Pluralist Thought and the State in Britain and France, 1900-25  (English, Electronic book text, Laborde Cecile)

This is the first comparative study of pluralist critiques of the state in France and Britain. Highlighting the intricacy and diversity of early-twentieth-century pluralism, a diversity often obscured in the existing literature, Cecile Laborde offers a wide-ranging and highly original survey of an influential school of thought. In an ambitious comparison of the works of British writers such as Figgis, Cole and Laski, and French writers such as Duguit, Berth and Leroy, she sheds light on the national determinants of political theorizing. Drawing on intellectual, social and political history, the book explains how and why French pluralism split into anarchism and corporatism, while British pluralism maintained a precarious balance between groups and the state. Pluralist Thought and the State is a major contribution to the study of national traditions of thought and to the understanding of relationships between state, groups and individuals in democratic societies.