter to Liberal Unionism. Hence Villiers, who remains the longest-serving MP in British parliamentary history, was intimately involved with many of the great issues of the Victorian Age in Britain.

This text examines the development of social democratic parties in Western Europe and suggests that instead of viewing a single model, in the past it was more accurate to consider a Northern and Southern European version. Each model varied in its characteristics, yet each retained an adherence to the same core values. But now a "new" version of social democracy is emerging that is characterized by an advocacy of the tenets of neo-liberalism.

This book presents a radical intervention into the contemporary literature on liberalism, addressing the core problems surrounding liberal internationalism, explaining the disjuncture between liberal theory and practice and offering a firmer grasp on the historical role of liberalism in world politics. Despite the hegemonic position of liberalism after the end of the Cold War, liberal foreign policies like democracy promotion, humanitarian intervention and neoliberal economic policies widely failed to achieve their aims. This study provides a conception of liberalism that accounts for the successes as well as failures of these policies. It shows that the attempt to realize liberal principles in practice simultaneously generates nonliberal forces. This dynamic explains the tragic fate of liberalism in history: the moments of its greatest triumph give rise to its most serious crises. It suggests, therefore, that the main challenge for liberal foreign policies does not lie in confronting external threats but in designing policies that avoid internal fragmentation.Jahn opens up liberalism to the kind of focused debate and criticism that has hitherto been avoided, locating the core principles of liberalism and applying them to politics, economics, and ethics. This book will be an essential source to all scholars of international relations theory and liberal foreign policy.

This study fills a conspicuous gap in the secondary literature on the Communist Party by examining the mental world of the wholly committed rank-and-file Party member. "Jimmy Higgins" was an imaginary composite considered the ideal for members to emulate; the attitudes and beliefs held by Jimmy Higgins-type members have not been adequately studied until now. As Kraditor demonstrates these members differed in important ways from the Party leaders and cadre, and also from the vast majority of members who belonged to the Party for only a few years. Basing her analysis on a detailed textual examination of thousands of pages of Party publications and on her own experience as a long-term Party member, Kraditor reconstructs the "second reality" in which the devout rank-and-file member lived.

Despite the severity of the global economic crisis and the widespread aversion towards austerity policies, neoliberalism remains the dominant mode of economic governance in the world. What makes neoliberalism such a resilient mode of economic and political governance? How does neoliberalism effectively reproduce itself in the face of popular opposition? States of Discipline offers an answer to these questions by highlighting the ways in which today's neoliberalism reinforces and relies upon coercive practices that marginalize, discipline and control social groups. Such practices range from the development of market-oriented policies through legal and administrative reforms at the local and national-level, to the coercive apparatuses of the state that repress the social forces that oppose various aspects of neoliberalization. The book argues that these practices are built on the pre-existing infrastructure of neoliberal governance, which strive towards limiting the spaces of popular resistance through a set of administrative, legal and coercive mechanisms. Exploring a range of case studies from across the world, the book uses 'authoritarian neoliberalism' as a conceptual prism to shed light on the institutionalization and employment of state practices that invalidate public input and silence popular resistance.

This book describes the origins of the concept of liberty in the legal and political thought of Rome, Italy, England, France and the United States of America. Professor Sellers traces the development of liberty and republican government over two centuries of European history, in association with liberal ideas. This study reveals republicanism as the parent of liberalism in modern law and politics, and demonstrates the continuing value of republican ideas in securing the liberty of contemporary states and their citizens.

This book, first published in 1987, aims to characterise and identify the intellectual heritage of the proponents of the libertarian tradition. To set this within a theoretical framework, these ideas will be examined by using the pragmatic and conceptual formulations of freedom and authority, two notions which are central to any understanding of political philosophy in the nineteenth and twentieth century. This title will be of interest to students of history, philosophy and politics.

Since the 1980s, democratic struggles have triggered constitutional reforms, elections, and other forms of political progress. This comprehensive volume offers refreshing perspectives on Africa's democratic renewal and will open up dialogue on the trends and trajectory of Africa's democratic future.

Despite political theorists' repeated attempts to demonstrate their incoherence, liberal values appear to have withstood the test of time. Indeed, engagement with them has become the meeting point of the different political philosophical traditions. But should radical critique justifiably become a thing of the past? Should political philosophy now be conducted in the light of the triumph of liberalism? These are the wider questions that the book takes up in an attempt to demonstrate the intellectual power of systemic critique in the tradition of Hegel. Working through the theories of prominent liberal theorists, John Rawls, Jeremy Waldron, Charles Larmore and Will Kymlicka, the author demonstrates that an adequate appreciation of the deep structural flaws of liberal theory presupposes the application of critical reconstructionism, a philosophical methodology that has the power to reveal the systemic interconnections within and between the varieties of liberal inquiring practices. In the absence of such a methodology liberalism's radically aspiring critics, whether communitarian, feminist, discourse ethicist, post-Marxist or postcolonial, have yet to trace the individualist commitment of liberal theory back to its source in liberal inquiring practices.

This collection of essays examines New Labour's claim to stand in the vanguard of a new form of progressive politics. By examining the ideology of New Labour, the major policy initiatives of Labour government, and the record and prospects of social democratic and progressive governments in the USA and elsewhere in Europe, the contributors attempt to disentangle the progressive and conservative aspects of New Labour politics and the possibilities for genuine progressive advance in Britain and other advanced capitalist countries.

Liberalism under Siege: The Political Thought of the French Doctrinaries is a compelling examination of the French Doctrinaries, a largely neglected group of liberal thinkers in post-revolutionary France who were proponents of a nuanced sociological and historical approach to political theory. The first systematic interpretation of the French Doctrinaries' political writings to appear in English, Liberalism under Siege combines textual analysis and historical interpretation to explore the Doctrinaires' ideas on the French Revolution, democracy, political power, sovereignty of reason, publicity, capacity, and representative government. Aurelian Craiutu's detailed work is not only an argument for the reappraisal of the Bourbon Restoration as a golden age of political thought; it is also a passionate and persuasive addition to contemporary debates about the diversity of liberalism.

Chris Cook lifts the lid on the 'third Party;' charting their fascinating journey over the last century, from the landslide victory of 1906 under Asquith, via their descent into divisions and decline in the interwar years, to in-depth analysis of the 2010 British Election and their return to Government in the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition.

Despite the severity of the global economic crisis and the widespread aversion towards austerity policies, neoliberalism remains the dominant mode of economic governance in the world. What makes neoliberalism such a resilient mode of economic and political governance? How does neoliberalism effectively reproduce itself in the face of popular opposition? States of Discipline offers an answer to these questions by highlighting the ways in which today's neoliberalism reinforces and relies upon coercive practices that marginalize, discipline and control social groups. Such practices range from the development of market-oriented policies through legal and administrative reforms at the local and national-level, to the coercive apparatuses of the state that repress the social forces that oppose various aspects of neoliberalization. The book argues that these practices are built on the pre-existing infrastructure of neoliberal governance, which strive towards limiting the spaces of popular resistance through a set of administrative, legal and coercive mechanisms. Exploring a range of case studies from across the world, the book uses 'authoritarian neoliberalism' as a conceptual prism to shed light on the institutionalization and employment of state practices that invalidate public input and silence popular resistance.

First published in 1985, The Subject of Tragedy takes the drama of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as the starting point for an analysis of the differential identities of man and woman. Catherine Belsey charts, in a range of fictional and non-fictional texts, the production in the Renaissance of a meaning for subjectivity that is identifiably modern. The subject of liberal humanism - self-determining, free origin of language, choice and action - is highlighted as the product of a specific period in which man was the subject to which woman was related.

Discussing classical legal positivists this book comprises a study of their work which is situated in relation to the modern tradition in legal philosophy. In this way, it is demonstrated that the theorists adhered closely to the natural law standpoint in legal philosophy, while also defending the particular view of the proper functions of law and the state that distinguished the tradition of modern liberalism. The author has also written "The Redefinition of Conservatism".

The Labour Party has been using marketing longer than is commonly realised. Leading figures like Morrison, Snowden, Webb, Gaitskell, Benn and Wilson were among those who recognized the importance of imagery and symbolic communication long before the time of Kinnock, Mandelson and Blair. Politics of Marketing the Labour Party traces how the party's political campaigning has developed since its birth and how the increasing use of marketing contributed to the radical restructuring of both the organization and its policies.

First published in 1921, Gilbert Murray's treatise considers a largely euro-centric foreign policy during the inter-war period. Believing passionately in the prospect of a Liberal England and the hope promised by the League of Nations, with Britain at its centre, Murray argues that a secure future can only be obtained through 'equal law, good government and good faith'. Concentrating on a number of country-based studies, the main focus is on how to avoid the causes of international war; Murray supports the International Financial Commission's recommendation that this could be partly achieved through disarmament and freedom of trade. This is a fascinating title that will be of particular value to history students researching the inter-war period and the League of Nations.

In this edited volume fourteen scholars, mostly from Latin America, analyze the current state of relations between North America and Latin America in a number of sectors--economic, security, politics, and the environment. Particular attention is paid to processes of economic integration that dominated political discussions during the decade of the 1990s – North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), MERCOSUR, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). Because most of the scholars are from Latin America, the book has a perspective that is often lacking in books on similar scholars written almost exclusively by scholars from the U.S.

'I am most impressed. I think that the introduction is admirably comprehensive, and very up-to-date in its range of reference. The detailed editing of extracts is not too instrusively explanatory (as this inhibits their use as teaching material) but in its provision of biographical and other notes is a model of its kind'
- Professor Christopher Harvie, author of "The Lights of Liberalism
The five pieces reprinted here are part of the vibrant polemical literature of liberalism in the last four decades of the nineteenth century. They illustrate a creed whose adherents were acutely aware of its recent achievements and further potential in shaping British society and politics. The dynamic, highly reflective nature of British liberalism in this period is already familiar through substantial texts such as Mill's "Subjection of Women (1869) and Spencer's "The Man Versus the State (1884). However, many works on a smaller scale were also important in defining the contours of liberal thought when the political fortunes of liberalism were at their height. This volume represents a sample of such writings. It will be of interest to scholars and advanced undergraduates studying liberalism and English political thought and history.
--illustrates the significant liberal debate that took place during this period through short articles rather than the well-known larger works like Stephen's "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
--includes two items never before reprinted
--a good first entry point - these are short, accessible writings that were aimed at the educated general reader

"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.

"How far is there a regional trend away from neoliberalism in Latin America and how can we characterize the new forms of state activism that are emerging in the region? This book explores different expressions and approaches to post-neoliberal governance in Latin America and identifies the place of social and political inclusion, as well strategies for economic growth, within them. It explores the possibilities and constraints on the state, along with changing models of democracy, social policy and the political economy of development, bringing in examples from Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and Chile." -- Book cover.