History of the State Books - Page 3

Statecraft As Soulcraft: What Government Does

George F. Will

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Will provides an intellectual history of modern conservatism 4 out of 5 stars.
16 of 20 people found this review helpful.

In this volume, George Will examines the historical roots of conservatism as a way of governing. Drawing on examples from the direct ancestors of American Founding Fathers (the English), Will provides a compelling case for policies that are conservative in intent, as well as in effect. He also shows what strategy should be properly regarded as conservative.

Moral Clarity for the Modern Conservative. 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

You listened to the President emphasize at the RNC that Government should be a tool, a facilitator to help people better themselves. He didn't mention eliminating goverment. George Will wrote this book about 10 years ago, yet his message can be so pertinent to the modern conservative. There was a lot of discussion recently about how in 2008, different types of so-defined conservatives will be competing for the Republican mantle to carry in the upcoming decades. It raises the question: since the role of the conservative today is no longer to be anti-communist (since the end of the Cold War), nor to eliminate government, nor to even battle deficits, what is the conservative's ideology today? George Will already had the answers with his great foresight. The book really helps a self-defined conservative re-think why we identify with a conservative and what conservatism really is. He articulates concepts that can be difficult to otherwise sort through. Mr. Will in this book makes numerous references to philosophers/writers whom he apparently has been well-guided by such as Edmund Burke, Disraeli, Aristotle, etc.

George Will in this book challenges the notion that conservatism should be defined strictly around an economic principle (capitalism). He gives conservatism greater purpose than just facilitating economic fulfillment through limited government intervention in the market. He resoundingly sends his message in this book that the conservative's mindset shouldn't be to detest government but to improve it and structure it so it is better able to empower and encourage citizenry to uphold its moral responsibilities as well as its economic ones.

I would recommend this book to be included in curricula for graduate-level public-administration programs. In courses that put an emphasis on Hobbes, Machiavelli, Locke and Jeffersonian themes, this book would be an useful refutal to compliment such readings.

Editorial Review:

George Will explores how America has become a nation of individuals and interest groups given to unchecked self-indulgence, which can destroy us as a nation. According to Will, proper government involves the cultivation of good character in its citizens. 4 cassettes.

States and Social Evolution: Coffee and the Rise of National Governments in Central America

Robert G. Williams

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The national governments of Central America were constructed between 1840 and 1900, a time when coffee was transformed from a botanical curiosity to the region's most important export. In spite of their geographic proximity, the national governments that emerged were strikingly different, from Costa Rica's participatory democracy to Guatemala's military despotism.

Robert Williams explores Central America's political diversity by following the story of coffee through the nation-building period. With a sensitivity to cultures and institutions before the advent of widespread coffee cultivation, he reveals the various ways that land, labor, and capital were harnessed as coffee advanced from one locale to the next, provoking cultural clashes and sometimes violent reactions as it altered landscapes, people's lives, and even governments. Through careful scrutiny of a tiny region and a single crop in a restless age, States and Social Evolution develops a theory of state formation relevant to other places and times as well.

MAN VERSUS THE STATE, THE

HERBERT SPENCER

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Lucid, Penetrating, and Dripping with Wisdom 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

This book, deservedly, is a classic. Although relatively short, it is chock-full of insights -- many of which anticipate the important work decades later by F.A. Hayek. Spencer's passion for freedom, and his understanding of the nature of politicized and depoliticized societies, was deep. This is an inspiring work.

Editorial Review:

This volume contains the four essays that Spencer published as "The Man Versus the State" in 1884 as well as five essays added by later publishers. In addition, it provides "The Proper Sphere of Government", an important early essay by Spencer. Spencer develops various specific disastrous ramifications of the wholesale substitution of the principle of compulsory co-operation - the statist principle - for the individualist principle of voluntary co-operation. His theme is that "there is in society...that beautiful self-adjusting principle which will keep all its elements in equilibrium...The attempt to regulate all the actions of a community by legislation will entail little else but misery and compulsion".

Our Enemy, the State

Albert J. Nock

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Social Action and Thought vs. Political Imposition and Force 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

OUR ENEMY THE STATE by Albert J. Nock is a clear examination of what some call a monster or the Super State whose members are enshrined as omipotnent re their position, almost unlimited power,and supposed intelligence. Nock implies that a government expert is a contradiction of terms. Nock states that quite often economic and social problems can be easily solved, but calls for government action make these problems much worse and beyond intelligent resolution.

Nock is clear that society and the state are two different entities. Nock's view was that government authorities' only job is to protect individual rights and not to impose on them. He agreed with Thomas Jeffererson that men have a right to rebel when government officials violate individual rights which, among other places, Jefferson so stated in The Declaration of Independence. Nock gives a succinct view that social pressures, manners, civlity, etc. are better alternatives to state action or imposition to economic and social conflicts. He suggests that laws are passed which can be corrupted or circumvented. Then more laws are passed to "correct" previous legislation ad infinitum. Nock argued that this situation enhances a few who are more clever or have more political influence and creates disrespect for the law. Honest men are often the "losers" re these laws or, as the title of a book states,"Then Ten Thousand Commandments." Nock scoffed at the title of "government experts" who are too often ignorant of the issues of conflicts and have no expertise at all with these issues. Nock argued that such situations created unnecessary enmity and social conflict where none existed previously.

Nock was also skeptical of the legal "system." Nock argued in this book that access to justice, legal remedies, etc. should be inexpensive. Yet, this is clearly not the case. Nock stated that judges, jurists, court officials,etc. made "justice" almost impossible for poor and middle class people. Legal fees, court costs, etc. enhance jurists and court officials at the expense of everyone else. Nock stated what many legal experts do not like to hear this because his comment was true that the "law" was not disigned to insure justice but to follow legal remedies and procedures. In other words, too often the attitude is "Justice be damned and long live the judges and lawyers."

Nock had a brief comment on how the state got/gets and keeps power. Nock stated that without taxes from society, the state is powerless. The state cannot do much if authorities cannot tax men. In other words, members of society pay taxes, and at times excessive taxes, which are either paid by cooperation or what Nock would have considered extortion.Government officials are ideally entrusted to protect rights which Nock believes is the only function the authorities have. Yet, abusive and tyrannical officials are too often the real criminals and act with impunity because of what Ludwig von Mises called "stateolatry" or worship of the state and its leaders.

The book has an interesting comment on land access and ownership. Nock effectively argued that land ownership began/begins with the government granting lands to privledged few who then charge access fees (rents)to those not so privledged to get such land grants. Nock thought land access should be equitable to all. Mutual cooperation and fair competition could be the result. Nock also scoffs at the description of railroad executives who were supposedly "rugged individualists." Nock is clear that they were given huge tracts of land, large government subsidies, and political protection to enhance their wealth and position. One should note that there were many financial/political scandals in the 19th. century which scarely get notice in most history texts re railroad construction.

Albert J. Nock was not a violent poltical revolutionary. He called himself or was called, "a peaceful revoutionary" or, "a little conservative." His poltical writing is not as abrasive as that of H. L. Mencken, but he clarified some of the social and poltical issues that Mencken did. Readers may be interested in Nock's MEMOIRS OF A SUPERFLUOUS MAN and his THE STATE OF THE UNION. Readers will find good writing and thoughtful comments on politics and social life.

Editorial Review:

This edition is the only one with an alphabetical and a quotation index. The introduction is by Edumund A. Opitz, founder, the Nockian Society.

Japan: Who Governs? : The Rise of the Developmental State

Chalmers A. Johnson

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Editorial Review:

An economical analysis of Japan's current financial status notes its overall wealth during recessionary times, competitive industrial achievements, efficient and inexpensive social systems, and promising future.

The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes: Structure, Principles, and Ideology

Mogens Herman Hansen

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Politics and human rights 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

As a student in Université Laval in Québec city (Canada), my teachers usually recommand books in our maternal language, french. But for this class titled The Athenian Democracy, our teacher recommanded this book. This book is a piece of art, a complete view of what might have been civil right and practice in Antiquity, in Athens, that is. I also recommad it for every people interested in ancient history and in, foremost, politics. Hansen reviews political practices with an continuous effort, respecting what were man, not only statistics or technics.

Editorial Review:

The Athenian democracy of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. is the most famous and perhaps most nearly perfect example of direct democracy. Covering the period 403-322 B.C., Mogens Herman Hansen focuses on the crucial last thirty years, which coincided with the political career of Demosthenes. Hansen distinguishes between the city's seven political institutions: the Assembly, the nomothetai, the People's Court, the boards of magistrates, the Council of Five Hundred, the Areopagos, and ho boulomenos. He discusses how Athenians conceived liberty both as the ability to participate in the decision-making process and as the right to live without oppression from the state or other citizens. Equality was conceived of as an equality not of nature but of opportunity.

Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and Power of the People

Josiah Ober

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This book asks an important question often ignored by ancient historians and political scientists alike: Why did Athenian democracy work as well and for as long as it did? Josiah Ober seeks the answer by analyzing the sociology of Athenian politics and the nature of communication between elite and nonelite citizens. After a preliminary survey of the development of the Athenian "constitution," he focuses on the role of political and legal rhetoric. As jurymen and Assemblymen, the citizen masses of Athens retained important powers, and elite Athenian politicians and litigants needed to address these large bodies of ordinary citizens in terms understandable and acceptable to the audience. This book probes the social strategies behind the rhetorical tactics employed by elite speakers. A close reading of the speeches exposes both egalitarian and elitist elements in Athenian popular ideology. Ober demonstrates that the vocabulary of public speech constituted a democratic discourse that allowed the Athenians to resolve contradictions between the ideal of political equality and the reality of social inequality. His radical reevaluation of leadership and political power in classical Athens restores key elements of the social and ideological context of the first western democracy.

Discourses Concerning Government

Algernon Sidney

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Seminal Work 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Despite its obscurity, this is a profound work of great historical importance to the foundations of the American Revolution as well as the perpetual struggle for liberty and justice. Algernon Sidney(1622-1683) was acclaimed by friends of liberty throughout the eighteenth century for his martyrdom in the stuggle against tyranny and arbitrary government. On December 7, 1683, he was executed by the Crown for the crime of high treason. While a conviction for this crime had long required two witnesses to testify for a defendant's guilt, the government was only able to produce one man, while the other witness was this very book, his great "Discourses," which were used against him because of the fact that they expounded subversive ideas.

Even today, at the dawn of the 21st century, it can quite accurately be said that his ideas are still subversive. Sidney, like his more famous contemporary, John Locke, was a staunch supporter of the natural rights of the individual to life, liberty, and estate(property). This work in particular, like Locke's "First Treatise," was originally undertaken as a refutation of Robert Filmer's "Patriarcha," which represented perhaps the clearest exposition of the theory of rule by "Divine Right." Sidney's work, however, is far more than a simple refutation. He engages in lengthy, erudite discussions of the relationship of liberty and slavery, liberty and power, master and slave, as well as virtue and corruption. Moreover, he presents an especially profound and radical case for the right to resist, oppose, reform, and even overthrow tyrannical government.

Indeed, it was these extreme notions that inspired generations of libertarian radicals throughout the English empire, but most profoundly, in the North American colonies. As the great historian Caroline Robbins made clear, Sidney's "Discourses" was a veritable "textbook of revolution" for the colonists in America. Along with Locke's "Two Treatises" and Trenchard & Gordon's "Cato's Letters," this volume served as pillars for the ideological foundation for the American Revolution, as well as the subsequent establishment of the American Republic.

However, despite the work's great insight and historical importance, the modern reader will certainly have a time of it when attempting to read through Sidney's lengthy and esoteric biblical references and allusions, and not to mention his in depth analysis of many other arcane topics. Thus, while this work is a rich resource on its own, I would highly recommend that any interested reader also pick up a copy of Alan Craig Houston's excellent study "Algernon Sidney and the Republican Heritage in England and America." Houston's work helps to illuminate aspects of Sidney's thought that the average reader may have misunderstood or even overlooked altogether. Nonetheless, even alone, this work stands as one of the true monuments in the history of liberty, and one can only hope that the Sidney's legacy will continue to enlighten and inspire the true friends of liberty for centuries to come.

Controlling the State: Constitutionalism from Ancient Athens to Today

Scott Gordon

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This book examines the development of the theory and practice of constitutionalism, defined as a political system in which the coercive power of the state is controlled through a pluralistic distribution of political power. It explores the main venues of constitutional practice in ancient Athens, Republican Rome, Renaissance Venice, the Dutch Republic, seventeenth-century England, and eighteenth-century America. From its beginning in Polybius' interpretation of the classical concept of "mixed government," the author traces the theory of constitutionalism through its late medieval appearance in the Conciliar Movement of church reform and in the Huguenot defense of minority rights. After noting its suppression with the emergence of the nation-state and the Bodinian doctrine of "sovereignty," the author describes how constitutionalism was revived in the English conflict between king and Parliament in the early Stuart era, and how it has developed since then into the modern concept of constitutional democracy.

Governance, Politics and the State (Political Analysis)

Jon Pierre, B. Guy Peters

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Governance, Politics and the State---a great overview 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

While it is far from perfect, this book offers one of the best looks at governance today. These two parse the maze of what we know as governance with as much ease as the best of them. This is a must read for anyone interested in the subject. While it is no exciting page turner of a novel, but that is not anything anyone would expect from a book like this, is it?

Not the best... 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was a painful read. The writing was littered with redundancies and little cohesion. The concepts revealed could have been adequately expressed in a much shorter journal article. However, it is one of the only books that addresses the issue of governance vs government.

Bottom line: if it is absolutely necessary to teach changes in governance, this is an acceptable option until a better work is published. The casual reader should steer clear.

Editorial Review:

The term "governance" has become one of the most widely used in debates in Political Science, Public Policy, and International Relations--often to mean very different things. Written by two leading political scientists, Governance, Politics and the State is the first systematic introduction to its nature, meaning, and significance. Its central concern is with how societies are being, and can be, steered in an increasingly complex world where states must increasingly interact with and influence other actors and institutions to achieve results.