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Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l'Université de Montréal, l'Université Laval et l'Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. Érudit offre des services d'édition numérique de documents scientifiques depuis 1998. Pour communiquer avec les responsables d'Érudit : erudit@umontreal.ca Compte rendu Peter W. Hutchins Les Cahiers de droit, vol. 10, n° 1, 1969, p. 240-242. Pour citer ce compte rendu, utiliser l'adresse suivante : URI: http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1004586ar DOI: 10.7202/1004586ar Note : les règles d'écriture des références bibliographiques peuvent varier selon les différents domaines du savoir. Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d'utilisation que vous pouvez consulter à l'URI http://www.erudit.org/apropos/utilisation.html Document téléchargé le 31 March 2013 02:05 « Reflections on Government, by Ernest BARKER, Don Mills, Ont., Oxford University Press, 1967, 420 pages, $2.50. » 240 Les Cahiers de Droit (1969) 10 C. deD. coordination » qui sont difficiles à inventer et à faire accepter. L'ouvrage de Me Lajoie sera certes un outil précieux pour ceux qui vou- dront comprendre les transforma- tions des structures administratives qui ne devraient pas tarder à venir. Patrice GARANT. Reflections on Government, by Er- nest BARKER, Don Mills, Ont. Ox- ford University Press, 1967, 420 pages, $2.50. "Reflections on Government" by Ernest Barker is exactly what the title implies — reflections on the government of men, a political, so- cial, economic — indeed humanistic — look at democracy and its alter- natives. It is not, however, a struc- tured, technical textbook and it does not confine itself to strict political science. As the author himself points out in his Preface : "These thoughts, or reflections, or considerations, may perhaps be said to fall within the scope of political science, a subject in which I was once a professor. But in another sense they can hardly be said to belong to any one branch of study or subject of inquiry. I am not a philoso- pher ; but I could not refrain from considerations of ethics, which must always be vitally connected with politics. I am not an economist ; but I have been driven to think about economics, which can never be absent from any political inquiry. I am not a student of natural science ; but I have found it impossible to refrain from reflecting on the methods and achievements of natural science, which are deeply affecting the life of every poli- tical community." (p. vi). This book does not pretend to be an exhaustive study of the European political scene : its domain is ideas not systems. "The argument of these Reflec- tions is general, and perhaps even abstract. I have attempted to see the pattern and design of the idiosyncrasy of each tree : to consider the general move- ment of ideas and forces in Eu- rope rather than to investigate the particularity of each of its parts." Prof. Barker has divided his book into four parts ; Part I dealing with "Democratic Government and its In- ternal Difficulties," Part II with "Democracy and its External Diffi- culties," Part III with "Amendments to Democracy" and Part IV with "Alternatives to Democracy." Within each Part we find a theoretical ap- proach to the problem — an approach which spills over into, as the author himself admits, other disciplines such as ethics, economics or natural science. A glance at the table of contents bears out this assertion. Part I is divided into three chapters, the first "The Name and Nature of Liberty" including such sub-titles as 'Good- ness and Liberty' or 'Liberty in re- gard to the ideas of Society and State', Chapter II "The System of Civil and Political Liberty" includ- ing, for example, 'Party as a stage and organ in the method of discus- sion' or 'The spiritual conditions of the reconciliation of differences', Chapter III "The Internal Difficulties of Democracy" including, for exam- ple, 'Democracy in an era of econo- mic and scientific change' or 'Demo- cracy in relation to modern methods of production and distribution'. Part II dealing with the external difficulties of democracy has for its chapter heads "The Eruption of the Personal" : "The Romantic Factor" in which the author discusses the vogue of the emergent leader and its origin in German Romanticism, "The Eruption of the Group" in which the group mentality of tota- litarianism is discussed and finally "Economic Movements and Political Motion" where the problems of eco- nomic development are treated. Part III "Amendments to Demo- cracy" deals with the Reform of Parliamentary Democracy from two points of view Procedure and Plan- ning. Finally, Part IV outlines the "Alternatives to Democracy" under Chronique bibliographique 241 'Democratic Movement and Counter- Movements', 'The System of the Sin- gle Party State', 'The Alternative of Russian Soviet Communism', 'The Alternative of Italian Fascism', 'The Alternative of German National So- cialism'. The whole is tied together by a final chapter on "The Choices and Decision." From the technical point of view, then, it is evident that a politico- philosophic approach has been em- ployed. From a perusal of the text the same is no less evident as, for example, in a study or the philoso- phic currents setting toward personal leadership we find the ideas of Nietzsche, Sorel, Pareto, Bergson and German Romanticism. By avoiding an institutional or legalistic work, the author has man- aged to cut through the maze of technicalities and procedure which so often surrounds a study of go- vernment. Instead, we have the ideas and opinions of a man learned in that science, the reactions of this man to a time when democracy, es- pecially the European brand, was threatened most seriously. For Re- flections was written in and about the troubled Europe of the late 1930's, a Europe on the brink of war, and indeed, the final chapter was added two years later during wartime. Yet even while Europe tore at itself, the author maintained his faith in a European norm, a certain 'Europe- anism' thus forecasting accurately the post-war European experience. "But any just view of the Euro- pean past must recognize that Europe has steadily constituted a single area of values, even if there have always been different provinces or regions within that area, and even though this or that province may sometimes have claimed to be the whole. To study Natural Law in Europe is to study one great manifes- tation of the common European." (p. 397). At a time of fanatical nationalism, the author disavowed such natio- nalism. "In every department of man's activities in which he has sought to find standards and to discover values (in music or in literature, in science or in painting and architecture, as well as in law in politics), the common is al- ways there. It is only an igno- rance, or an ignoring, of the whole process of the building of our system of standards which can result in the nationalization of values." (p. 398). The final chapter, just mentioned, and appropriately called "The Choi- ces and the Decision" looks back at the book it culminates from the perspective of two years of war, a book about which the author quite rightly concludes that there "is no judgment, and no expression of opi- nion (not even in regard to Russia) which it has been necessary to alter in consequence of the movement of events during the last two years." The choices and decision of which this chapter speaks are those to be made between the security of tota- litarianism, discussed earlier in the book, whether it be Russian Com- munism, German National Socialism or Italian Fascism and the demo- cratic form with all its hazards and 'ancient ways', a choice in fact be- tween social and economic 'hiving' of communism or corporatism on one hand and the fulfillment of the indi- vidual on the other. The impersonal, mechanised state of Hitler's Germa- ny or Mussolini's Italy, suggests the author, had, rather than offering a challenge to the movement of con- temporary life, succombed to it, whi- le democracy stood as the process which might still offer the realistic answer to an impersonal age. But, concedes the author, the strength of executive government, and an ade- quate provision of leadership is a work of justification which demo- cracy has to achieve. Much less sur- viving the two years of wartime, Prof. Barker's views seem to have weathered well the twenty-six years separating his writing and this re- view. His conclusion seems no less re- silient for it is the inevitable con- clusion to any thoughtful survey of past troubles and future hopes — internationalization. States should not be islands unto themselves, turning outward only for conquest. 242 Les Cahiers de Droit (1969) 10 C. deD. Surely this is the lesson taught us by the chaos of the Europe which formed a backdrop for Reflections. Surely, as Prof. Barker states, "It is vain to think of uploads/Litterature/ ernest-barker.pdf