Many would say that Mary Parker Follett was ahead of her time. I think that perhaps she was just in time, but the Progressive Era was rudely interrupted by a Depression, a world war, and then a complacent and insular 1950's. Even today, with the themes of this book as fresh as ever, the reader will find her arguments challenging yet undeniable. This book is not just about democracy and politics and community. It is about nothing less than conscious evolution. Follett turns conventional notions of politics and group process upside down, and she has no qualms about redefining terms that we take for granted, in ways that are simply this: empowering. Follett's sometimes poetic expression and passionate articulation, and her common-sense approach, will make this book enjoyable for any reader. And it is backed up by just enough intellectual argument to satisfy the social scientist. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the issues at the forefront of our public conversation today: community, communication, civic participation, neighborhood, political reform, diversity and equality. It is a landmark for 1998 as much as when it came out eighty years ago, if not more so.

Sometimes a book comes along that helps you view the world around you with new eyes, and this is just such a book. Barber discusses the third, generally neglected, pillar of modern society; after government and the market comes the "civil society" in which we create our identities and find our deepest fulfillment. The entire book is fascinating, and the last chapter is downright visionary, wherein Barber discusses how "the end of work" may turn out to be humanity's greatest tragedy--or greatest boon.

If you care about the future of society or the future of democracy--and the two are entirely coincident, you need to read this book.

Unlike the author--who consulted with Clinton on his State of the Union speeches--most of us are too embarrassed to admit we were seduced by Clinton's intellect. Through the vehicle of memoir, Prof. Barber is at once candid about his expectations of the President, his own ambition, his seduction, and his ultimate disappointments. The best parts of this book are Prof. Barber's discussion about the way that language shapes our understanding of civic life; and how Clinton's inability to use language effectively left his legacy empty.

As shown in the title, this book has a strong message. Actually, it is too strong.
The definition of strong democracy is extremely narrow and idealistic. According to the book, unbelievably, Pateman's position (about participatory (industry) democracy) is also thin democracy.
It seems a book for dreamers.
But, the interesting point is that the strong democracy which the author proposed may fit well with the current IT society. The final section of this book is still meaningful for us in 21th century.

Beginning with a frontal attack on the liberal democratic theory, which is grounded on and ramified from epistemological premises that are largely pre-historical and pre-theoretical, and stretching to the practical propositions aiming and helping to create a new sense of citizenship and community, Barber produces a masterpiece that can be perused over and over again. Well cognizant of the problems created by the heavy emphasis of liberal democratic theory on atomized individualism, through which social system is deemed not more than the competing atoms who are presupposed in permanent fight to all others, Barber packages his arguments in a highly pragmatic bag that goes far beyond the kind of demagogic platitude.

I read a number of books whose focus is on how to develop a strong democracy in both national and grass-roots levels, some of which are set on either pure theory or practice lacking ideational power. Strong democracy discerns itself from those that were written in the similar veins in that Barber knits all his arguments together cleverly based on both epistemological and practical weaknesses of what he objects, from which Barber's thesis comes, and practical ways toward and the tools for what he advocates: strong democracy.

Barber persuasively displays the importance of citizenship that is closely linked to and associated with the active engagement and participation in the affairs of community to promote the betterment of the commune of which individual citizen is a part. As a response to the unceasing preoccupation of liberal theory with pre-historical and pre-theoretical epistemology taken to practice, Barber points to the very import of community that defines the specifics and boundaries of what liberal theory takes for granted such as liberty and equality, so, the community is rendered much more than the mere sum of individual interests. That is, community is designated as a medium that is congenial to create new perspectives passing beyond the interests and ideas of individual citizens. Barber comes up with a vision under which free individuals of community would convene for the purpose of revealing and dialoguing the common problems facing the community. The community in Barber's vision is a pragmatic one, hardly dependent on any overarching set of pre-historical principles.

The book is organized around ten chapters, the first five of which deal with the core assumptions and frames (pre-conceptual, epistemological and psychological frames) of liberal theory, thereby Barber displays how liberal theory has misguided the practice of democracy in the twentieth century, with consequences being the anomie on the part of citizens and thin democracy in general. The last five chapters are spent for developing theory for strong democracy, the kind of democracy sharing less commonality with liberal representative democracy. In the lexicon of the book, the more the individual participates in the affairs of community, the more the individual becomes a citizen, so that politics for him/her becomes a way of living rather than a meaningless ritual. Therefore, representative government changes itself into the self-governing by community. For reaching what Barber offers, there is a number of very interesting propositions in the book that target at developing a powerful sense of active citizenship and community. The argument of Barber resembles how Danish scholar Bent Flyvbjerg (in Rationality and Power, 1998) depicts democracy: democracy as a form of governing that is fought for, day in and day out, to make it work rather than being a final point that is obtained for once and retained forever. Politics, of course, stands for the daily activity on the part of citizens for making democracy work.

Although a meticulously woven and spellbindingly presented theory of strong democracy this book is, I recommend, it should be read together with two important books, of which the first is "The Idea of Civil Society" by Adam Seligman, therein the importance of individualism-to which Barber objects with cautionary reservation-for both the sustenance and promotion of equality and pluralism as an antidote (or balance) to the exclusionary tendency of communitarian solidarity, is stressed. The other book is "Making Democracy Work" by Robert Putnam in which the interrelationship between active civic engagement and high performance governance is empirically documented by which elucidates how "enlightened self-interest" ought to be understood in the relational context of community-citizen interaction.

Yet, you can find some points in the book to which you would be in opposition, you may try to complement the creative and frank vision of Barber by chinking in further, of course, If you "will". This is a highly recommended classic by all standards.

I bought and read this book while working on a paper about Hirsch's concept of "cultural literacy," criticisms of which had of course led me to Allan Bloom and Diane Ravitch. If you have ever read and cringed at the manipulativeness with which Bloom, Ravitch, and to a lesser degree Hirsch villify today's "ignorant" youth, you will love this book merely for the HILARIOUS parody of Ravitch's quiz testing "what our seventeen-year-olds know." Barber instead tests "what our forty-seven-year-olds know," and his results "reveal a deep strain of hypocrisy in the lamentations of the educational and cultural critics. They want our kids to know things the country at large doesn't give a hoot about. But the illiteracy of the young is our own, reflected back at us with embarrassing force. We honor ambition, we reward greed, we celebrate materialism, we worship acquisitiveness, we commercialize art, we cherish success, and then we bark at the young about the gentle arts of the spirit" (220). Sound dead-on to anyone else?

Barber describes at great length the historical emergence of democracy in communities of the Swiss canton Graubuenden, tracing its origins back more than a thousand years. The book is writen in plain English although it is Barber's aim to fundamentally question the 'liberal constitutionalism' which today marks the household definition of democracy.

Barber argues that capitalism and wealth have eroded much of the basic conditions that he considers requirements for effective direct democratic participation. However, he also points out that the particular historical path has also show that direct democratic systems are adaptable to new circumstances.

The book is a good read for academics and students of democracy studies. It is also an interesting account of the Swiss democratic system giving much elaboration to institutions and procedures. Anybody interested in the historical emergence and present-day workings of direct democratic systems will enjoy this read.

This white male author seems to be unable to contextualize the sufferings and enslavement of Women and Minorities. His self-congratulatory pose as someone who wants "his" country to be better is offensive to those of us on the front lines combatting the patriarchal eurocentric paradigms in this country. Perhaps if he were to better acquaint himself with the incredibly courageous writings of bell hooks and Luc Irigaray, he might better articulate the sufferings of those who have been marginalized by white males.

People (including me) are always saying that this or that book is "uneven." But I don't remember reading anything that whipsaws quite so extremely between authentic insights and gobbledygook. This is another book that had been gathering dust for years on my shelf until I picked up after 9/11 -- the title, after all, makes it sound like an analysis of the clash between Western hyper-capitalist values (or "modernity") and Islamic values. Of course, it was written in 1995, so it's no surprise that the actual subject matter is different, but still interesting. McWorld refers to "post-national or even anti-national" corporate values; Jihad refers to most any ethnically-derived movement, and most of his examples come from the remnants of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. Barber is really good on the big point that both of these trends are antithetical to the civil society that ought to be the goal of nations. He's also excellent on industrialization and the Third World (and the subgroup that he calls the "Terminal World"). This comes early in the book .Subsequent chapters on media consolidation are predictable and shrill. Then the book tilts into the worst sort of academic writing. Sample: "The data are too protean to be definitive and the events too vulnerable to distortion by the very probes that affect to explain them to be detachable from the normative frames by which we try to capture them." Stop, stop! Anyway, some of the concluding chapters return to more useful form, and underscore the main themes about the dangers of various post-nationalist forces. But getting there is heavy going.

"Jihad vs McWorld" is an attempt by author Benjamin R. Barber to illustrate how both the tribalism of Islmic and other fundamentalisms and the globalising effect of turbo-capitalism today involving huge super-rich corporations controlling vast monopolies throughout the world are opposed to a healthy democracy.

The book begins with a study of the way in which, since the collapse of the Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe in 1989, there has been a major advance by large corporations into these and other countries as a result of policies in the imperialist nations of privatisation and deregulation of essential services. The book also shows how even in the few remaining Stalinist regimes (supposedly opposed to the kind of globalisation represented by McWorld) there has been this kind of spread. Even the most traditional groups are turning to Western technology as the super-rich banks aim to gain larger and larger profits through more efficient businesses after the end of the long postwar capitalist boom.

This "turbo-capitalism" is shown up in the next part of the book to be merely a revival of classical laissez-faire capitalism which views everything from the perspective of the market. The book then focuses on the problems created today by the vast demand for profits by super-rich corporations in terms of dependence by imperialist nations on other countries for their ruling classes' key resources: oil, aluminium, copper, lead etc. Here it is stated that autarky as promoted in the US has never been an option for mineral-poor nations - and that many nations in sub-Saharan Africa will remain terminally poor due to lack of good soils or mineral wealth. With oil, the story is worse because of the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.

Barber then discusses superficially - with no opinions made - the way in which the manufacturing sector has been globalised to increase profits, and then he discusses how the imperialist nations have used the mystique of popular performers and brands used by leading international sportsmen in the US to spread American culture (sometimes modified) all over the globe. However, it is impossible for the working classes to actually achieve the status of the performers super-rich corporations are marketing - Barber does a good job here of explaining the way advertisers attract ingnorant consumers and reap obscene profits. Barbers then turns to the service sector, where he explains clearly how globalised services deliver to the ruling classes of the world, through a globalised media in one language. This is extended with satellite TV and literature.

Barber then turns to the frenzy of media mergers and monopoly - which he rightfully points out as leading effectively to a censored media as most independent newspapers developed during the long capitalist boom become swallowed up by highly monopolised presses. Here Barber shows the increased extent of mergers to produce a vast international capitalist media.

The part dealing with the sectarian "Jihad" that has emerged in recent years is, however, not very well done because it does not explain the way in which the sectarian groups now prominent in America evolved - in part, though their support for capitalist policies. The description of separatist movements in Canda is also superficial, but in China Barber is more effective at explaining how the Stalinist regime has not dealt with Westernisation. The chapter on islamic fundamentalism can also be described as a failure because it does not seriously look at the historical aspects of Islamic extremeism - nor at their acts in recent years.

In the last part of the book Barber discusses how a parochial opposition to the capitalist system (like that of guerillas in the developing countries) can offer no real opposition. He does logically see laissez-fair capitalism as opposed to genuine democracy, and he sees little hope in traditional state institutions, but he cannot see ordinary people's struggles to smash capitalism in the imperialist countries as a solution - rather, Barber tries to rely on civil society to provide regulations. However, there is ample evidence from history that to challenge environmental degradation and the concentration of wealth a movement to abolish capitalism and the free market and through the mass struggle of ordinary people in every country - leading in the end to social ownership of all means of production - is the only real challenge to McWorld and Jihad.

On the whole, well thought-out but fails to look at every aspect of the situation. Barber does not grasp the possibilities explored by radical internationalist politics, nor the history of the movements in vogue today.

Well-respected political scientist and prolific writer Benjamin Barber's "Jihad vs. McWorld" illuminates probably the most profound and compelling argument facing us today, tribalism vs. mass consumerism. Jihad vs. McWorld is the pulling of two major socia-political forces upon the citizenry of the world, jettisoning democracy precariously towards extinction.

"Jihad" as articulated in the book represents extremist tribalist nature of fundamentalist cultures. It is the study of self-serving groups, whether they be of religious factions, nation-states, or various political ideologues. Their only goal is to secure the preservation of their culture and to influence those from outside their belief system. The result is warring tribes, i.e. the feuding ideologies of the Serbia-Croat battles, the plight of the Middle East, Northern Ireland's "religious" war, and the bombing of the Oklahoma Federal State building. "Jihad" leaves no room for a free-thinking civil democracy and absolutely abhors influences from outside it's realm, hence it's ardent distrust of Western consumerist ideology - McWorld.

McWorld is the term coined to define the mass consumerist ideology of global marketing. McWorld is not so much a place but is a consumerist behavior. McWorld crosses all cultural boundaries whether they be open free markets or closed sacrilegious cultures. McWorld has not a human face but a bullish influence. McWorld's ultimate goal is to integrate every nation, every country, every person, every thing into a global market, whether they be mass consumers as pompously displayed as the obesity of the "West" or as manufacturers such as in the Nike corporation's child-labour sweatshops in Thailand. Jihad vs. McWorld provides profound insight into the use of multi-media and global communications for McWorld to spread it's influence.

Jihad vs. McWorld is eloquently written and provides hard, factual insights without becoming alarmist. Benjamin Barber provides the reader with though! t-provoking questions that we as a society have been too lax in addressing and bold solutions that our present political systems can't seem to accommodate. An excellent book, I strongly recommended it.