C.B.Macpherson: Dilemmas of Liberalism and Socialism

154 Pages·1989·7.924 MB·English

by  William Leiss

C. B. Macpherson
Dilemmas of Liberalism and Socialism
NEW WORLD PERSPECTIVES
General Editors Arthur and Marilouise Kroker
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TECHNOLOGY AND THE CANADIAN MIND: INNIS IMcLUHANI
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NORTHROP FRYE: A YISION OF THE NEW WORLD
David Cook
CULTURE CRITIQUE: FERNAND DUMONT AND NEW QUEBEC
SOCIOLOGY
Michael A. Weinstein
C. B. Macpherson
Dilemmas of Liberalism and Socialism
William Leiss
New World Perspectives
Montreal
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© William Leiss
@ William Leiss, 1988
New World Perspectives
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Canadian Catalog&g in Publication Data
Leiss, William, 1939-
C.B. Macpherson : dilemmas of liberalism and socialism
(New World perspectives)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-920393-41-l (bound) -
ISBN 0-920393-39-X (pbk.)
1. Macpherson C.B. (Crawford Brough), 1911-87
2. Liberalism. 3. Socialism. I. Title. II. Series.
JC253.M35L44 1988 320.5’092’4 C88-090203-5
Printed and bound in Canada
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social
Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
To the memory of my teachers
Herbert Gutman, historian
Herbert Marcuse, philosopher
CONTENTS
Preface 9
1
Scope of the Work 11
2
Formation (1930-1955)
Preliminaries 20
Education and career 25
Trade unions and the state 30
Foundations (1936-1942) 45
Development (1943-1955) 57
3
Maturity (1955-1985)
The scholar as protagonist 74
Five themes 81
Economic sphere: the marketplace 85
1. the institutional context 86
2. the individual context 89
Economic sphere: individuals as doers
and consumers 93
The capitalist agenda 101
Political sphere: property versus democracy 103
Conclusion: the liberal state 109
4
Canada as a Quasi-Market Society 112
Legacy 113
The nature of a quasi-market society 115
When did the transition from capitalism
to socialism occur? 119
OECD nations as quasi-market societies 124
1. society: public sector economic
activity 125
2. society: business regulation and
subsidies 127
3. capital concentration 128
4. individuals: income distribution 130
5. transfer payments and the welfare
floor 132
Three issues , 134
3
Epilogue: An Appreciation 143
Notes 147
References 150
Preface
Just as a biographer must allow his own life history to
pass before his eyes while detailing his subject’s story, so
too the author of an intellectual biography cannot help
but conduct a self-examination while pursuing his topic.
The treatment of Brough Macpherson’s university educa-
tion in this volume brought back warm memories of my
own apprenticeship with gifted and generous teachers. The
upwelling of these recollections was a delightful and whol-
, ly unexpected benefit that accrued to me during the writ-
ing of this book, and I am deeply grateful for it.
I was invited to write this contribution for the New
World Perspectives series some years ago by Arthur and
Marilouise Kroker. Although the Krokers are responsible
for its genesis, the project could not have been complet-
ed without the expert assistance of Richard Smith, a doc-
toral student in the Department of Communication at
Simon Fraser University Richard assembled the bib-