THE STATE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

by Harold J. Laski ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 15, 1935

An important book, and after the first fifty pages it gets going and is challenging reading, full of dynamite for the lazy-minded. Perhaps a few extracts will give the essential flavor. ""An analysis such as this may seem a denial of fundamentals. To represent history as the deposit of the results of class-struggles, to view the state as simply the instrument of the predominant class at any given time, to insist that law essentially takes its color from the interest of that class, is to do profound injustice to the principles of our social arrangements."" ""If the analysis here made is correct, it follows that the essence of the state is its power to employ coercion in order to enforce the will of that group or groups which control the government; for it is by the government that the authority of the state is brought into operation. The will of the government is, in its turn, finally determined by the character of the class-relations in society."" ""The system of capitalistic democracy worked well so long as it was in a period of expansion, but it needed always the capacity to sell its goods in a profitable market."" ""So long as the effective purpose of the state is to protect the principles of capitalism, so long will it require to retain the use of war as an instrument of national policy."" ""The highroad to an effective international order lies through the reconstruction of the class relations of modern society."" ""Once more we can see before us the beginnings of a new order. Once more the economic policy has become incompatible with the political forms in which it is contained. Once more we have begun the struggle between present fact and historic idea which always involves the remaking of the principles of government."" For all interested in the theory and practice of state craft and government.

Pub Date: Feb. 15, 1935

ISBN: 1412808316

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1935

Categories: NONFICTION