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Review of
Democracy Realized: By Vincent Geoghegan This is social theory in the grand manner, nothing less than an analysis of the contemporary world's social, economic and political problems combined with a programme to overcome these deficiencies and usher in a transformed reality. These ambitions are sustained by a very rigorous, densely textured text, which, whilst taxing, is undoubtedly rewarding. This is a book rich in insight, and one that deserves a close and careful reading. In a short review, therefore, it will only be possible to scratch the surface, and pick out areas which readers of this journal might find particularly interesting. Unger's text is self-consciously visionary. The failure to develop radical alternatives is a fundamental part of the malaise of modern times, and the regeneration of social imagination is therefore a vital component in any meaningful way forward. He rejects the simplistic realism/idealism dualism, arguing, in effect, that utopianism is at the heart of an authentic realism, and that "we must be visionaries to become realists" (74). The grip of memory, the ease of the familiar, the fear of the unknown, themselves grounded in deep social processes, all contribute to an atrophy of the forward-looking glance, and play into the hands of those who benefit from the present state of affairs. He also rejects attempts to privilege certain modes of anticipation over others, the short-term over the long-term, the empirical over the speculative, the discursive over the poetic, for each has a complementary role to play in the project of transformation. The current conjuncture is the seemingly unstoppable hegemony of neo-liberalism, with its thesis of an inevitable global convergence towards liberal-democratic and market institutions. An aspect of this is a demoralised left, confronted with bankrupt social democratic and communist traditions, and unable to develop a viable alternative to this new world-order. Unger seeks to remedy this defect. The critical aspect of the book focuses on a range of experiences in the first, second, and third worlds, showing the forces and processes sustaining the attractiveness of the neoliberal model, but indicating the essential vacuity of this model as a real solution to pressing problems. Whilst sensitive to the particular circumstances of each of these societies he is hostile to claims that national experiences in some way determine present realities and future possibilities. The present and the future are the outcome of specific choices, and are therefore within the realm of politics. At the heart of Unger's alternative is what he terms "democratic experimentalism." Democracy encompasses the progressive values and hopes of earlier radical ideologies--their concern with practical sustenance and human development, and is to be distinguished from various specific (and flawed) democratic constitutions. This democracy is experimental because it has to take risks in an open-ended world, and cannot be vindicated in advance (though it can and should be grounded in clear-headed thought). It is also experimental in the sense that it proceeds incrementally, as change stimulates new change, one step following on from another. He thus speaks of "revolutionary reform--the part-by-part substitution of formative institutional structures and ideas", which is "the exemplary mode of transformative politics" (275). In temporal terms he divides his alternative into an "early program" and a "later program", again stressing that there is no Chinese wall between the two stages. The early phase begins the process of rescuing humanity from the grasp of the status quo, establishing new procedures and perspectives, and thereby creating the material, institutional, and human base for the more ambitious moves in the later stage. In the early program a series of economic, political, and cultural changes need to be initiated. Thus the level of public and private saving has to be raised, and channelled, not into the casino speculation of the modern financial system, but into productive investment. A "hard," effective, and interventionist state, grounded in a politically active people must encourage decentralization and experiment at all levels of society. These in turn need to be associated with a cultural transformation of human capacities and expectations, with educational reform an especially high priority. Such a programme, Unger argues, would gain the support of a wide alliance of social groups, including those who might ultimately turn against the more radical elements in the later programme. In the later programme the decisive shift occurs which destroys the fundamental inequalities of society, breaking the traditional linkage between wealth, heredity, education and power. In this stage the gloves come off, oppression is not tolerated, large personal accumulations of wealth are prevented, as is the capacity to pass wealth and power across generations. Unger's belief is that the changes which have been brought about in the first stage will create a climate in which these radical measures will seem both practical and desirable. At the economic level, amongst a host of radical changes, a progressive taxation of personal consumption and a progressive taxation of wealth will undermine the old elites and produce resources for an egalitarian social policy. Government will become both more popular and speedier, and cease to be a bastion of entrenched interests. In education it will be necessary "to rescue the child from its family, its class, its country, and its historical epoch", thereby giving children "the powers of insight and action and the access to alien experience enabling them to become little prophets" (231). The overall goal is not a blueprint "good society", but merely the creation of the conditions whereby the people have a confidence in their own creativity--what they do with this capacity will be up to them. At many points in the text questions about the
feasibility of these proposals come to mind: how is the move to the early
programme to come about?; can the claims of liberty and equality be reconciled?;
how can international differences be overcome?; and so on and so forth. They
come to Unger's mind also. He is aware of a host of difficulties, and is clear
that many possible outcomes could occur. Readers must themselves plunge into the
various levels of argument and evidence in the text, and engage with the
assumptions of the author. Unger has set the terms of a debate which should
concern all those who are seriously looking for moorings in the rough seas of
the early twenty first century, a debate moreover which requires that the claims
of a visionary politics be seriously investigated. This is a book to ponder.
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