Book Review: The History of Democracy: A Marxist Interpretation by Brian Roper

Abstract

Brian Roper The History of Democracy: A Marxist Interpretation, Pluto Press, London, 2013; 328 pp: 9780745331898, 17.50 [pounds sterling] (pbk) The work of Brian Roper in The History of Democracy is timely because it contributes to the ongoing debate with regards to the meanings and contentious re-appropriation of the word 'democracy', especially within the left. While the post-structural turn has been working systematically with this concept for more than three decades (we can cite the book Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics by Laclau and Mouffe, first published in 1985, as reference point), there has been a less clear systematic revision of the notion of democracy from a materialist perspective. The state has tended to occupy the centre of attention instead. And this is precisely Roper's objective: to study the historical forms of democracy in order to separate rhetoric from reality and argue in favour of a 'democratic alternative to capitalism by clarifying the role democracy has played' (p. ix). The author's point of departure is one shared by the left (in an ecumenical sense), i.e. the shift from Keynesianism to neoliberal policies represented a brutal transfer of wealth not only from workers to elites but also from less-developed states to developed economies, by mechanisms which include debt repayment and the repatriation of profits. The view on the relations between transnational corporations, foreign direct investment, developed and developing economies, is aligned with the thought of Raul Prebisch and dependency theory. The main cause of underdevelopment lies in the interdependent division of the structure of world capitalism between the centre and the periphery. But it is the new wave of social mobilisation globally encapsulated in the so-called 'global justice movement' - which spans the period from the protests in Seattle in 1999 up to the Arab Spring in 2010, and, we should add, the emergence of Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain--that makes debating democracy even timelier. In the light of these development, what is the alternative to the established order? Roper argues that the way out is neither Athenian (direct) nor liberal (representative) democracy but socialist participatory democracy, a self-governed, working-class majority, which combines the two historic forms of democracy but clearly aims to defeat capitalism (p. 1). Following a critical-realist methodological approach, Roper develops a critique to actually existing forms of democracy by studying the history of democracy. This method seeks to 'analytically penetrate the surface appearances of social reality in order to identify the underlying causes that generate these phenomenal forms and this centrally involves a complex process of retroduction (p. 4). Democracy is hence studied as an epiphenomenon of a dynamic totality that is 'internally complex, mediated and contradictory' (p. 7). The rejection of social reality perceived as 'fragments' but as part of a major 'totality', systemic, poses a fundamental contention against perspectives that are more sceptical of the actual analytical and political usefulness of grand (or total) narratives. However, it is coherent with the approach and objectives of the book. The author develops his argument in ten chapters preceded by a good introduction, which outlines the objectives and structure of the book. The first two chapters focus on the origins and first historical suppression of democracy, by the Athenians and Romans respectively, and sets the analytical tone for the rest of the book. For the author, the historical review contributes to differentiate democratic form from democratic substance, depending on who ultimately influences the organisation of power, the many or the few. …