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Theories and concepts of politics: An introduction
152
Book Reviews
Finally, Kitcher unapologetically acknowledges the need for a productive imagination to account for the representation of objects at all: ' . . . we can represent objects on the basis of our constantly changing stream of sensory inputs only if we have a productive imagination that can synthesize representations from cognitive states' (p. 143). While it is too much to say that this is a major theme of Kant's Transcendental Psychology, this unambiguous inclusion aligns her more with Allison and Aquila than with the more dominant strain of Anglo-American Kant scholars, and opens out a possibility for exchange with those Continental readers of Kant who have long regarded imagination as central (like myself). While there is much that I disagree with in this book, I found it always thoroughly philosophical, scrupulous in its claims and in its evaluation of its own accomplishment, and eager to go to the heart of the issues it treats. Insofar as Kitcher wrestles fearlessly and effectively with the received wisdom, her fine book may one day be noted as a prominent early signal of its end. Bernard D. Freydberg
Slippery Rock University, PA
Theories and Concepts of Politics: An Introduction, ed. Richard Bellamy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), vii + 301 pp., ISBN 0-7190-3655-0 £35.00, cloth; ISBN 0-7190-3656-9 £10.99, paper. A quick glance at the contents page may confirm the reader's initial misgivings. Here is another hotehpotch of concepts, problems, ideologies and approaches, an awkward mixture determined only by the current interests of those members of the institution (the University of Edinburgh) who responded to the editor's invitation. A few minutes spent on the offerings themselves should be enough to dispel any doubts about the value of the enterprise. This is a very fine collection indeed. Richard Bellarny's introductory essay begins with Laslett's provisional 1956 epitaph, identifies the damage inflicted by positivism, plots the recovery of more value-conscious theory, and sets out the goal of a new union of normative and empirical concerns. This union is not intended to isolate competing views merely that we may revel in difference, incommensurability and relativism. It is offered to encourage both deeper criticism and the quest for more complete coherence. Introductions often serve to paper over gaps in the material covered and to give a bogus coherence to areas properly surveyed. There is nothing bogus about the coherence of this collection. The contributions illustrate the main themes and carry forward the aims set out. Of course, there are some gaps: rational choice analysis screams out for more discussion than the couple of excellent paragraphs Bellamy gives to 'utilitarians'; some of the argument and literature on 'property' slips through the net provided by Citizenship and rights (Bellamy), Social justice and equality (Zenon Bankowski) and Welfare and citizenship (John Holmwood). Nevertheless, centrally and directly normative issues get first rate treatment. Areas and problems traditionally regarded as the preserve of empirical theory appear more fleetingly and raise some doubts. Barry Barnes (in Power) hits a predictable stride to the extent that he sends out worrying signals to would-be students of politics. The concluding discussion of the anti-Gorbachev coup, defensible as it might be in its detail, will only encourage the view that power lies purely in contingent belief and action. It distracts attention from serious research into other structures and constraints and offers an adventurist message to would-be activists: in any situation where power appears fragile, don't bother with evidence or analysis, 'Better to
Book Reviews
153
stand on a tank in front o f a TV camera' (p. 217). This disregard of both theory and the costs of action in the real political world is simply breathtaking. Lisa Dominguez's critical essay (Realism and international relations) provides a clear sketch of a possible reading of international politics and says more than enough to expose its empirical and theoretical bankruptcy. But the identified approach is such an odd mixture of motivational and structural assumptions that she fails to convince the reader that this could comprise a unified position, let alone be accepted as a dominant paradigm. She seems to harden a generalised perspective into a single concrete theory. This theory is then supposed to produce some falsifiable (and false) propositions, and to be incapable of explaining some other actual developments. Would that inadequate perspectives could be so conclusively dismissed. Environmentalism (Martin Clark) is much more loosely related to the main themes though it certainly gives a clear introduction to an important issue. It is hard to say quite this of Politics and violence (Richard Gunn). Lots of Hobbes and Arendt; Plato to Hegel to Marx to Sartre and back again, with references along the way to more writers than any course could adequately deal with. Here is an essay to stimulate the best students and to baffle the rest. These few reservations should not distract attention from the standards achieved. The overlapping essays (on freedom, rights, justice, welfare, constitutionalism, feminism and obligation) that make up the bulk of the volume are models of thorough analysis and clear argument. If you are looking for a single text, introducing students to the current state of political theory, then you won't do better than this. Alistair Edwards
University of Manchester
The Preconditions of Socialism, Eduard Bemstein, edited and translated by Henry Tudor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), xi + 215 pp., £35.00/$15.95 H.B., £10.95 P.B.
At long last we have a modem and complete English translation of Bernstein's revisionist classic Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozialdemokratie (1899). The previous translation, by Edith C. Harvey, appeared under the title Evolutionary Socialism, and dates from 1909. This earlier edition had two main defects remedied by the new translation: there were a number of inaccuracies in the translation, and significant sections of the German text were not translated. In particular Harvey failed to translate Chapter 2, 'Marxism and the Hegelian dialectic', with its critique of the Hegelian dialectical method, and its discussion of the relationship between Marxism and Blanquism. Large chunks of later chapters were also omitted. Henry Tudor, the editor and translator of this new edition, estimates that between a third and a quarter of the original text failed to make Harvey's translation. Tudor also provides an excellent introduction to the work, drawing on the study he co-authored in 1988----Marxismand Social Democracy; The Revisionist Debate 1896-1898. He provides the biographical, historical and political background to Bemstein's critique of Marxism, introduces the main points of this analysis, including the vision underpinning it, and discusses the matters at issue in the Revisionist debate. Tudor is an effective translator, and his introduction is a model of clarity. English readers have thus been provided with an excellent opportunity for assessing one of the important texts of the socialist tradition. The translation has emerged at an opportune moment. The collapse of communism, and
Book Reviews
Finally, Kitcher unapologetically acknowledges the need for a productive imagination to account for the representation of objects at all: ' . . . we can represent objects on the basis of our constantly changing stream of sensory inputs only if we have a productive imagination that can synthesize representations from cognitive states' (p. 143). While it is too much to say that this is a major theme of Kant's Transcendental Psychology, this unambiguous inclusion aligns her more with Allison and Aquila than with the more dominant strain of Anglo-American Kant scholars, and opens out a possibility for exchange with those Continental readers of Kant who have long regarded imagination as central (like myself). While there is much that I disagree with in this book, I found it always thoroughly philosophical, scrupulous in its claims and in its evaluation of its own accomplishment, and eager to go to the heart of the issues it treats. Insofar as Kitcher wrestles fearlessly and effectively with the received wisdom, her fine book may one day be noted as a prominent early signal of its end. Bernard D. Freydberg
Slippery Rock University, PA
Theories and Concepts of Politics: An Introduction, ed. Richard Bellamy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), vii + 301 pp., ISBN 0-7190-3655-0 £35.00, cloth; ISBN 0-7190-3656-9 £10.99, paper. A quick glance at the contents page may confirm the reader's initial misgivings. Here is another hotehpotch of concepts, problems, ideologies and approaches, an awkward mixture determined only by the current interests of those members of the institution (the University of Edinburgh) who responded to the editor's invitation. A few minutes spent on the offerings themselves should be enough to dispel any doubts about the value of the enterprise. This is a very fine collection indeed. Richard Bellarny's introductory essay begins with Laslett's provisional 1956 epitaph, identifies the damage inflicted by positivism, plots the recovery of more value-conscious theory, and sets out the goal of a new union of normative and empirical concerns. This union is not intended to isolate competing views merely that we may revel in difference, incommensurability and relativism. It is offered to encourage both deeper criticism and the quest for more complete coherence. Introductions often serve to paper over gaps in the material covered and to give a bogus coherence to areas properly surveyed. There is nothing bogus about the coherence of this collection. The contributions illustrate the main themes and carry forward the aims set out. Of course, there are some gaps: rational choice analysis screams out for more discussion than the couple of excellent paragraphs Bellamy gives to 'utilitarians'; some of the argument and literature on 'property' slips through the net provided by Citizenship and rights (Bellamy), Social justice and equality (Zenon Bankowski) and Welfare and citizenship (John Holmwood). Nevertheless, centrally and directly normative issues get first rate treatment. Areas and problems traditionally regarded as the preserve of empirical theory appear more fleetingly and raise some doubts. Barry Barnes (in Power) hits a predictable stride to the extent that he sends out worrying signals to would-be students of politics. The concluding discussion of the anti-Gorbachev coup, defensible as it might be in its detail, will only encourage the view that power lies purely in contingent belief and action. It distracts attention from serious research into other structures and constraints and offers an adventurist message to would-be activists: in any situation where power appears fragile, don't bother with evidence or analysis, 'Better to
Book Reviews
153
stand on a tank in front o f a TV camera' (p. 217). This disregard of both theory and the costs of action in the real political world is simply breathtaking. Lisa Dominguez's critical essay (Realism and international relations) provides a clear sketch of a possible reading of international politics and says more than enough to expose its empirical and theoretical bankruptcy. But the identified approach is such an odd mixture of motivational and structural assumptions that she fails to convince the reader that this could comprise a unified position, let alone be accepted as a dominant paradigm. She seems to harden a generalised perspective into a single concrete theory. This theory is then supposed to produce some falsifiable (and false) propositions, and to be incapable of explaining some other actual developments. Would that inadequate perspectives could be so conclusively dismissed. Environmentalism (Martin Clark) is much more loosely related to the main themes though it certainly gives a clear introduction to an important issue. It is hard to say quite this of Politics and violence (Richard Gunn). Lots of Hobbes and Arendt; Plato to Hegel to Marx to Sartre and back again, with references along the way to more writers than any course could adequately deal with. Here is an essay to stimulate the best students and to baffle the rest. These few reservations should not distract attention from the standards achieved. The overlapping essays (on freedom, rights, justice, welfare, constitutionalism, feminism and obligation) that make up the bulk of the volume are models of thorough analysis and clear argument. If you are looking for a single text, introducing students to the current state of political theory, then you won't do better than this. Alistair Edwards
University of Manchester
The Preconditions of Socialism, Eduard Bemstein, edited and translated by Henry Tudor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), xi + 215 pp., £35.00/$15.95 H.B., £10.95 P.B.
At long last we have a modem and complete English translation of Bernstein's revisionist classic Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozialdemokratie (1899). The previous translation, by Edith C. Harvey, appeared under the title Evolutionary Socialism, and dates from 1909. This earlier edition had two main defects remedied by the new translation: there were a number of inaccuracies in the translation, and significant sections of the German text were not translated. In particular Harvey failed to translate Chapter 2, 'Marxism and the Hegelian dialectic', with its critique of the Hegelian dialectical method, and its discussion of the relationship between Marxism and Blanquism. Large chunks of later chapters were also omitted. Henry Tudor, the editor and translator of this new edition, estimates that between a third and a quarter of the original text failed to make Harvey's translation. Tudor also provides an excellent introduction to the work, drawing on the study he co-authored in 1988----Marxismand Social Democracy; The Revisionist Debate 1896-1898. He provides the biographical, historical and political background to Bemstein's critique of Marxism, introduces the main points of this analysis, including the vision underpinning it, and discusses the matters at issue in the Revisionist debate. Tudor is an effective translator, and his introduction is a model of clarity. English readers have thus been provided with an excellent opportunity for assessing one of the important texts of the socialist tradition. The translation has emerged at an opportune moment. The collapse of communism, and