Revolutions, systems, and theories : essays in political philosophy

In spite of the seeming heterogeneity of topics in its title -Revolutions, Systems, and Theories -this volume purports to be something more than a random collection of Essays in Political Philosophy. The Colloquium of the Philosophy Department of the University of Western Ontario (29-31 October, 1971) at which initial versions of the first eight papers were delivered was entitled 'Political Theory'; and while the organizers anticipated and indeed welcomed topicality in the issues accorded priority arid in the empirical evidence invoked, they were also hoping for a reasonably comprehensive explorat ion of some of the central issues of political philosophy. For this reason it was quickly decided that in such a field a philosophical focus on clarification of ordering concepts required the suppIement -and test -of researches into more particular subject maUers by social scientists. Thus, to speak in general terms (where the specializatlons and their taxonomies multiply fissiparously!), contributors include political scientists, economists and sociologists (Barnard, Baston, Tullock, Rapoport) as well as philosophers (Scriven, Morgenbesser, Braybrooke, TayIor), and juxtaposed as proponents and commentators •to generate exchanges across disciplinary frontiers. While the five additional invited papers are alI by professional philosophers, they extend the original Colloquium either by continuing controversy on its fundamental issues (e.g., Rubinoff, Nielsen, Roy) or by their continued explorations in what are acknowledged to be boundary areas (e.g., Schick, Wartofsky). The greatest topical emphasis is that on revolution. Revolutions and their alarums have not been rare since World War II, ranging from palace coups, through anti-colonialist struggles of nationalliberation, to fundamental alterations by political means of entire socio-economic systems as in China and Cuba. At the same time concern over the disparity of living standards in the 'developed' and 'underdeveloped' worlds, anxieties about run-away depletion of resources and pollution of environment, high levels of unemployment combined with spiraling rates of inflation, etc., etc., have created enormous dissatisfactions with 'the system' so that to many its rapid, radical, and possibly riotous transformation has come to seem a decidedly live option. But consideration of that live option likewise progressively draws in the perennial aporiae of political philosophy: the willingness to overthrow government vii viii PREFACE implies the rejection of its legitimacy; the rival claims to legitimacy of govemmental and anti-govemmental activities of course involve the raison d'etre of the political state; and -to sum up, and at the same time return to the words of our Utle -revolutions are made and resisted within systems (in at least some elastic meanings of the term), and systems are understood and evaluated in theories. So the challenge to government has dialectic al advantages in concentrating attention towards the basic issues of political philosophy. That umbrella claim to have touched the main bases, however, perhaps needs some verification by a survey of the articles themselves. Such a survey may also help a selective reader decide where he wants to begin. Michael Scriven and Frederick Barnard discuss criteria for evaluating the desirability of revolution. Scriven interrupts his progressive and generally deflationary refinements to a formula of relevant variables with the problems of the 'happy slave' indifferent to the improved quality of life revolution might bring him, and concludes to the need for an education that fosters 'revolution in every sphere' but also 'the capacity to cope with it'. Barnard, citing 'the, sheer heterogeneity of variables' finds Scriven's formulae premature in the absence of definitions and particularly such as would distinguish r"evolutions from 'incremental reformism' and 'Utopian vision'. Broadening the discussion from revolution in particular to politics in general, David Easton and Sidney Morgenbesser debate the 'systems' approach. Easton defends its appropriateness to complex wholes characterized by goaldirected conduct and its responsiveness, as an admittedly abstract model, to the more immediately urgent demands of political life. Morgenbesser has difficulties with an approach that is explicitly 'behavioural' without being 'behaviouristic' and concludes that in the concentration on wholes and the acts they undergo, individuals as 'parts' of politicallife have all but dropped from sight. Gordon Tullock and David Braybrooke return to the effort to develop formulae that would spot the variables determining individuals' participation in Of resistance to revolutionary activity. Tullock finds that actual agents in revolutionary situations are likely to have perspectives quite different, more egoistic and usually more realistic as well, than those of external observers like historians and journalists on whom we habitually depend for evaluations and who tend to inflate the public benefit aspects. Braybrooke, citing especially the cases of Che Guevara and Alexander and Vladimir Ulianov (Lenin) finds it necessary to extend the formulae with a 'conscience' factor, an 'Other-Regarding No-Sucker Principle'. The applicability of ethical standards to judgments of politics is the topic x PREFACE such as 'revolution', 'reform' or 'social transformation'. Nielsen finds a continuum in the radicality of political change so that there is neither an essen-tiaI dividing line between reform and revolution nor, considering the rival persuasions of Popper and Marcuse, a general non-contextual rule as to which ought to be chosen. Roy feels that the conceptual insistence on what appears to be an empirical1y empty c1ass, that of non-violent revolutions, skews the analysis: in any revolutions yet to come to Western society he seeks some assurance that certain values of liberal democracy will be regarded as permanent acquisitions of politic al evolution. Jf that is not the ocean, it is at least a thorough immersion. In spite of the seeming heterogeneity of topics in its title - Revolutions, Systems, and Theories - this volume purports to be something more than a random collection of Essays in Political Philosophy. The Colloquium of the Philosophy Department of the University of Western Ontario (29-31 Octo ber, 1971) at which initial versions of the first eight papers were delivered was entitled 'Political Theory'; and while the organizers anticipated and indeed welcomed topicality in the issues accorded priority arid in the empirical evidence invoked, they were also hoping for a reasonably comprehensive explorat ion of some of the central issues of political philosophy. For this reason it was quickly decided that in such a field a philosophical focus on clarification of ordering concepts required the suppIement - and test - of researches into more particular subject maUers by social scientists. Thus, to speak in general terms (where the specializatlons and their taxonomies multi ply fissiparously!), contributors include political scientists, economists and sociologists (Barnard, Baston, Tullock, Rapoport) as well as philosophers (Scriven, Morgenbesser, Braybrooke, TayIor), and juxtaposed as proponents and commentators ·to generate exchanges across disciplinary frontiers. While the five additional invited papers are alI by professional philosophers, they extend the original Colloquium either by continuing controversy on its funda mental issues (e. g., Rubinoff, Nielsen, Roy) or by their continued explorations in what are acknowledged to be boundary areas (e. g., Schick, Wartofsky). The greatest topical emphasis is that on revolution Front Matter....Pages i-xi The Evaluation of Revolutions....Pages 1-9 The Evaluation of Revolutions....Pages 11-19 Systems Analysis in Politics and its Critics....Pages 21-36 A Note on Mr. Easton’s Revolutions....Pages 37-45 The Economics of Revolution....Pages 47-60 Self-Interest in Times of Revolution and Repression....Pages 61-74 Ethics and Politics....Pages 75-97 Ethics and Politics....Pages 99-111 The Logic and Metaphysics of Evaluation in Political Theory....Pages 113-123 Attending to Interdependencies....Pages 125-134 Politics, Political Philosophy and the Politics of Philosophy....Pages 135-153 On the Choice Between Reform and Revolution....Pages 155-176 Commentary on Professor Kai Nielsen’s Paper....Pages 177-194 Back Matter....Pages 195-199