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My response to the six reviewers of my book Politics and Passion focuses mostly on the outer limits of pluralism & toleration. I try to answer the question: How should the liberal state respond to illiberal groups -- & especially to "totalizing" groups whose doctrines & practices are (by liberal standards) oppressive to some of their members? Citizenship, I argue, is a better standard than autonomy in defining the appropriate liberal response. Adapted from the source document.

In Südafrika existiert eine große Anzahl politischer Bewegungen, politischer Parteien und Interessengruppen. Diskutiert wird die zentrale Frage, in welchem Ausmaß diese Gruppen - über die Ausübung politischer Einflußnahme - zur Aufrechterhaltung oder zum Abbau der zentralen Stützpfeiler der Rassenpolitik beitragen. Der Begriff politischer Einflußnahme wird dabei sehr weit gefaßt. Abschließend wird ein Modell vorgeschlagen, in das alle Strömungen politischer Einflußnahme in Südafrika integriert werden können. (DÜI-Hlb)

During the federal election campaign of 1930 an eleven-year-old boy attended a campaign meeting in his native Prince Edward Island. The meeting was fascinating; the boy was booked. In the six decades since, politics has been a ruling passion in the life of Health Macquarrie. In this memoir he looks back on his years with the Progressive Conservative party, as an organizer, Member of Parliament, and senator. He first ran for office in 1956 leaving behind a career as a professor of political science. He ran (and won) eight times in the PEI constituency of Queens, before being appointed to the Senate in 1979. All the Tory brass are here, from R.B. Bennett to Brian Mulroney. Macquarrie reflects on their respective strengths and foibles, and vividly recalls some of the fractious and factious days in the PC party. The foreign policies of Conservative governments are a recurring theme. Both his academic and parliamentary careers have reflected Macquarrie 's keen interest in international affairs. He recalls his years at the UN General Assembly, his involvement in the Biafra crisis, and his longtime advocacy of Canadian membership in the Organization of the American States. Always deeply interested in the Middle East, he has visited the area thirteen times; he discusses his sensitivity to the situation of the Palestinians, and reflects also on the Gulf War. But at the heart of the book are Tory politicians. Tory politicians, and a deep love of his Island province and his country, Macquarrie deplores some of the characteristics of the Conservative party of today, including what he sees as a less vigorous nationalism than that of some of its predecessors. Wholly supportive of the opening of his party to Quebec and the spirit of Meech Lake, he reveals anxiety about a right-wing trend in the contemporary Conservative party, and worries that as a Red Tory he may be the last of his kind. In his memories, as in his political career, Heath Macquarrie is outspoken, provocative, fiercely patriotic, and passionately engaged in global issues. Red Tory Blues offers a unique view of Canadian politics, as insightful as it is entertaining

The internet is changing the way that knowledge is made and shared. Knowledge-making in face-to-face settings is being replaced by information gathering from remote sources, whose origins may be concealed but which can create an illusion of intimacy. Though remote communication is beneficial in many ways – modern societies would fail without it -- and though the tight boundaries of the face-to-face can be used for evil purposes such as criminal conspiracy, if the overall trend to remote communication continues unchecked, it could be disastrous for the future of democracy and the very idea of truth itself. Too much reliance on remote communication threatens the core institutions of democratic societies.
We explain the change in technical detail, from a systematic analysis of the workings of the face-to-face to a high level setting-out of its dangerous political implications. The analysis includes field studies, reflexive examination, drawing on the wide experience of the authors, of the stickiness of the face-to-face in our own work and other institutions, and network analysis which explains the illusion of intimacy that can be generated inadvertently or maliciously. We look at the apparent effectiveness of techniques such as blockchain and the limits of their domain. New information is provided about the malicious use of disinformation by foreign powers. We dramatise the dangers to Western pluralist democracy through a personal accounting of the 2020 American election.
By drawing out the special features of face-to-face interaction and its constitutive role in creating societies, with science as the icon, the book sets out an agenda for civic education that can protect democratic institutions from the erosion of pluralism and the facile abandonment of trustworthy expertise. The authors conclude by returning to the themes set out at the start of the book, namely the crucial role played by trust in modern societies and the importance of face-to-face interactions in reproducing that trust, and the democratic institutions in which it should be invested.