Reinvestigation of the meaning of opposition under the conditions of the present age may be in order. For the sake of preciseness these remarks will be restricted to European parliamentary regimes, omitting the role of opposition under presidential regimes, which obey somewhat different political and, as the case may be, social considerations.
Of all the outstanding Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton is probably the only one who has never been fully enshrined as a hero acceptable to all his countrymen. There are few if any divisions of opinion in regard to George Washington's towering character or Benjamin Franklin's earthy wisdom or Thomas Jefferson's democratic philosophy.
Two points should be clarified at the outset of this discussion. In the first place, no attempt will be made to establish criteria for determining what sort of economic development is desirable. This study assumes that many countries wish to make thorough-going changes in their economies, and often turn to their governments for aid in doing so; the problem to be investigated here is not whether development should be undertaken, but only whether, or to what extent, government can successfully achieve development.
"Enlightenment" is a historical ideal type. As such it is of questionable value because of the extremely subjective elements of its value perspectives. Still today enlightenment is a curse to some, a blessing to others. For this reason it maybe a methodological necessity to construct different concepts for genuinely historical phenomena. Let us call them ideal images. Ideal images are the concrete and dynamic representations of ideal patterns of philosophizing, of normal modes of politics, and of the types of human perfection.
One of the happy consequences of the growing literature on the problems of underdeveloped countries is the renewed interest in the works of the early political economists--the physiocrats, Adam Smith, Malthus, and the English classical school. As theories of economic growth--if not of economic development--have come forth, repeated reference has been made to the early classics. This is understandable enough, since they themselves were concerned with the economic problems either of an underdeveloped economy (The physiocrats, Smith) or of an economy initiating an industrial ‘take-off’ (the English classical school). In the past few years several writers have attempted to summarize the theories of long-run growth found in the early literature. Others have fitted together the ‘strategic factors’ into various types of economic "models."
Review of book by Lauren Soth. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1957. vii & 221 pp.
New York: Technology Press of MIT, and John Wiley. 1956. 266 pp.
Review of book by Edward Duff. New York: Association Press. 1956. 329 pp.
Review of book by Matthew Spinka. New york: Oxford University Press. 1956. 179 pp.
Review of book by Frances Jerome Woods. New York: Harper. 1956. 402 pp.
Review of book by Hans F. Sennholz. New York: D. Van Nostrand. 1955. 336 pp.
Review of book edited by T. B. Bottomore and Maximilien Rubel. London: Watts. 1956. 268 pp.