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LIBERAL POLITICAL THEORY IS DIVIDED BETWEEN A FORMALISTIC APPROACH THAT IS PHILOSOPHICALLY SECURE BUT REMOTE FROM THE PROBLEMS OF POLITICAL LIFE AND AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH GROUNDED IN PRACTICAL CONCERNS BUT MORALLY RUDDERLESS. THIS ARTICLE ARGUES THAT LIBERALISM'S CONTINUING STRENGTH REQUIRES THAT THESE PERSPECTIVES BE BRIDGED. WHAT IS NEEDED, THE AUTHOR CONTENDS, IS A FORM OF LIBERAL ARGUMENTATION THAT IS AT ONCE PHILOSOPHICALLY SECURE AND POLITICALLY RELEVANT, AND HE OFFERS A WAY IN WHICH THIS MIGHT BE ACCOMPLISHED.

Examines the idea of community as a discursive theme in Anglo-American legal theory. Focusing on the main debates within liberal-communitarian thinking, a psychoanalytic & feminist approach is used to explore the meaning of community & the connections between different appeals to the idea of community. A psychoanalytic view has at its core a split that allows for the Other & the self; its appeals to community therefore speak to a unity & connection, but cannot escape exclusion & opposition. A feminist reading also suggests the essential conservatism of communitarian thought in its failure to understand the power relationships within & between communities. Given the inescapable complexity & contradictory nature of discourses regarding the concept of community, particulary the exclusions inherent in the construction of "we," a reconceptualization is necessary. A broader dialogue between critical legal theories & sociolegal studies would help to rethink legal institutions in light of the problem of community. Cautions about the use & appeal to community are issued to those interested in radical politics, & the injection of the sociolegal into the reconceptualization of the legal is advocated. 141 References. J. Cowie

THIS PAPER ATTEMPT TO QUALIFY THE COMMONLY HELD VIEWS CONCERNING THE IDEAL STATE'S AUTHORITARIANISM, ARGUES THAT THERE IS A FEATURE OF THE STATE, WHICH HAS RECEIVED LITTLE NOTICE AND WHICH, IF DULY RECOGNIZED, MUST CAUSE THESE VIEWS TO BE MODERATED. THE ARGUMENT HERE IS CARRIED ON IN THREE ADDITIONAL SECTIONS. SECTION II, EXAMINES A KEY CONCEPT OF THE SOCRATIC THOUGHT OF PLATO'S EARLY DIALOGUES, WHICH I CALL 'PROVISIONALITY'.15 SECTION III IS GIVEN OVER TO TRACING THIS CONCEPT IN THE REPUBLIC, AND THEN IN SECTION IV CERTAIN PROBLEMS ARE DEALT WITH AND OBJECTIONS MET, IN DEFENCE OF THE VIEW THAT PROVISIONALITY IS A SIGNIFICANT FEATURE OF THE POLITICAL THEORY PRESENTED IN THE REPUBLIC.

The pursuit of high ideals in politics is often scorned as unrealistic and, therefore, undesirable. This article considers two new ways in which this might be true. One allegation is that ideals might be so highly idealized as to be inaccessible to ordinary agents and hence incapable of guiding their actions. The other notes that the full and simultaneous implementation of all of our ideals is typically unrealistic, and that first-best ideal desiderata may well be imperfect guides to choice among second-best worlds. (British Journal of Political Science / AuD)