The Real World of Democracy (The CBC Massey Lectures)

by Crawford Brough Macpherson

Book Overview

In The Real World of Democracy, C. B. Macpherson examines the rival ideas of democracy -- the communist, Third World, and Western-liberal variants -- and their impacts on one another. Macpherson, who... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887845304
• Release Date: April 1992
• Publisher: House of Anansi Press
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Opens the mind to a whole new level of thinking

As part of my Political Science class, we were instructed to read C.B. Macpherson's "Real World of Democracy". This book was well written and fairly easy to understand. It gave insight into all aspects of Democracy and how it exists in Liberal states, Communist states and underdeveloped states. He describes how Democracy exists in each society and what the main drives of the particular societies are. The book describes about the profit-driven societies of the Western Capitalist states and how Democracy is applied to Capitalism and how it was brought into the Liberal state. Macpherson writes, "the Liberal state was democratized and Democracy was Liberalized." Machpherson then describes the Communist and underdeveloped societies and how democracy can and does survive. I found this book very interesting and it gave me great insight into Democracy and how societies across the world respond to it. Macpherson describes that Democracy can be possible in Communist countries, were one party generally dominates, by allowing easy access to join the party, fair representation of the people and critics within the party. The final chapters of the book greatly interested me, as Macpherson began to raise questions about Democracy, Society and Mankind. Macpherson tell us that Capitalism was responsible for creating the Unlimited wants of mankind which was not a natural attribute of mankind. He tells us that, "An overmastering consciousness of scarcity had to be created in order to justify the capitalist society and to give it its driving force". He then describes how the liberal capitalist societies have placed emphasis on individual freedom and how they have denied full-humanity. He discuss that becasue of this decision liberal capitalist states are in danger and something must be done. He makes an interesting point when stating, "I shall suggest that the communist revolutions and the revolutions in the underdeveloped countries, which together seem to threaten our way of life, may be the saving of it". Does this mean that a revolution of somekind is approaching to save society and save liberalism?? He also argues that communist countries who have rejected the market, have not lost power but gained strength. He states, "Market power is no longer the sole source of power." Macpherson's main point in this book is to illustrate how Democracy survives and raise questions about the future of democracy. This can be summerized in my favorite line in this book which states, "If men were angels, government would not be neccessary."