Synopses & Reviews
During the Cold War, political thinkers in the West debated the balance between the requirements of liberal democracy and national security. This debate resonates in today's East Asia and especially Korea, where an ideological-military standoff between democracy and a totalitarian system persists. The thinkers often identified as 'Cold War liberals'—Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper, Raymond Aron, Friedrich Hayek, and Michael Oakeshott—are worth revisiting in this context. Of these, Oakeshott is the least-well understood in East Asia and therefore particularly deserving of attention. Especially valuable are his ideas about the limits of rationalism in politics, the irrelevance of conventional views of liberalism and conservatism, and how constitutional democracy should be defined and defended against various forms of anti-liberal politics. In this book, leading Oakeshott scholars from around the world explore these ideas and their implications for East Asia in ten illuminating and readable essays.
Review
Synopsis
In this book, leading scholars from East Asia and beyond debate Michael Oakeshott's views on liberal democracy and totalitarianism and their implications for East Asia today. His ideas on rationality in politics, the nature of liberal democracy, and how democracy can defeat anti-liberal politics are explored in ten penetrating essays.
About the Author
Terry Nardin is Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. His books include Law, Morality, and the Relations of States, The Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott, and, as co-editor, International Relations in Political Thought and Oakeshott's Lectures in the History of Political Thought.The Asan Institute for Policy Studies is an independent think tank located in Seoul, South Korea, that provides innovative policy solutions and spearheads public discourse on many of the core issues that Korea, East Asia, and the global community face. The goal of the institute is not only to offer policy solutions but also to train experts in public diplomacy and related fields in order to strengthen Korea's capacity to better tackle some of the most pressing problems affecting the country, the region, and the world today.
Table of Contents
Contents
Contributors
Introduction: Michael Oakeshott's Cold War Liberalism; Terry Nardin
PART I: OAKESHOTT ON MODERN POLITICS: CONSERVATIVE OR LIBERAL?
1. Michael Oakeshott: Neither Liberal nor Conservative; Terry Nardin
2. Oakeshott, Modernity, and Cold War Liberalism; Edmund Neill
3. Conserving the University as a Place for Liberal Learning; Erika A. Kiss
PART II: OAKESHOTT ON TOTALITARIANISM AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY
4. Oakeshott and Totalitarianism; Andrew Gamble
5. Rule of Law or City of Babel: Oakeshott on the Twentieth-Century State; Cheung Chor-yung
6. An Association for Amiable Adventurers: On Oakeshott's Peculiar Constitutionalism; Jan-Werner Müller
PART III: OAKESHOTT IN THE EAST ASIAN CONTEXT
7. Oakeshott in China; Zhang Rulun
8. Michael Oakeshott and Confucian Constitutionalism; Kim Sungmoon
9. Some Implications of Oakeshott's Thought for Contemporary Korean Society and Politics; Kim Bi Hwan