Liberal Ideology and the Problem of Power
| Author | John H. Bunzel |
| Published date | 01 June 1960 |
| Date | 01 June 1960 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296001300206 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
374
LIBERAL
IDEOLOGY
AND
THE
PROBLEM
OF
POWER
JOHN
H.
BUNZEL
Stanford
University
OT
LONG
AFTER
the
end
of
the
second
world
war
there
began
to
t~~ j
appear
once
again
a
rash
of
articles
pointing
out
the
near
bankruptcy
of
American
liberalism.
While
there
were
individual
variations
on
the
theme
there
was
no
mistaking
the
dominant
note:
liberal
ideas
and
doctrines
of
the
past
were
pretty
well
used
up.
What
had
been
accomplished
in
the
last
fifteen
or
twenty
years
now
had
largely
been
accepted,
even
by
those
who
for
a
long
time
had
been
unrelenting
in
their
opposition.
The
few
items
left
over
were
mostly
out
of
date
and
&dquo;irrelevant
to
the
mountainous
issues
which
will
make
up
the
political
battleground
of
the
next
generation.&dquo;
The
liberals
had
come
&dquo;to
the
edge
of
the
dependable
old
battle
map
which
they
inherited
from
earlier
campaigns&dquo;
and
now
&dquo;desperately
needed
a
brand
new
set
of
direct-
ions ......1
1
This
was
not
the
first
time
American
liberalism
passed
in
critical
review.
During
the
years
of
the
New
Deal
many
critics
voiced
the
opinion
that
the
central
tragedy
of
the
period
was
not
fascism
alone.
In
the
clear
tones
of
Max
Lerner,
who
was
always
articulate
in
his
&dquo;lament
for
the
liberal,&dquo;
it
lay
even
more
&dquo;in
the
liberalism
which
has
thus
far
proved
feckless
to
cope
with
social
collapse
and
the
fascism
that
follows
it.&dquo;
Z And
so
it
was
with
the
postwar
diag-
noses
of
liberalism’s
ills,
most
of
which
were
followed
by
a
variety
of
prescrip-
tions
for
cure
depending
on
whether
the
patient
was
judged
to
be
stricken
with
a
benign
or
malignant
tumor.
Central
to
many
discussions
along
these
lines
has
been
the
problem
of
power
posed
in
one
form
or
another.
This
is
not
to
suggest
that
its
importance
has
just
recently
been
discovered:
the
relationship
of
economic
to
political
power,
or
&dquo;interests
versus
numbers,&dquo;
has
long
been
&dquo;an
intricate
pattern,
a
basic
ambivalence
running
through
the
American
political
fabric.&dquo;
3
Nor
has
the
elusiveness
of
power
as
a
&dquo;scientific&dquo;
concept
detracted
from
its
ideo-
logical
appeal
and
challenge,
to
the
point
where
today
many
power-oriented
critics
of
American
liberalism
such
as
C.
Wright
Mills
have
questioned
its
capa-
city
to
confront
the
complex
problems
of
an
advanced
industrial
social
order.
The
purpose
of
this
paper
is
to
make
a
comparative
examination
of
some
approaches
to
the
problem
of
power
and
to
evaluate
their
meaning
and
implica-
tions
for
a
liberal
democratic
society.
By
discussing
first
the
issue
of
power
as
perceived
by
A.
A.
Berle,
Jr.,
we
shall
attempt
to
outline
briefly
and
in
very
gen-
eral
terms
some
of
the
basic
premises
of
the
liberal’s
position.
The
ideas
of
Robert
A.
Brady
will
then
be
examined
for
still
another
analysis
of
the
development
of
1
John
Fischer,
"The
Lost
Liberals:
Can
They
Find
A
New
Road
Map?"
Harper’s,
May,
1947,
p.
386.
2
Max
Lerner,
It
Is
Later
Than
You
Think
(New
York:
Viking
Press,
1939),
p.
3.
3
Alpheus
T.
Mason,
"Business
Organized
as
Power:
The
New
Imperium
in
Imperio,"
American
Political
Science
Review,
June,
1950.
It is
not
surprising
that
Professor
Mason’s
opening
sentence,
in
keeping
with
the
concern
of
many
liberals,
talks
of
President
Truman’s
"stub-
born
determination"
to
build
"an
imposing
edifice
called
the
Welfare
State"
on
what
Mason
describes
as
"the
New
Deal’s
embattled
foundations."
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