Rethinking Liberalism (Political theory & contemporary politics) by Professor Richard Bellamy
Professor Richard Bellamy . Unknown Year . English
A collection of Richard Bellamy's essays from the 1990s on the changing character of liberalism. He describes how liberalism emerged during the late-19th and early-20th centuries as the ethos of a modern industrial society, and shows how many of its central concepts have been undermined by subsequent social developments. To illustrate the argument, Bellamy critically examines a number of contemporary liberal theorists - Hegel, Berlin, T.H. Green, John Stuart Mill, Guido de Ruggeiro, Carl Schmitt and Schumpeter - arguing that their theories contain fatal flaws, either because they failed to modify their ideas to meet the challenges of contemporary complex and pluralist societies, or because, although they accept that the pluralism of modern societies undermines the traditional foundations for liberalism, they believe that liberalism can be reconceived in neutral and political terms. Bellamy disputes this analysis, arguing that the transformation of liberal thought discussed in Part One has gone further than these writers realize. In the final chapters, he outlines his own views on the failings of liberal theory and how these affect liberal practice; offers an overview of the debates; and presents his alternative of how liberalism might be reinvented for the 21st century - democratic liberalism.
Categories: Fiction
About the Author
Richard Bellamy was born in Glasgow, though he is not of Scottish descent - both his parents came from Liverpool. The family moved to near London when he was 3, by way of a 6 month period on the beach near Pisa, where his father was working at the Institute of Physics. Though he did return to Glasgow 16 years later to work as a community service volunteer (CSV) prior to University, those few idyllic months in Italy left a profound impression and many of his writings engage with the Italian tradition of political thought. The family also spent periods in California (while his father was at Stanford) and Geneva (where his father worked at CERN). Richard studied history at Cambridge and did his PhD there and at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. He was a post doctoral research fellow at Nuffield College Oxford, a temporary lecturer in history at Cambridge and then moved to a lectureship in politics at Edinburgh. The author of 11 monographs and the editor of a further 30 books, most of his work combines history, politics, law and philosophy to different degrees. He has written extensively on the development of, and challenges to, democracy, citizenship and constitutionalism in modern societies. He has held Chairs at UEA, Reading, Essex and UCL, where he was founding head of the Political Science Department and also set up the European Institute. From 2014-2019 he was Director of the Max Weber Post-doctoral programme at the EUI, on extended leave from his position at UCL to which he has now returned. He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and of the British Academy (FBA). He is presently working on books on constitutional theory and on democratic ethics. He has a daughter, who is also very interested in politics and history (among many other things, needless to say). Further information about Richard can be found on his website: https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=RBELL43 You can follow him on Twitter at: Richard Bellamy@rpbellamy1
