Book Review: General Politics: Toleration
| Author | Aref Ebadi |
| Published date | 01 May 2015 |
| DOI | 10.1111/1478-9302.12087_8 |
| Date | 01 May 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
movement during his lifetime and the period of his
exile from the Soviet Union (1929–40). Sections on
revolution, fascism, imperialism and the coming of the
Second World War organise the work; an up-to-date
reference and further reading section, perhaps the most
current on Trotsky, closes the book.
The volume’s strength lies in the editors’ belief that
Trotsky’s work is ripe for reassessment by a new gen-
eration of activists and political scientists.Trotsky’s het-
erodoxy is an organic strain of Marxist political thought
linked to pre-Soviet debates; while Western Marxists
were mostly academics, Leon Trotsky’s work placed
action on a par with theorising.The inclusion of impor-
tant speeches such as ‘In Defence of October’ give the
reader cogent summaries of Trotsky’s theories of per-
manent revolution,combined and uneven development,
and the complexities of the Soviet Union’s political
path. In an era witnessing a rebirth of class struggle
politics and major crises of capitalism, Trotsky’s argu-
ment that only the working class – via independent
political organisation outside bourgeois parties – can
fulfill both the democratic and socialist tasks of the era is
well worth re-examining. Further essays provide ample
summaries of his thoughts on fascism and right-wing
politics and how Marxists should organise politically.
Yet with most of these writings available freely
online, a better volume would aim more specifically at
providing a Marx-Engels Reader structure to all of
Trotsky’s writings, and not just those written in exile:
large excerpts from major works coupled with impor-
tant shorter speeches, essays and letters. Novice readers
would also be aided by a more extensive use of foot-
notes; the editors otherwise present names, terms and
events without the full contextualisation necessary for
understanding Trotsky as part of a political tradition
obscure to most contemporary readers who are not
already students of Marxist politics. Readers would
therefore be better served by acquiring more complete
editions of his writing.
Peter A. LaVenia
(Independent Scholar)
Toleration by Andrew Jason Cohen. Cambridge:
Polity Press, 2014. 176pp., £15.99, ISBN
9780745655574
What is toleration? Should we tolerate, and if so, why?
What should be tolerated? These arethe main questions
that Andrew Jason Cohen has tried to answer in his
book (p.1). Although Cohen believesthat the histor y of
modern toleration is the history of Liberalism (p. 1),he
doesn’t offer an outline of such history. Instead, he
concentrates on providing a comprehensive account of
toleration.Cohen takes J. S.Mill’s Harm Pr inciple as‘the
most important normative principle of toleration’ (pp.5
and 47). He argues that the three conditions of genuine
toleration are: (a) intentional non-interference; (b) a
sense of disapproval or dislike of something; and (c) a
principled reason for non-interference (pp. 14–16).
Cohen tries to defend the principle of toleration due to
its rationality and being ‘independent of any consensus’
(pp.34 and 37). The whole book is allocated to explain-
ing and defending this kind of toleration, and Cohen
proposes many real and imaginary examples in order to
clarify his account of it.
The author explicates the harm principle and differ-
ent kinds of harm (and hurt), and offers the conditions
that warrant interference.He also adds a very impor tant
qualification: the idea of consent. Cohen believes in
volenti non fit injuria, which is a jurisprudence principle
that indicates ‘what one welcomes (or consents to)
cannot be an injury or wrong (though it can hurt)’ (p.
47).This is followed by a discussion of four rival prin-
ciples of toleration: the offence principle,the benefit to
others principle, legal paternalism and legal moralism.
In comparison to these principles, Cohen develops his
own account of toleration and concludes that ‘the strict
version of the harm principle should be endorsed and
... the remaining four should be rejected’ (p. 56).The
author then extends the harm principle to other
spheres, such as the environment, animals and the busi-
ness world.Finally, Cohen examines some critical views
and paradoxes of toleration and calls it ‘an unfortunate
virtue’ because it is ‘indifferent to many and caring for
a few’ (p. 155).
In summary, the book is structured in a logical way,
the writing is very clear, the arguments are quite chal-
lenging and the chapters address the central theme of
the book properly. Cohen’s intention was not to write
either a textbook or an introduction to toleration.This
is a book that provides a new approach to toleration,
and I recommend it for postgraduate students and
researchers of politics, philosophy and jurispr udence.
Aref Ebadi
(University of Nottingham)
BOOK REVIEWS 243
© 2015 TheAuthors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
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