Sinclair Cambridge

Abstract: especially, the right to property; revises claims about the formation of the democratic personality; assesses the potential for achieving democratic control of technology; and even offers new arguments about the obligation to promote individuals' self-development through support for human rights within the context of international relations. This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of freedom and its implications for democracy within the context of contemporary social and political life. The important project of constructing a more adequate theory of freedom and democracy for the circumstances we face is far from complete, however. Gould's autonomous agents, empowered as they may be, are poorly connected to the social and historical context that informs their choices. Her conception of positive freedom as self-development is still too ambiguous, and I doubt her confidence as to the meaning of self-development and as to what resources are needed to provide equal positive freedom will be widely shared. Without greater clarity and persuasiveness on these issues and the moral and political principles that support them, the controversy about positive and negative freedom will continue unabated. Advocates of positive freedom will continue their quest for a politics that supports individuals" self-development, and liberal individualists will continue to construct theories of the limited state. But Gould's book offers a powerful criticism of, and alternative to, prevailing theories of liberal democracy grounded in negative liberty. Her aggressively democratic theory will challenge liberals to make more of freedom than noninterference and to extend democracy beyond the realm of government.