Anthony Giddens and the Liberal Tradition

Abstract

Christopher G. A. Bryant and David Jary's «Anthony Giddens : Critical Assessments» provides a useful overview of critical scholarship on Giddens. It also stimulates reflections on the significance of Giddens's career and writings. The book illustrates the unifying effect Giddens's work has had within the notoriously multi-paradigmatic arena of the social sciences by providing a common reference point for both disciples and critics. For his part, Giddens has been very adept at incorporating criticisms into his intellectual structures in order to repair and strengthen them. Giddens's career should be seen in the context of broader developments within the British social sciences over the past thirty years. He has established himself as the latest representative of a liberal tradition. In this respect his predecessor was T H Marshall. There is a family resemblance between the central themes upon which Marshall and the (later) Giddens focus. Marshall is concerned with the potential conflict between a regime of social rights and a social order governed by the rules of the capitalist market. Giddens explores the difficulty within modern societies of maintaining efficient systems based upon bureaucracy, professional expertise and the globalized market while also constructing meaningful self-identities. Both Marshall and Giddens have a strong belief in the importance of the creatively active individual.