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Is There a Third Way? - Essays on the Changing Direction of Socialist Thought (Choice in Welfare)

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The title of this book is really a misnomer. Rather than essays on the changing direction of socialist thought the direction given by Michael Novak rather reeks of "we're all social democrats now".

Michael Novak has achieved some remarkable fame or notoriety depending on your own perspective as the leader of the Capitalism as Moral sect of conservatism in the United States. His major book, the Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, articulates his case for the morality of markets and he has been feted throught the world for his contribution.

This book articulates his reformist vision of the welfare state and in this he finds common cause with the other contributors to this slim volume. Each of the authors accept the basic view that socialism as it was practised in the Soviet Union et al has gone and that increasingly, countries throughout the world are turning to some form of capitalism. Reviewer's Note: There appear's to be a conspiracy of silence among those who are loudest in the capitalism is victorious debate about why Africa has not in general gone along the capitalist route. Indeed Zimbabwe has travelled almost totally in the opposite direction.

Another common theme between Novak and the other's is the acceptance of the need for the State. Far be it for me to question this acceptance but rather simplistically I thought that conservatives were for at least a minimal state as opposed to the more libertarian case for none at all. Perhaps I have read Novak incorrectly but he appears to be satisfied to keep the state as we know it and reform it, a stance shared b y the so-called socialist authors.

But then, for Novak, the state is an instrument of the democratically elected representatives of the people. An instrument which should use it's power to achieve certain political and social objectives. While he decries the so-called breakdown in social society and yearns for the return of stay at home mothers while the married father brings home the weekly paycheck and where there is more order and authority in the world, Novak is signifying the common cause that authoritarian conservatives like him have with the descendents of ethical socialism in Britain.

This book is more about getting policy formers to change the direction of their policies to bring about a new social order. It is about convincing people that all of this freedom that we seeem to be accruing is bad for us if we do not use it with responsibility. It is a project which hijacks liberty in the name of restoring civil society but which requires fewer choices rather than more. In this idyll which never really existed along with that wonderful concept of merrie rural englande but which conservatives want us to return. The American equivalent is no better a sort of Christian conservative equivalent of the Stepford Wives.

This book represents the jealousy and resentement felt by Conservative elites for the growing ability of everyone to exercise choice in the world where before that capacity was limited to the priviledged few. It is a blatant attempt to convince the powerful middle class voter that the only way to protect their position is to restore some order to the world. In fact the more I read books such as this the more I recall the essential Victorian society where people said one thing and did another. A society which could not talk about sex but where prostitution was rife and confined by the customers as far as they could to the ghettos of the poor.

To it's credit it is a well written book and Novak demonstrates his skill as an author and the ability to marshall his arguements to achieve a clearly defined objective. It is certainly a book that everyone should read...and BE WARNED BY.