Book Review: Democracy and Marxism
| Author | C. B. Macpherson |
| Published date | 01 December 1956 |
| Date | 01 December 1956 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070205601100412 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEWS
301
giving
high marks
to
examination
papers
which
reflect
their
own
prejudices.
Naturally
there
is
no
widespread
fervour
for
preserving
the
freedom
of
such
creatures.
And
here
is
the
ultim-
ate
source of
the
weakness
of
North
American
Universities
when
under
attack.
Laurier
House,
Ottawa
FRANK
H.
UNDERHILL
DEMOCRACY
AND
MARXISM.
By
H.
B.
Mayo.
1955.
(New
York;
Toronto:
Oxford.
xi,
364pp.)
Professor
Mayo
offers, in effect,
a liberal-democrats'
hand-
book
of
criticisms
of
Marxism.
The
first
three-quarters
of
the
book
spans,
with
one
notable
exception,
the
whole
range
of
Marxist
theory,
from
dialectical
materialism
through
the theory
of
history
and
the
political
theory
(class
struggle,
party,
revolu-
tion
and
dictatorship
of
the
proletariat)
to communist
morality
and
theory
of religion,
and
includes
as
well
a
chapter
on
Marxism
and
scientific
method.
The exception
is
Marxian
economics,
which
is
omitted
as
being
of
an
instrumental character
and
hence
not essential to
the
understanding
of
the
main
theories
(p.
254).
The
last
quarter
of
the
book
comprises
a
summary
chapter
on
the
theory
of democracy
and
a
chapter
of
confrontation
of
liberal-
democracy
and
Marxism.
A
fourteen-page
annotated
list
of
further
readings
is
appended.
The
design
of
the
whole
work is clear,
but
it
is
not
easy
to
see
for
whom
the
book
was
written.
It
is
not intended
as
a
scholarly
contribution
to
the literature
on
Marxism.
Yet
it
is
rather
too
intellectually
nice
for the
general
reader.
It
is
per-
haps
intended
for
those
public
men,
especially
in
the
United
States,
who,
like
the
distinguished
contributor
of
the
foreword,
want
a
well-arranged
statement
of
refutations
of
all
(or
all
but
the
technical
economic)
parts
of
Marxist
doctrine.
Such
readers
will
find
just
what they
want.
But
they
will
not
find
what
the
author's
preface may
lead
them
to expect.
Two
reasons
for
studying
Marxism
are
there set
out: first,
"Marx
was
one
of
those
pioneers,
like
Darwin
or
Freud,
who
changed
the
tenor
of
man's
thought"
and
his
work
"remains
one
of
the
landmarks
of
human
thought";
secondly,
Marx's theories
"are
now
the
official
beliefs
of
a
third
of
the
world's
population."
There
will
be
little
disagreement
that
these
facts
constitute
strong
reasons
for
studying
Marxism.
Yet
the
reader
who
expects
to
find
either
why
Marxism is such
an intellectual landmark,
or
why
it
is
now
the
official
doctrine of
a
third
of
the
world,
may
well
be
puzzled
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