Review, Democratic Shapes and Spaces

8/13/2019 Review, Democratic Shapes and Spaces

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Review: Democratic Shapes and SpacesAuthor(s): Thomas MolnarReviewed work(s):

The Social Meaning of Civic Space: Studying Political Authority Through Architecture byCharles T. GoodsellJefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder by Jack McLaughlin

Source:The Review of Politics,

Vol. 51, No. 2 (Spring, 1989), pp. 315-318Published by: Cambridge University Press for the University of Notre Dame du lac on behalfof Review of PoliticsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1407416

Accessed: 02/12/2008 14:08

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REVIEWSEVIEWSAside from this, Moles's interpretationof Austin's account of the roleof the judiciary provides only part of the story. The key to the rest of itis his perceptionof the numerous and graveevils ofjudge-made law. Hisdetailed indictment of it underlies his greatenthusiasm for codification,or a systematic and complete ody of statutorylaw. Although the growthof judicial legislation cannot be altogether prevented, he felt that it canbe very substantiallyreduced by a good code. Austin thus presumed thatthe applicationof at least many of itsrules would be more or less routine.This presumption is even more explicit in his defense of utilitarianismand the necessity to base conduct upon antecedent rules. In short, he be-lieved that the applicationof legal and ethicalrulesis not necessarilycrea-

tive process. In fact, his account of the potential f rules to control ecisionsis closer to Hart's position than Moles acknowledges.These arguments signify that Moles's interpretation and defense ofAustin are questionable in a number of respects. To the extent that hiscritique of Hart reflects a misunderstandingof Austin, it is also subjectto criticism. Moreover, the positivist tradition seems to me to be muchbroaderthan the largelyBritishformsof it that Moles discusses. Evenso,these limitationsof his book shouldnot obscurethe magnitude of his con-tribution. First,his interpretationof Austin is usually enlightening, if notoriginal. In particular, t has the greatvalue of demonstratingthe contin-uing relevanceofhisphilosophyof law forlegal theoryandpractice.Second,many of Moles's criticisms of contemporary urists are trenchant.Finally,his unconventionalargumentsare almostalways hought-provoking.Closereadingof his bookshouldthereforebe a highlybeneficialexperienceevenfor those who disagree with much more of it than I do.-WILFRID E. RUMBLE

DEMOCRATIC SHAPES AND SPACESCharlesT. Goodsell:TheSocialMeaningfCivic pace: tudyingoliticaluthoritythrough rchitecture.Lawrence:University Press of Kansas, 1988. Pp. xviii, 229.$25.00.)Jack McLaughlin:JeffersonndMonticello:TheBiographyfa Builder.New York:Henry Holt & Company, 1988. Pp. viii, 481. $29.95.)Decades ago, my firstimpressionof American architectureand its rela-tionship with politics and the sacred were prompted by two panoramas:the first, on arrivalby boat in New York harbor in a bright winter sun-shine, the skyline of lower Manhattan. Spontaneously,I said to myself:The Acropolis of the New World The impression has remained strongever since. The second panorama:St. Patrick'sCathedral squeezed be-tween, and dwarfedby, the huge office buildings and department storesof Rockefeller Center. I understood that business is America'sreligion.I recalled heseindeliblesightsas I wasreadingMcLaughlin's nd Good-sell'sbooks, particularly he second. Goodsell writes about the manifesta-tions of political authority in the United States. In orderto graspthe po-

Aside from this, Moles's interpretationof Austin's account of the roleof the judiciary provides only part of the story. The key to the rest of itis his perceptionof the numerous and graveevils ofjudge-made law. Hisdetailed indictment of it underlies his greatenthusiasm for codification,or a systematic and complete ody of statutorylaw. Although the growthof judicial legislation cannot be altogether prevented, he felt that it canbe very substantiallyreduced by a good code. Austin thus presumed thatthe applicationof at least many of itsrules would be more or less routine.This presumption is even more explicit in his defense of utilitarianismand the necessity to base conduct upon antecedent rules. In short, he be-lieved that the applicationof legal and ethicalrulesis not necessarilycrea-tive process. In fact, his account of the potential f rules to control ecisionsis closer to Hart's position than Moles acknowledges.These arguments signify that Moles's interpretation and defense ofAustin are questionable in a number of respects. To the extent that hiscritique of Hart reflects a misunderstandingof Austin, it is also subjectto criticism. Moreover, the positivist tradition seems to me to be muchbroaderthan the largelyBritishformsof it that Moles discusses. Evenso,these limitationsof his book shouldnot obscurethe magnitude of his con-tribution. First,his interpretationof Austin is usually enlightening, if notoriginal. In particular, t has the greatvalue of demonstratingthe contin-uing relevanceofhisphilosophyof law forlegal theoryandpractice.Second,many of Moles's criticisms of contemporary urists are trenchant.Finally,his unconventionalargumentsare almostalways hought-provoking.Closereadingof his bookshouldthereforebe a highlybeneficialexperienceevenfor those who disagree with much more of it than I do.-WILFRID E. RUMBLE

DEMOCRATIC SHAPES AND SPACESCharlesT. Goodsell:TheSocialMeaningfCivic pace: tudyingoliticaluthoritythrough rchitecture.Lawrence:University Press of Kansas, 1988. Pp. xviii, 229.$25.00.)Jack McLaughlin:JeffersonndMonticello:TheBiographyfa Builder.New York:Henry Holt & Company, 1988. Pp. viii, 481. $29.95.)Decades ago, my firstimpressionof American architectureand its rela-tionship with politics and the sacred were prompted by two panoramas:the first, on arrivalby boat in New York harbor in a bright winter sun-shine, the skyline of lower Manhattan. Spontaneously,I said to myself:The Acropolis of the New World The impression has remained strongever since. The second panorama:St. Patrick'sCathedral squeezed be-tween, and dwarfedby, the huge office buildings and department storesof Rockefeller Center. I understood that business is America'sreligion.I recalled heseindeliblesightsas I wasreadingMcLaughlin's nd Good-sell'sbooks, particularly he second. Goodsell writes about the manifesta-tions of political authority in the United States. In orderto graspthe po-

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REVIEWSin oppositionto traditionalstructuresof hierarchicaldelimitation and ar-ticulation of space, finally the isolation of the source of power, politicalarchitecturetoday tends "toview space as undifferentiated,ideally form-less, continuous, open, and flowing-a piece of limitless continuum"(p.35). This is, of course, a heritage of the Bauhaus style, and it carries amessage: the ideal to strive for is the elimination of authority,or at leastits neutralization.Space, shapes,and barriersno longer supportthe tradi-tional consciousness and attitudes; the architectural continuum stylisti-cally dismantles whatever residual sacrednessof authority would lingerin city council chambers.The only criticism of Goodsell's well-conceivedand vigorously arguedwork is its perhaps deliberate dryness. The book would have possesseda more general significanceif in addition to the initial excursus to royal,popular, dictatorial, etc. styles, he would have enlivened the topic withoccasionalsidetripsinto the parallelevolution(degradation?)of religiousarchitecture(for example before and after the Vatican Council) and therecent penetrationof television cameras in municipal and parliamentarydebate, law courts, and the negotiating table. As it stands, the book hasan almostexclusively sociological interest, although in that discipline tooit may open a new branch and new controversies.

Throughsomeof its aspects,McLaughlin'sbookonJeffersonand Mon-ticellorelateswellto the studyof politicalauthoritybyGoodsell.Jefferson'sgreat admiration for Palladio'sneo-classicism suggests that the architectof Monticello,Jeffersonhimself, was a child of his century,a ratheraus-teresoul for whom authority,whilebenevolent,was also a sterntaskmaster.McLaughlin speaksofJefferson's"Palladianmask: abstract deas of orderrenderedin ancient post and lintel forms. It was a counterpartto the facehe himself showed to the world. Yet Monticello's inner space was to besomething quite personal- maternal even" p. 51).Wehave here the maskand the domestic man with something like warmth. This may have beenAmerica's contribution to the century'sVoltaireanvisage.However,the building of Monticello, a workbegun earlyinJefferson'slife and pursued beyondhis death, has relatively ittle to do with the topicof McLaughlin'sbook except as an accompanying theme, a backgroundmusic. The book is, rather,a straightforwardbiographyof the thirdpresi-dent, and it is also a tableau of an age, ajudicious collection of much in-terestinginformation about colonialand post-IndependenceAmerica: onrace relations, on Jefferson'spersonal library,and of course on architec-ture which reflectsa personal taste, not the early republic'sown Romanpreferences.Thus while "Monticello"n the title is not much more thanthe loose frameworkof a life, a wayof signalling its phases, it is a suitablefocus for an outstanding man'sirritatinglittle foibles. At any rate, the in-terestin buildingrelievedthe tedious aspectsof a countrygentleman's ife,albeit Monticello, periodicallyrebuilt, in no wayserves as a symbol of thebeginning of a greatpolitical enterprise. It was the home of a landowner;McLaughlin calls it a "maternalwomb" o whichJefferson needed to re-turn. One wonders if Freudian language is appropriate in this case.I do not know whom we ought to blame,Jeffersonor McLaughlin, butthe Founding Fatherand thus political architect is presented as through

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THE REVIEW OF POLITICSHE REVIEW OF POLITICSa veil. Wehardlyencounterhim as a personalive, almostalwaysas a coldman: in love, in ambassadorship (what a difference from BenjaminFranklin ),in his distantly benevolent attitude to old and trusted slaves.His courtship in Paris of the woman desired or his relationshipwith hiswife shows embarrassment, attempts at new starts. The building,refashioning,demolition,thenreconstructionof Monticello(the truelove?)convey the dominant theme. We are left with the impression of an eigh-teenth-centuryman whose innerlifewasconcealedunderwig andpowderjust as that cold century crushed poetry under prose, passions by theirCartesian calculus, and love by an elaborate ceremonial game. If men-tioned apropos of marriage, love was apt to cause raised eyebrows.

If an epilogue is appropriatefor a book review,it should mention thatin spite of the titles which invite the discussion and praise of beauty, thebeautifulhardlyappearson these books'manypages.Rather the utilitarianis front and center. In this sense both have an air of puritanism aboutthem likeJeffersonhimself, like the townhalls and chambers on the pho-tographs. Yet, political architecturenever undervaluedbeauty, if for noother reason than that it is an ingredient of splendor and majesty,there-fore of power. -THOMAS MOLNAR

TWO DIMENSIONS OF MODERN CHINABenedict Stavis: China's oliticalReforms:n InterimReport.New York:PraegerPublishers, 1988. Pp. vii, 158. $35.95.)John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai: ChinaBuilds heBomb.Stanford,CA: Stan-ford University Press, 1988. Pp. vii, 329. $29.50.)The two volumesunder review cover mportanttopics, yet they areverydifferent n scope, focus, and style. China's oliticalReformss a wellwrittenaccount of the reasons,policies,and obstaclesto politicalreformofChina'spolitical system with particularreference to related student activism in1986-1987.Lewisand Litai'sChinaBuilds heBomb s a fascinatingchronicleof China'snuclearprogram spanningfrom its inception in 1955to the de-sign andtestingof nuclearandhydrogenweaponsin 1964and 1967.Stavis,a political scientist, drawson his many insights gained during a teaching

engagement at Fudan University in Shanghai. His descriptive accountoffers interesting interpretative analysis; it is largely based on personalobservations,interviewsand supplemented by a host of primaryand sec-ondary sources. Lewis and Litai's historicalcase study of China's nuclearweapons program,is exceedinglywelldocumented; argelybasedon newlydeclassifiedChinese materials, it is also a remarkableproductof Chinese-American academic cooperation. Both volumesare valuable additions tothe ever growing literature on Chinese politics.In the late 1970'smany analystsdescribedChina in glowingterms, fre-quently citing China's modernization driveand related reforms as an in-dication thatthingsweregettingbetterpoliticallyandeconomically.Those

a veil. Wehardlyencounterhim as a personalive, almostalwaysas a coldman: in love, in ambassadorship (what a difference from BenjaminFranklin ),in his distantly benevolent attitude to old and trusted slaves.His courtship in Paris of the woman desired or his relationshipwith hiswife shows embarrassment, attempts at new starts. The building,refashioning,demolition,thenreconstructionof Monticello(the truelove?)convey the dominant theme. We are left with the impression of an eigh-teenth-centuryman whose innerlifewasconcealedunderwig andpowderjust as that cold century crushed poetry under prose, passions by theirCartesian calculus, and love by an elaborate ceremonial game. If men-tioned apropos of marriage, love was apt to cause raised eyebrows.If an epilogue is appropriatefor a book review,it should mention thatin spite of the titles which invite the discussion and praise of beauty, thebeautifulhardlyappearson these books'manypages.Rather the utilitarianis front and center. In this sense both have an air of puritanism aboutthem likeJeffersonhimself, like the townhalls and chambers on the pho-tographs. Yet, political architecturenever undervaluedbeauty, if for noother reason than that it is an ingredient of splendor and majesty,there-fore of power. -THOMAS MOLNAR

TWO DIMENSIONS OF MODERN CHINABenedict Stavis: China's oliticalReforms:n InterimReport.New York:PraegerPublishers, 1988. Pp. vii, 158. $35.95.)John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai: ChinaBuilds heBomb.Stanford,CA: Stan-ford University Press, 1988. Pp. vii, 329. $29.50.)The two volumesunder review cover mportanttopics, yet they areverydifferent n scope, focus, and style. China's oliticalReformss a wellwrittenaccount of the reasons,policies,and obstaclesto politicalreformofChina'spolitical system with particularreference to related student activism in1986-1987.Lewisand Litai'sChinaBuilds heBomb s a fascinatingchronicleof China'snuclearprogram spanningfrom its inception in 1955to the de-sign andtestingof nuclearandhydrogenweaponsin 1964and 1967.Stavis,a political scientist, drawson his many insights gained during a teaching

engagement at Fudan University in Shanghai. His descriptive accountoffers interesting interpretative analysis; it is largely based on personalobservations,interviewsand supplemented by a host of primaryand sec-ondary sources. Lewis and Litai's historicalcase study of China's nuclearweapons program,is exceedinglywelldocumented; argelybasedon newlydeclassifiedChinese materials, it is also a remarkableproductof Chinese-American academic cooperation. Both volumesare valuable additions tothe ever growing literature on Chinese politics.In the late 1970'smany analystsdescribedChina in glowingterms, fre-quently citing China's modernization driveand related reforms as an in-dication thatthingsweregettingbetterpoliticallyandeconomically.Those

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