DEMOCRACY ISN'T LIKE THIS
Coleman, Mcalister
Democracy Isn't Like This PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF DEMOCRACY, by George B. de Huzar. Harper & Brothers. $2. Reviewed by McAlister Coleman IWISH I could share the enthusiasm of David E....
...Reviewed by McAlister Coleman IWISH I could share the enthusiasm of David E. Lili-enthal of the TVA and Eduard C. Lindeman of Columbia University for this little book for which Prof...
...Well, Professor, democracy isn't much like that in life...
...The intention of the book is appealing to all of us who want to see democracy work...
...What leaves me cold is the author's palpable worship of the Round Table and his naive belief that somehow democracy is the inevitable result of certain mechanisms of discussion, all functioning according to the rules as set forth in Millar's "Chicago Letter," for example, for which the author has enormous respect...
...To this commendable end...
...It is to give us specific instructions as to how to be democratic in action, rather than in words, or what we are going to do about it, the answer to the question with which every speaker on democracy is confronted at the end of his talk...
...Lilienthal has put in a hearty plug...
...True democrats have had to fight like lions every inch of the way towards their objectives, the bulk of which they have not yet achieved...
...Lindeman has written a Foreword and Mr...
...Which is all very much to the good...
...though he scorns what he calls the blueprinting of "Marxists, Socialists, technocrats," the author gives us a series of blueprints with accompanying illustrations, showing us how to run meetings in the democratic manner, how to let the audience participate, how to organize "problem-een-tered groups," as the author calls them—in short how to decentralize our increasingly centralized world...
...Quite often when you get a bunch of controversial men at a round table they will make use of their propinquity for the better kicking of shins...
...It is the war of the people on the wrong side of the tracks against the station-wagon set that is of real significance, and the rules de Huzar suggests, while they are interesting, are no more valid than the Marquis of Queensbury's rules in a fight between an infuriated coaldigger and his straw boss...
...From the very beginning of this country, such democratic gains as have been made have come as a result of a most unpleasant, rowdyish, ear-biting thing known as the class struggle, whether or not you like to admit it...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 27
