Pluralism and the Personality of the State

by David Runciman

• ISBN13: 9780521551915
• ISBN10: 0521551919
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-06-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Set against the broad context of philosophical arguments about group and state personality, Pluralism and the Personality of the State tells, for the first time, the history of political pluralism. The pluralists believed that the state was simply one group among many, and could not therefore be sovereign. They also believed that groups, like individuals, might have personalities of their own. The book examines the philosophical background to political pluralist ideas with particular reference to the work of Thomas Hobbes and the German Otto von Gierke. It also traces the development of pluralist thought before, during and after the First World War. Part Three returns to Hobbes in order to see what conclusions can be drawn about the nature of his Leviathan and the nature of the state as it exists today.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
PART I: THE PERSONALITY OF ASSOCIATIONS	3	(86)
1 Introduction	3	(3)
2 Hobbes and the person of the commonwealth	6	(28)
3 Gierke and the Genossenschaft	34	(30)
4 Trusts and sovereigns	64	(25)
PART II: POLITICAL PLURALISM	89	(134)
5 Maitland and the real personality of associations	89	(35)
6 Figgis and the communitas communitatum	124	(26)
7 Barker and the discredited state	150	(12)
8 Cole and guild socialism	162	(15)
9 Laski and political pluralism	177	(18)
10 The return of the state	195	(28)
PART III: THE PERSONALITY OF THE STATE	223	(43)
11 The mask of personality	223	(7)
12 The mask of the group	230	(21)
13 The mask of the state	251	(11)
14 Conclusion	262	(4)
Bibliography	266	(9)
Index	275