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Peter W. HutchinsLes Cahiers de droit, vol. 10, n 1, 1969, p. 240-242.

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Reflections on Government, by Ernest BARKER, Don Mills, Ont., Oxford University Press,

1967, 420 pages, $2.50.

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240 Les Cahiers de Droit (196 9) 10 C. deD.

coordi nat ion qui sont difficiles invent er et faire accepter.

L'ou vrag e de Me Lajoie se ra c ertesun outil prcieux pour ceux qui voudront comprendre les transformations des structures administrativesqui ne devraient pas tarder venir.

Patrice GARANT.

Reflections on Gover nment , by Ernest BARKER, Don Mills, Ont. Oxford Unive rs ity Press, 1967, 420pages, $2.50.

"Reflections on Gove rnme nt" byErn est Bark er is exactly wha t thetit le implies reflections on th egovernment of men, a political, social, economic indeed humanis tic look at democracy and its alternatives. It is not, however, a structured, technical textbook and it doesnot confine itself to strict politicalscience. As the aut hor himself poin tsout in his Preface :

"These thoughts, or reflections,

or considerations, may perhapsbe said to fall within the scopeof political science, a subject inwhich I was once a professor.But in another sense they canhardly be said to belong to anyone branch of study or subjectof inquiry. I am not a philosopher ; but I could not refr ainfrom considerations of ethics,which must always be vitallyconnected wit h politics. I am no tan economist ; bu t I have beendriven to think about economics,which can neve r be abse nt fromany political inquiry. I am not

a stu den t of na tu ra l science ;but I have found it impossibleto refrain from reflecting on themethods and achievements ofnat ura l science, which are deeplyaffecting the life of every political community." (p. vi).

This book does not pretend to bean exhaustive study of the E urop eanpoliti cal scene : i ts doma in is idea snot systems.

"The argument of these Reflections is general, and perhapseven abstract. I have attempted

to see the pattern and design ofthe idio syncr asy of each tre e :to consider the general movement of ideas and forces in Europe rather than to investigatethe particularity of each of itsparts."

Prof. Barker has divided his bookinto four par ts ; P ar t I dealing with"Democratic Government and its Internal Difficulties," Part II with"Democracy and its External Difficulties," Par t III with "Amendmentsto Democracy" and Part IV with"Alternatives to Democracy." Withineach Part we find a theoretical approac h to the problem an approachwhich spills over into, as the authorhimself admits, other disciplinessuch as ethics, economics or naturalscience.

A glance at the table of contentsbears out this assertion. Part I isdivided into th re e cha pte rs, the first"The Name and Nature of Liberty"including such sub-titles as 'Goodness and Liberty' or 'Liberty in regard to the ideas of Society and

State', Chapter II "The System ofCivil and Political Liberty" including, for example, 'Party as a stageand organ in the method of discussion' or 'The spiritual conditions ofthe reconciliation of differences',Chap ter II I "T he Int ern al Difficultiesof Democracy" including, for example, 'Democracy in an era of economic and scientific change' or 'Democracy in relation to modern m ethodsof production and distribution'.

Part II dealing with the externaldifficulties of democracy has for itschapter heads "The Eruption of thePersona l" : "The Romantic Fa ctor"

in which the author discusses thevogue of the emergent leader andits origin in German Romanticism,"The Eruption of the Group" inwhich the group mentality of totali tar ian ism is discussed and finally"Economic Movements and PoliticalMotion" where the problems of economic development are treated.

Part III "Amendments to Democracy" deals with the Reform ofParliamentary Democracy from twopoints of view Procedure and Planning. Finally, Part IV outlines the"Alternatives to Democracy" under

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Chronique bibliographique 241

'Democratic Movement and Counter-Movements', 'The System of the Single Party State', 'The Alternative ofRussian Soviet Communism', 'TheAlternative of Italian Fascism', 'TheAlternative of German National Socialism'. The whole is tied togetherby a final chapter on "The Choicesand Decision."

From the technical point of view,then, it is evident that a politico-philosophic approach has been employed. From a perusal of the textthe same is no less evident as, forexample, in a study or the philosophic currents setting toward personalleadership we find the ideas ofNietzsche, Sorel, Pareto, Bergsonand German Romanticism.

By avoiding an institutional orlegalistic work, the author has managed to cut through the maze oftechnicalities and procedure whichso often surrounds a study of government. Instead, we have the ideasand opinions of a man learned inthat science, the reactions of thisman to a time when democracy, especially the European brand, wasthreatened most seriously. For Reflections was written in and aboutthe troubled Europe of the la te 1930's,a Europe on the brink of war, andindeed, the final chapter was addedtwo years later during wartime. Yeteven while Europe tore at itself, theauthor maintained his faith in aEuropean norm, a certain 'Europe-anism' thus forecasting accuratelythe post-war European experience.

"But any just view of the European past must recognize thatEurope has steadily constituteda single area of values, even if

there have always been differentprovinces or regions within thatarea, and even though this orthat province may sometimeshave claimed to be the whole.To study Natural Law in Europeis to study one great manifestation of the common European."(p. 397).

At a time of fanatical nationalism,the author disavowed such nationalism.

"In every department of man'sactivities in which he has soughtto find standards and to discover

values (in music or in literature,in science or in painting andarchitecture, as well as in lawin politics), the common is always there. It is only an ignorance, or an ignoring, of thewhole process of the building ofour system of standards whichcan result in the nationalizationof values." (p. 398).

The final chapter, just mentioned,and appropriately called "The Choi

ces and the Decision" looks back atthe book it culminates from theperspective of two years of war, abook about which the author quiterightly concludes that there "is nojudgment, and no expression of opinion (not even in regard to Russia)which it has been necessary to alterin consequence of the movement ofevents during the last two years."The choices and decision of whichthis chapter speaks are those to bemade between the security of totalitarianism, discussed earlier in thebook, whether it be Russian Communism, German National Socialism

or Italian Fascism and the democratic form with all its hazards and'ancient ways', a choice in fact between social and economic 'hiving'of communism or corporatism on onehand and the fulfillment of the individual on the other. The impersonal,mechanised state of Hitler's Germany or Mussolini's Italy, suggests theauthor, had, rather than offering achallenge to the movement of contemporary life, succombed to it, while democracy stood as the processwhich might still offer the realisticanswer to an impersonal age. But,concedes the author, the strength of

executive government, and an adequate provision of leadership is awork of justification which democracy has to achieve. Much less surviving the two years of wartime,Prof. Barker's views seem to haveweathered well the twenty-six yearsseparating his writing and this review.

His conclusion seems no less resilient for it is the inevitable conclusion to any thoughtful survey ofpast troubles and future hopes internationalization. States shouldnot be islands unto themselves,turning outward only for conquest.

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242 Les Cahiers de Droit (1969) 10 C. deD.

Surely this is the lesson taught usby the chaos of the Europe whichformed a backdrop for Reflections.Surely, as Prof. Barker states, "Itis vain to think of the expansion ofa generous national life except inthe shelter and under the protectionof an organized system of international peace." (420).

Prof. Barker has written a stimulating, if challenging book. It mightbe argued that the approach is at

times too theoretical. Yet this bookmu st be read in the light of the tim eof its wri tin g and as it was inte nded a kind of rambling dissertationon the government of men. It is notunprofitable to occasionally make anabstraction of this very pragmaticsphere of hum an activ ity and ponde rawhile basic principles entailed. Asa result, we bring back to our day-to-day legalistic and technical hassling a certain perspective whichcan only be beneficial. The messageis perspective and perspective is always a valuable message. Since thedays of Periclean Athens democratic

man has walked a tightrope overthe chasm of totalitarianism on oneside, chaos on the other and if heis not to stumble he must bear always in mind the principles whichmaintain his balance. Such is thecontribution of Prof. Barker's work.

Peter W. HUTCHINS,

Sade utopi ste. - Sexu alit , pouvoir etEta t da ns le roman Aline et Val-cour, par Pierre FAVRE. Texteset recherche s de la facult de Droitet des Sciences conomiques de

Paris. Srie Science politique ,n" 12. Presses Universitaires deFra nce , 1967, pp. VII I, 105.

Parler de Sade, citer ses livresdgage une odeu r de soufre (p .vi). Un retour des vnements veutqu'au Qubec, si l'on ne parle ou necite ses livres qu'avec circonspection,on les lise tou t de mme grce le urprsentation en format de poche.Pierre Favre, dans cet ouvrageprsent au Diplme d'tudes Suprieures de Sciences politiques, seveut l'cho de la rson ance politique du roman Aline et Ta lcou r du

divin mar quis en se dema ndan tsi la pense politique peut y trouver des enseign ements (p. 7). Ilanalyse les deux Etats rvs parSade, deux utopies, l'une, froce,situe Butua autour d'un anthropophage, l'autre faisant de Tamoune le mervei lleus e (p. 6).

Du Royaume de Butua , on app rendque les institutions y sont axessur l'existence de phnomnes aigusde Pouvoir (p. 11), un Pouvoirexerc avec une violence sadique,effrayante et systmatique (p. 13),un Pouvoir ralis dans un absolutisme sexuel dont la gratuit apparat propre au marq uis . Et l'au-te ur s'at tach e en dc rire le rle :l'cole en e st une de soumiss ion la h irar chie politique (p. 18), lafamille un dfoulement compensatoire permettant aux citoyens mlesde supporter le despotisme gouvernementa l (p. 21) ; l'asserv issementde la femme y est port des consquences qui mettent en jeu la prennit mme de la nation. Cet examen porte l'auteur conclure que les mat res de Butu a sont donc

simultanment des libertins et desgouvernants, mais... des gouvernants dfectueux... et des libertinsquelque peu simplistes (p. 35).

Pour sa part, l'le de Tamo y apparat comme le contre-pied de Butua ; c'est l'utop ie de la contre-ut opieque serait Butua. Les habitants ysont bienheureux ; ils joi gn en t laplnitude physique totale une intgri t morale sans dfaut (p. 40).

Aprs une brve description de sesinsti tuti ons et de ses murs, l'aut eurmontre qu'il y rgne la prdominance . . . de la contra inte s ur la li

bert et indique les motifs pourlesquels cette cont rain te n'es t pasprsente aux habitants de l'le etcomment l'tatisme peut engendrerle pat rio tis me (p. 58). Le roi, undespote clair la recher che du se ulbonheur de ses sujets, tend l'galit des condit ions de ses sujets dan sle but de supprimer tout sentimentd'envie, de convoitise ou d'ambition.En conclusion toutefois, l'auteurdresse un constat d'chec (p. 95).Il dcle l'incohrence du systme,d surtout au fait que son tude nersulte que pour une faible part d'une enqute sincre.