IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/polstu/v55y2007i4p801-820.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

English Pluralism, Functionalism and Corporatism: The Legacy of Paul Hirst

Author

Listed:
  • Mark Wenman

Abstract

Paul Hirst began his career as a Marxist, and in his later work he made important contributions to numerous debates, the most notorious of which was his pronounced scepticism towards the idea of globalisation. However, Hirst's principal legacy to political theory was the development of his normative theory of ‘associative democracy’. This article presents a critique of Hirst's theory emphasising his indebtedness to the tradition of English political pluralism. On a preliminary analysis, Hirst's project appears to have been predicated on a normative defence of voluntarism, individualism and pluralism. However, I make the case that on closer examination this is undermined and contradicted in his work – and in the work of the earlier English pluralists – by an implicit assumption of social unity. This assumption is manifest in the functionalism and corporatism that Hirst presented as necessary components of pluralism, which in turn reflect his unwarranted presumption that industrial productivity, efficient economic governance and welfare provision represent impartial and incontestable axioms of social organisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Wenman, 2007. "English Pluralism, Functionalism and Corporatism: The Legacy of Paul Hirst," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 55(4), pages 801-820, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:55:y:2007:i:4:p:801-820
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00679.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00679.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00679.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laski, Harold J., 1917. "Studies in the Problem of Sovereignty," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number laski1917.
    2. Cécile Laborde, 2000. "The Concept of the State in British and French Political Thought," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 48(3), pages 540-557, June.
    3. Gierke, Otto Friedrich, 1900. "Political Theories of the Middle Age," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number gierke1900.
    4. Barry Hindess & Paul Hirst, 1977. "Mode of Production and Social Formation," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-15749-5, December.
    5. Laski, Harold J., 1919. "Authority in the Modern State," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number laski1919.
    6. Joshua Cohen & Joel Rogers, 1992. "Secondary Associations and Democratic Governance," Politics & Society, , vol. 20(4), pages 393-472, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jason Edwards & Kelvin Knight, 2008. "Paul Hirst's Pluralism: A Response to Mark Wenman," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(3), pages 737-741, October.
    2. Mark Wenman, 2008. "On the Young Hirst: A Rejoinder to Jason Edwards and Kelvin Knight," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(4), pages 964-969, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew Amengual & Janice Fine, 2017. "Co‐enforcing Labor standards: the unique contributions of state and worker organizations in Argentina and the United States," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), pages 129-142, June.
    2. Vivien Schmidt, 2010. "Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union Revisited - Input, Output and Throughput," KFG Working Papers p0021, Free University Berlin.
    3. Culpepper, Pepper D., 2001. "Employers, Public Policy, and the Politics of Decentralized Cooperation in Germany and France," Working Paper Series rwp01-002, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    4. Piotr Zientara & Anna Zamojska & Giuseppe T Cirella, 2020. "Participatory urban governance: Multilevel study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Jason Edwards & Kelvin Knight, 2008. "Paul Hirst's Pluralism: A Response to Mark Wenman," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(3), pages 737-741, October.
    6. Seán Ó Riain, 1998. "A Tale of Two Globalizations: The Irish Software Industry And The Global Economy," Papers WP101, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    7. D B Clarke & M Purvis, 1994. "Dialectics, Difference, and the Geographies of Consumption," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 26(7), pages 1091-1109, July.
    8. Piotr Zientara, 2009. "A Few Critical Remarks On Globalisation, Democracy And Spatiality," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 56-61, June.
    9. Heller, Patrick, 1996. "Social capital as a product of class mobilization and state intervention: Industrial workers in Kerala, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 1055-1071, June.
    10. Gerald Mc Dermott, 2005. "The Politics of Institutional Renovation and Economic Upgrading: Lessons from the Argentine Wine Industry," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 817, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    11. Frank Moulaert & Flavia Martinelli & Erik Swyngedouw & Sara Gonzalez, 2005. "Towards Alternative Model(s) of Local Innovation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(11), pages 1969-1990, October.
    12. F Wu, 1995. "Urban Processes in the Face of China's Transition to a Socialist Market Economy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 13(2), pages 159-177, June.
    13. Luigi Cerri, 2018. "Birth of the Modern Corporation: From Servant of the State to Semi†Sovereign Power," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(2), pages 239-277, March.
    14. Sam Bliss, 2019. "The Case for Studying Non-Market Food Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-30, June.
    15. Locke, Richard M., 1959- & Jacoby, Wade., 1995. "The dilemmas of diffusion : institutional transfer and the remaking of vocational training practices in Eastern Germany," Working papers 3846-95., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    16. Yael Yishai, 1998. "Civil Society in Transition: Interest Politics in Israel," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 555(1), pages 147-162, January.
    17. Fulong Wu, 1998. "The New Structure of Building Provision and the Transformation of the Urban Landscape in Metropolitan Guangzhou, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(2), pages 259-283, February.
    18. Md. Ayub Mallick, 2013. "Aspects of Positive Discrimination and Tribal Development in India," South Asian Survey, , vol. 20(2), pages 163-190, September.
    19. McMullin, Caitlin, 2018. "Co-production and the third sector: A comparative study of England and France," Thesis Commons 578d3, Center for Open Science.
    20. Locke, Richard M., 1959-, 1994. "The composite economy : local politics and industrial change in contemporary Italy," Working papers 3748-94., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:55:y:2007:i:4:p:801-820. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0032-3217 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.