20–18152
“The volume falls into three parts. The first is a survey of the existing signs and agencies of collectivism: the democracies of consumers (cooperative societies, friendly societies, municipalities, and national services); the democracies of producers (trade unions, copartnership concerns, and professional associations); and finally the political democracy of king, lords, and commons. The second part of the volume deals with the national structure that is to be set up in the socialist commonwealth. The lords are to be swept away and there are to be two parliaments—one political and the other social. Both are to be elected by universal suffrage but the idea of a vocational or economic soviet is utterly rejected. In the third part the authors propose to administer nationalized interests through special committees of the social parliament—one committee for each.”—Nation
Ath p809 D 10 ’20 680w Booklist 17:96 D ’20
“The idea that foreign affairs, the maintenance of order, the administration of justice, colonies, and defense can be separated from cities, municipalities, and national services; economics seems utterly chimerical. The third part of the volume is real, stimulating, suggestive. It is here that the Webbs have laid all students of government under a great debt. They do not speculate, but with clear eyes face the terrible tangle of realities that must make up any order new or old.” C: A. Beard
+ − Nation 111:sup664 D 8 ’20 1250w
“There is no field of social organization they do not enter; and there is no field where their analysis is not at once amazingly suggestive and incomparably well-informed. Not indeed, that there is not ample room for criticism and even criticism of fundamentals. What Mr and Mrs Webb have done is to cast a light upon the mechanism of government such as it has not had since Mr Graham Wallas’s ‘Human nature in politics’ in one field, and Bagehot’s ‘English constitution’ in another.” H. J. L.
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“It deserves the careful study of every person who desires to see a better system, and who is anxious that that system be inaugurated with the maximum of intelligence, the minimum of pain.”
+ Socialist R 10:29 Ja ’21 190w