The Rise and Fall of Economic Justice and Other Essays

by Crawford Brough Macpherson

This wide-ranging collection of essyas explores aspects of 20th-century democracy such as economic justice, human rights, industrial democracy, property, pluralism, and the roots of liberalism, and expands on the analyses made in two of Macpherson's earlier books, Democratic Theory and The
Life and Times of Liberal Democracy . Closely considering the past ups and downs of the concept of economic justice, Macpherson surveys subject matter that ranges from an examination of the extent to which human rights are implemented in different parts of the world, to the probable future of
workers' participation in industrial decision-making in both capitalist and socialist countries, to a discussion of the roots of modern liberalism that also reexamines Hobbes, this time as an economist. Taking a sweeping look backwards over the history of theory, this book elicits the role of
economic assumptions in political theory and opens new doors to an understanding of state, class, and property.

154 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 1985

About the author

Macpherson was an influential Canadian political scientist who taught political theory at the University of Toronto.

Macpherson was born on 18 November 1911 in Toronto, Ontario. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1933. After earning an MSc in economics at the London School of Economics where he studied under the supervision of Harold Laski, he joined the faculty of the University of Toronto in 1935. At that time a PhD in the social sciences was uncommon, but some twenty years later he submitted a collection of sixteen published papers to the London School of Economics and was awarded the DSc in economics. These papers were then published in 1953 edition as the book, Democracy in Alberta; the theory and practice of a quasi-party system. In 1956 he became a Professor of Political Economy at the University of Toronto.

Macpherson's best-known contribution to political philosophy is the theory of "possessive individualism", in which an individual is conceived as the sole proprietor of his or her skills and owes nothing to society for them.