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Harvard Law Review, June 1988, 101 Harv. L.
Rev. 1961
Toward a
Free Marketplace of Institutions: Roberto Unger's "Super Liberal"
Theory
of Emancipation
[A
review of Politics: A Work in Constructive Social Theory,
by Roberto Mangabeira Unger: Social Theory: Its Situation and Its Task;
False Necessity: Anti-Necessitarian Social Theory in the Service of Radical Democracy; Plasticity
Into Power: Comparative-Historical Studies on the Institutional Conditions of
Economic and Military Success]
By
Bernard Yack
In
recent years the New Left's intoxication with Marxist theory has given way to a
rather painful hangover. In the cold light of dawn, many radicals have begun to
take a second, more critical look at the theories that once inspired them. As a
result, we now find radical theorists taking the lead in attacking totalistic
theories of human emancipation. This stunning reversal of sentiment has
rendered their theories less vulnerable to political and philosophical
criticism; but it has also undoubtedly eroded their revolutionary spirit and
sense of common purpose. They can all agree that we must subvert modern social
and political institutions. But why we must do so and for what alternative are
questions that, in the interest of continued sobriety, they seem reluctant to
discuss.
Contemporary radicals, Roberto Unger argues, still cling to their "transformative
vocation," (ST, p. 26) but lack the "prophetic vision" (ST,
p. 215) that could unite them into a common purpose. Unger presents his
new multi-volume work, Politics: A Work in Constructive Social Theory,
as the remedy for this deficiency. In these volumes he elaborates a vision of
human emancipation and of the radical theorist's vocation that, he hopes, will
both restore the radical left's common sense of purpose and avoid the
theoretical and practical errors that afflict Marxism. Unger's theoretical
ambition is enormous, far greater even than Marx's. He seeks to produce, like
Marx, a theory of emancipation that will explain the nature, direction, and
final goal of social development. Yet he also identifies the particular
institutions that should constitute an emancipated society and explores the
personal relations that we would experience in such a society. No wonder
he describes himself as a "super-theorist" engaged in
"super-theory" (ST, pp. 166-69). The breadth of Unger's
project would stretch even a Nietzschean Ubermensch to the limits of
his strength. The enormity of the task he sets for himself, however, does not
daunt Unger. Extravagant theoretical ambition has always been his hallmark,
beginning with his first book, a "total critique" of liberal theory
and practice.
Many readers will find Unger's constructive approach and hopeful message
invigorating, especially in contrast to the current obsession, shared by so many
radicals, with deconstructing all positive theoretical claims. Unger
encourages this reaction by repeatedly warning us that the only alternatives to
his "extravagant[ly] theoretical" (ST, p. 150) approach are
the "relentlessly negativistic" (ST, p. 151) critiques of the
deconstructionists and a "faithless prostration" (ST, p. 2)
before the status quo.
The correctness of Unger's portrayal of our alternatives, however, depends upon
the cogency of the idea of human emancipation that inspires and sustains his
theoretical ambitions. Before we accept the all-or-nothing choice with which
Unger confronts us, we need to subject that idea to careful examination. In this
Book Review I try to show that Unger's idea of human emancipation is both
internally inconsistent and practically undesirable. Far from offering the only
hope for a "constructive social theory," Unger's extravagant ambitions
merely divert much-needed energy and attention away from the development of less
ambitious but sounder constructive approaches to social criticism.
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