At the time of the debate on the 'Full Employment Bill' there were those who believed that without a well-coordinated economic policy the country would inevitably run again into a depression with mass unemployment and mass frustration. Our free democratic institutions might not survive another experience of that sort. There were, on the other hand, those who said that economic stabilization would not be desirable because it would lead to economic stagnation or to regimentation. Some believed that, even if desirable, it would not be feasible because neither the necessary technical and statistical knowledge nor the essential policy devices are available.
It is the intention of this paper to re-examine these main economic arguments in the light of the experience of the last two years.
The existing literature on conditions in the so-called undeveloped areas of the world reveals a good deal about the attitudes of primitives and peasants toward industrial work, but the direct evidence is at best fragmentary and inconclusive. Pending field research into this specific problem in certain specific areas, it is desirable, therefore, to examine what can be gleaned from social theory in regard to the problem of adaptation to new economic form, and to determine whether any useful generalizations can be drawn which will serve as a conceptual framework for empirical observations.
At the conclusion of the Labour government’s first full-length report on colonial affairs in the House of Commons, Colonel Oliver Stanley, the last Colonial Secretary of the Coalition government, declared: 'The right hon. Gentleman [George Hall, then Secretary of State for Colonies in the Labour Government] started his speech by telling us that since the electoral events of July, it was necessary for him to make a declaration of policy for the party now in power. I listened to it with great interest, and, I must confess, with a certain amount of familiarity. It did not seem to differ greatly in essentials from the policies which have been declared on previous occasions.' The implication is clear--that the advent of the Labour government has made little or no difference in British colonial policies. How much truth is there in the Conservative M. P.’s contention? What changes, if any, have there been in Great Britain’s government of her overseas possessions as a result of Labour’s coming to power?
It is to be considered that the state has come to claim the monopoly of coercive power in its attempt to enforce lawful behavior on the part of the citizens. The emphasis here is upon the word 'claim,' for there are forms of power and of indirect coercion which are outside the state. An important point is that economic power is not the only effective power in the private spheres of life. Creeds, demagoguery, strong-arm methods marshaled and used by various groups, all demonstrate that the wealthy class does not necessarily enjoy a monopoly of "covert" coercion.
Man’s being, which is concerned with his own being, has to-be--that is, he must be; he cannot surrender his being-there to some other being and get rid of it. He is, rather, surrendered or delivered up to himself. He has, therefore, to bear, as long as he exists, the "burden" of existence as an essential character of his being-there. If, says Heidegger, one can speak at all of man’s essence, then this so-called essence is implied in the fact that he has to-be; in other words, man’s essence has to be understood from his existence.
Review of book by Gustav Stolper. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. 1948. x & 341 pp.
Review of book by Institute National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques. Études et Documents. Série B-2. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,. 1946. 542 pp.
Review of book by Yitzhak F. Baer. New York: Schochen. 1947. 121 pp.
Review of book by Chester McArthur Destler. Connecticut College Monograph No. 3.] New London: Connecticut College. 1946. 276 pp.
Review of book by Leighton, Dorothea, and Clyde Kluckhorn. Cambridge: Harvard Unviersity Press. 1947. 277 pp.
Review of book by Edward S. Mason. Committee for Economic Development Research Study. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1946. 289 pp.
Review of book by Samuel Laurie. New York: Columbia University Press. 1947. 243 pp.
Review of book by Frederick C. Mills. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research. 1946. 140 pp.
Review of book by Heinrich Barth. Basel: Benno Schwabe. 1947. 390 pp.