Hall T. Wilson Knihy

This text discusses the central role of bureaucratic representation as a key vehicle for representing the general interests of most citizens in a way that is consistently superior to electoral systems in representative democracies, particularly large states. Though formal elections remain indispensable, bureaucracies in the capital, public and social sectors, have used their superior expertise and continuity, combined with social policies like affirmative action and equal pay, to achieve responsible discretion and creative implementation.

Demonstrating that Marx is the legitimate founder of what was to become the critical theory of society, this text emphasizes the value of critique as a vehicle for problem posing, and traces this from Marx's early works through The German Ideology to Grundrisse and Theories of Surplus Value.

This book addresses a number of interrelated issues in the old and new political economy. The focus on globalization is generally taking the mind off questions of debt and indebtedness. Capital now has such a decided institutional edge that its legitimacy in capitalist democracies is under threat. Present developments seriously jeopardize the balance between capital, public and social institutions on which the progress and welfare of the developing world and the capitalist democracies depend. Going back to Marx, Weber and Habermas, Wilson concludes that against the backdrop of Weberian pessimism, social intellectuals still have to rise to the occasion, rather than assisting in the massive, and consequently, self-confirming prophecy that contemporary postmodernism now threatens to become.

InhaltsverzeichnisFrontmatter -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Chapter 1. What is Political Management? -- Chapter 2. Politics and Polity: A Delicate Equipoise -- Chapter 3. Society, Law, and Legitimation -- Chapter 4. Politics, Representation and Sovereignty -- Chapter 5. Problems of Institutional Polity -- Chapter 6. Discretion in Politics, Administration and Law -- Chapter 7. Is a “Practical” Science of Politics Possible? -- Chapter 8. How to Make Social Science Responsibly Political -- Chapter 9. The University as a Training Ground for Citizenship -- Chapter 10. Citizens, Agents and Members in the Modern Territorial State -- Chapter 11. Some Arguments Against Political Management -- Chapter 12. The Privilege of Experience -- Reprise -- Literature -- Name Index -- Backmatter