Rethink Liberalism

Author: [British] Richard Bellamy
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: This book explores various forms of liberalism in the past and present, envisioning an attractive future for new republican democratic liberalism. Bellamy engages in debates with liberal theorists ranging from J.S. Mill to T.H. Green, Guido de Ruggiero, Carl Schmitt, Joseph Schumpeter to Hayek, John Rawls, and Michael Walzer. He argues that the diversity and complexity of modern society undermine the credibility of liberal advocates and their moral assumptions. Research on the failure of the British poll tax and the constitutional dilemmas of the European Union confirm that the traditional liberal democratic concept no longer applies to the current social reality. Bellamy draws on Max Weber's approach, advocating the use of Machiavellian political perspectives to resolve conflicts caused by competing values in complex environments. However, unlike Weber, his arguments focus on the republican and democratic aspects of Machiavelli's thought. He proposes a republican solution that can limit the dominance of any idea or interest over others through power decentralization, so that everyone must make concessions to seek a mutually acceptable outcome. Rethinking Liberalism provides a guideline and form of liberal democracy specific to the national state environment of the 19th century, offering a path into the democratic and liberal political landscape of the new millennium, characterized by transnational and pluralistic societies and unknown factors.