Suchergebnisse

In this illuminating book Colin Crouch examines the diverse approaches presented by advanced societies in their attempts to resolve a central dilemma of a capitalist economy: the need to combine buoyant mass consumption with insecure workers, subject to, and responsive to, the fluctuations of an unregulated global economy. He demonstrates that the approaches of different national economies have varying degrees of success, and diverse implications for social inequality. Through the study of European societies, and comparisons with experience from the rest of the world, Crouch scrutinizes this d

AMONG THE MANY SYMPTOMS OF PESSIMISM IN OUR DARKENING WORLD IS THE NEGATIVE VIEW NOW TAKEN BY MANY CONSERVATIVE SOCIAL SCIENTISTS AT THE IDEA OF A PLURALITY OF COMPETING, AUTONOMOUS INTEREST GROUPS WITHIN LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES.1 IN THE 1950S AND 1960S THIS PLURALISM HAD BEEN CELEBRATED AS THE CHARACTERISTIC WHICH ADVANTAGEOUSLY CONTRASTED THE WEST WITH THE BLEAK MONOLITHIC SOCIETIES OF EASTERN EUORPE. TODAY THE SAME FEATURE IS MORE LIKELY TO BE DESCRIBED AS "PLURALISTIC STAGNATION" OR CATIGATED FOR CAUSING "OVERLOADED GOVERNMENT". DURING THE 1970S CONSERVATIVE PESSIMISM EXTENDED TO THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS ITSELF.2 SINCE THE BRITISH AND AMERICAN ELECTIONS OF 1979, 1980 AND 1983 THEY HAVE CHEERED UP CONSIDERABLY ON THAT SCORE, BUT THEIR HOSITLITY TO ORGANISED INTERESTS REMAINS UNDIMMED. ORGANISED INTERESTS WERE ONCE SEEN BY BRITISH CONVERSATIVES AS THE STABLE FORCES OF LANDED AND COMMERCIAL INTERESTS, AS WELL AS THE CHURCH THAT PROTECTED THE POLITY FROM THE RAVAGES OF VULGAR DEMOCRACY3; NOW THEY ARE LARGELY SEEN AS TRADE UNIONS AND VARIOUS WELFARE-STATE LOBBIES DEMANDING-SPENDING PROGRAMMES. GOVERNMENTS OF THE LEFT AND MODERATE RIGHT ARE SEEN AS EASY PREY TO THESE, THE CONSEQUENCES BEING EXECESSIVE UNION POWER WITHIN INDUSTRY, EXPENSIVE GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR "LAMEDUCK" INDUSTRIES, UNCONTROLLABLE PUBLIC SPENDING AND HIGH INFLATION.

After the euphoric celebrations following the Berlin Wall's demise and the giddy rush towards German unity, there are signs that the vacuum left by Communism's collapse in eastern Europe is being filled by the forces of ethnicity, nationalism and religion. (SJK)

Inroduces a special edition by examining the political revival of religion in the Soviet Bloc where museums of atheism are being turned back into churches and restoration of the Danilov monastery is underway. But, Western secular liberalism has also treated religion as peripheral and it may prove eventually to belong to the public sphere as well as the private. (SJK)

Commentary on the need for Labour, Liberal and SDP to consider a coalition government, and the problems in terms of party tactics and political strategies which make this difficult. (JLN)