Book Reviews : Obrigkeit und Widerstand. Zur politischen Soziologie des Beamtentums. By HERBERT VON BORCH. (Tuebingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck]. 1954. Pp. viii, 243. DM 12.40 paper, DM 15.80 bound.)

• Author: George V. Wolfe
• Published date: 01 December 1955
• Date: 01 December 1955
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591295500800414
• Subject Matter: Articles

643
in semantics, supposedly to clear away the &dquo;verbiage&dquo; of &dquo;isms&dquo; and
&dquo;myths.&dquo; In still another chapter of this third section Mr. Esslinger pleads
for more attention to history by political scientists. He is firmly convinced
that the only reason we cannot learn from history is because we do not
want to. He suggests, for example, conservatives can learn from history
that they cannot attain conservative ends by supporting extremists advocat-
ing violent means, as the German industrialists supported Hitler. Un-
fortunately, conservatives continue to support such extremists.
The book concludes with an appendix entitled &dquo;One Reason Why We
Lost the Peace&dquo; -
an impassioned plea for world government based on
the premise that a scientific study of events between 1918 and 1955 can
lead to no other conclusion.
ALFRED DIAMANT.
University of Florida.
Obrigkeit und Widerstand. Zur politischen Soziologie des Beamtentums.
By HERBERT VON BORCH. (Tuebingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck].
1954. Pp. viii, 243. DM
12.40 paper, DM
15.80 bound.)
In this book on &dquo;Political Authority and Resistance&dquo; a German sociolo-
gist seeks to come to grips with the problem of safeguarding political free-
dom against the abuse of power. The driving forces behind the author’s
quest for a new solution of the old problem are the &dquo;experience of the
catastrophe&dquo; that befell Germany under, and because of, the Hitler regime,
and the concomitant query whether and how such a catastrophe could
have been, and similar catastrophes in the future can be avoided.
What Adolf Wagner called the &dquo;law of the increasing functions of the
state&dquo; has inevitably led, as the author points out, to an immense increase
in the power of the bureaucracy. Hence no dictatorship is able to replace
a government dedicated to liberty, unless it wins control over the profes-
sional civil service. Conversely, the bureaucracy, the professional civil
service, is the...