Book Review: Communitarianism: A New Agenda for Politics and Citizenship
| Author | Chris Sladen |
| DOI | 10.1177/014473949801800208 |
| Date | 01 September 1998 |
| Published date | 01 September 1998 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Teaching Public Administration
Treasury's role in public policy-making in a wide-ranging sense (which
could include case studies
of,
say, the Treasury's role in privatisation
policy in the 1980s, or in economic or welfare policy). Rather, it is a
thoughtful and well-organised book in the mainstream
of
British public
administration writing.
It
is the fate
of
academic books on government to be sometimes left
behind by events. The 1997 election opened a new chapter in the history
of
the Treasury. Control over interest rates has been handed to the Bank
of
England, but Gordon Brown has made the Treasury into the
powerhouse
of
the new Labour government, with a wide policy
influence, and a role almost as a 'department for social engineering' (in
the 'welfare-to-work' exercise).
So
far we have only journalistic 'instant
books'
(of
Gordon Brown: The First Year in Power-type). But there will
be plenty for academic researchers to get their teeth into, and we can
hopefully look forward to more good books on this subject.
KEVIN THEAKSTON
University
of
Leeds
COMMUNITARIANISM: A
NEW
AGENDA FOR POLITICS
AND
CITIZENSHIP
Henry Tam (Macmillan Press, 1998, pp 288, £12.99)
The term 'Community' has suddenly gained popularity. The Prime
Minister, having won the 1997 election, declared that
if
the 1940s was
the decade
of
the state and the 1980s
of
the individual, the 1990s would
be the decade
of
the community. News bulletins and press are full
of
references to communities
of
every kind: the 'international community',
for example, or the 'two communities' in Northern Ireland.
A philosophical base is provided by the communitarians, who sound
suspiciously un-British, not least because the most vocal
of
them is the
American Amitai Etzioni. Etzioni's work may be explicable (partly at
least) as a counterweight to the extreme libertarianism found in the USA
(but relatively and thankfully given little credence in Britain) but he may
deter some observers by apparently extending the responsibilities
of
good citizens to rather marginal areas, like making sure all communities
celebrate the 4th July
US
national holiday.
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