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Tertium Non Datur: A Comment on the Andrew Shonfield Lectures*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Ralf Dahrendorf
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Extract

REALITY IS UNTIDY AND WE SHOULD THANK OUR LUCKY stars for the fact. Liberty thrives on (and in) interstices. The reality of Hayek's world would be no less unbearable than that of Marx's. There is in fact no capitalist society, nor is there a socialist one. All variants of really existing capitalism — and socialism — are mixtures of both, and those which have come closest to the concepts were also the least attractive. The first question to address to any real society is therefore not whether it can be labelled this way or that, but what is the peculiar blend of ingredients which makes it tick.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , 01 April 1989 , pp. 131 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1989

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Footnotes

*

Ed. note: this is the concluding article in the series of the Andrew Shonfield Lectures, as published in Vol. 23 No. 3, Summer 1988, Vol. 23 No. 4, Autumn 1988, and Vol. 24 No. 1, Winter 1989.

References

1 David, Marquand, ‘Preceptoral Politics, Yeoman Democracy and the Enabling State’, Government and Opposition, Vol. 23 No. 3, Summer 1988. The quotations are on pp. 261, 263, 274, and 275.Google Scholar

2 Shonfield, Andrew, In Defence of the Mixed Economy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984, ch. 10.Google Scholar

3 This is the main theme of my book, The Modem Social Conflict, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London and New York, 1988.

4 Schmitter, Philippe C., ‘Corporatism Is Dead! Long Live Corporatism!’, Government and Opposition, Vol. 24 No.1, Winter 1989.Google Scholar

5 Andrew Shonfield, op cit., p. 127.

6 Ronald, Dore, ‘Rigidities in the Labour Market’, Government and Opposition, Vol. 23 No. 4, Autumn 1988.Google Scholar

7 Wolfgang, Streeck, ‘Comment on Ronald Dore, “Rigidities in the Labour Market” ‘, Government and Opposition, Vol. 23 No. 4, Autumn 1988.Google Scholar

8 Ronald Dore, op cit., p. 412.

9 Wolfgang Streeck, op cit., p. 421.

10 Wolfgang Streeck, op cit., p. 423.

11 This combination of cultural analysis and practical intentions lies behind the OECD Report, Labour Market Flexibility, OECD, 1986.