The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States

by Theodore J. Lowi

Book Overview

The main argument which Lowi develops through this book is that the liberal state grew to its immense size and presence without self-examination and without recognizing that its pattern of growth had... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393090000
• ISBN13: 9780393090000
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 331 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A Ground Breaking Work

The poor reviews for this book seem to be centered on the "poor" writing skills of Dr. Lowi, and the "unreadability" of the work. First no one with bad writing skills teaches at universities such as Yale, Harvard, and Cambridge. This book is difficult for the layman because of some of the language used is unique to his discipline. But if this book is too hard for you to understand due to its complexity then don't worry about graduate school. Aside from this Dr. Lowi has written a wonderful book with concepts and models still used today. In fact there are at least two questions on the GRE test in the Political Science part that come directly out of this book. I won't lie this is a difficult read, but profound. It explains the evolution of U.S. government and it's citizens, and their relationships between each other and the development of liberalism. This book sets the stage for how Reagen was able to become elected and leave such an impact on the American psyche.

The End of Liberalism...And the Beginning of Common Sense

Theodore Lowi created quite a splash with this book when it first came out in 1969 (edition II came out a decade later). While there had been any number of crude and hysterical attempts at deriding the post-FDR American state, serious political scientists began taking up the challenge in the midst of the bewildering obscenities of LBJ's bungled Great Society, the escalation of the Vietnam War, and the intrigues of the Nixon White House. As both a period piece and a classic work of political science, Lowi's book has few rivals, save perhaps James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock's "The Calculus of Consent." He expertly and lucidly traces the evolution of American public philosophy, legislation and jurisprudence, and the policy outcomes they produced before, during, and after the founding of the "Second Republic." Lowi's version of this story is that rule of law (specific legislation of Congress delimited by the Constitution) has degenerated into interest-group liberalism (broad grants of power to the executive branch, which then create powerful agencies with ill-defined mandates and capabilities). The result is now that anyone with a perceived or real grievance mobilizes for government action, bilking the state of more money and resources, and adding powers to the executive branch and its deputies that skirt on unconstitutionality. This sobering development, Lowi makes clear, should pose serious problems for all political agendas, left right and center. He concludes with some modest recommendations for what he calls "juridical democracy," which essentially means a narrowing in scope and an increase in the specificity of the laws Congress passes and the President signs, bringing them more into line with the powers and limitations enumerated in the Constitution. Such proposals mirror those of Tullock and Buchanan, as well as those of Friedrich von Hayek. Despite these associations, this is not a conservative book; it is an earnest plea for sanity from one of our most thoughtful, iconoclastic and independent-minded political thinkers, urging us to consider the consequences of our government's excesses before it is too late. In a post-9/11 world of soaring budget deficits, rampant defense and entitlement spending, and mounting threats to civil liberties, Lowi's book is an urgently relevant reminder that no branch of government, nor any political party, should be above the law--even for the best of intentions.

Please Just Read!

I should confess that I was surprised when I happened to see that the reviewers have expressed some critical concerns about the writing style of Lowi and the core message the author attempts to convey in the book. First, I would like to say that the book generally, although difficult to follow in some pages, bears a very clear message and hypothesis that provide the basic conceptual and mental framework if one reads through the first chapter carefully. I will try to summarize the leading argument of Lowi within some lines.Lowi is primarily concerned with political transformation in the United States, which his analysis demonstrates has started in the 1930s and had been continuing through the time in which the book was published. What Lowi calls interest group liberalism (IGL) refers to an offshoot of a new public philosophy called pluralism. Pluralist ideology favors a dispersion of power centers so that no group can control governmental power totally in order to impose authoritative decisions on others. In order not to let any group to dominate the public realm, the pluralist ideology emphasizes broad and extensive public participation to determine what kind of public policies will be crafted and pursued rather than granting entire authority of policy making to central government (say, the Congress). According to Lowi, this strong belief encourages devolution of public authority (the authority to make laws and designate specific standards), in a broad and unguided manner, to public bureaucracies in order for a broad number of participants can partake in the process of policy making, for the sake of flexibility. In a nutshell, the new public philosophy is "process" oriented, not goal or substance-oriented. According to Lowi, there is not even space for law that supporters of new public philosophy argue is so authoritative. However, Lowi's meticulous analysis of political development of the United States shows the reader that this process-oriented public philosophy led the way for public bureaucracies to be captured by organized and strong interest groups. According to Lowi, the pluralist conception and practice of government does great harm, when one considers its far-reaching consequences. "Flexibility and legitimacy could only have been reduced by building representation upon the oligopolistic character of interest groups, reducing the number of competitors, favoring the best organized competitors, specializing politics around agencies, ultimately limiting participation to channels provided by pre-existing groups" (p. 63). One needs to focus on this sentence carefully just to understand why Lowi expresses a very critical concern about interest group liberalism (IGL). IGL breaks the essential tie between government and politics, and reduces politics into a very narrow space populated and dominated by interest groups around agencies (public or not, the distinction doesn't have much meaning in IGL) that are given authority to implement (or make) p

Anti-intellectuals steer clear

It appalls me that three individuals could draw such amateurish and anti-intellectual conclusions based upon half-witted attempts at understanding Lowi's text.Our first reviewer, Ms. Ferris, in a drivel of grammatical missteps that miserably try to expose her motivations for reading Professor Lowi's book, brooks a flimsy argument against this seminal work. If interested in reading Lowi's work, I certainly agree with Ms. Ferris on one count--learn to read before tackling a definitive treatise on the development of the American political system.I found M. Lautenberg's critique equally amusing, especially his decree that Lowi's writing is terrible. I find this interesting coming from an individual who fails to understand the correct usage of the em-dash.Our reviewer from New York, though familiar with E.B. White, seems as unfamiliar with the elements of style as she charges Lowi to be. Perhaps, my Manhattanite friend, you would find more irony in Lowi and White's affiliation with Cornell University if you received an education at an equally reputable institution.Lowi's book stands as one of the finest examples of politial writing in the second half of the twentieth century. I recommend it to anyone with a strong interest in public policy and a literacy level to match.