Passions and Constraint On the Theory of Liberal Democracy

"Passions and Constraint is valuable not least because it demonstrates the relevance of the history of political ideas to present-day concerns. Holmes expounds his argument through lively and accessible chapters on Hobbes, Bodin and Mill. He claims that liberals have never simply assumed that human beings are self-interested and rational; rather, they have recognized the role of 'distorting' passions, however much they might have regretted them....Nothing in Holmes's well-argued book detracts from the view that liberalism is best deployed as an oppositionist ideology--which, after all, is how it originated."Holmes, Stephen is the author of 'Passions and Constraint On the Theory of Liberal Democracy' with ISBN 9780226349695 and ISBN 0226349691.