Extremism and Liberalism in Contemporary America

Abstract

It would be difficult to imagine three recent publications * that could indicate more dramatically the nature of the intellectual climate in the United States today, or reflect as faithfully the state of the discipline from which they emerge. Seymour Martin Lipset is a familiar figure on the American academic landscape. A prolific writer, his better known works such as Political Man (1959) and First New Nation (1963), have influenced a generation of students and scholars. Essen tially Lipset is a sociologist and a major figure in that school of American sociology so heavily influenced by the work of Talcott Parsons. Indeed it would not be unfair to Lipset to describe him as perhaps Parsons's greatest popularizer. During the 1960s Professor Lipset became increasingly identified as a leader of the revisionist school of democratic theory, particularly those scholars identified as * pluralist democrats '.2 For the latter pluralism is both an analytical concept and a normative theory; basically they believe that classical theories of democracy have to be revised to reflect the real conditions of life in an industrial society, characterized by apathy and ignorance on the part of the electorate. Major influences on this school of thought include Talcott Parsons, Arthur Fisher Bentley and Joseph Schumpeter, the last being credited with the final reconciliation between democratic and ?lite theories.3 These pluralists see democracy as a competitive process in which group interests in society fight for favourable response from the government. These groups mediate between the ?lite and the non-?lite, structuring their relationship and filter ing demands either way. Political action which bypasses this process is regarded as undesirable and probably a danger to the stability of the political system. In the case of most of these theorists it is difficult to decide whether they consider their model to be a useful analytical theory, a state of affairs to be actively worked for, or a description of real democracies such as the United States and Britain.4