“Populism” and Totalitarianism in the Emergent Nations

Peter Worsley, who holds the chair of sociology at Manchester, has written an admirable social-democratic manifesto for underdeveloped countries. Having just tried my own hand at dealing with this topic—a survey of the “Third World” and the prescription of new policies— I know well the problems which he faced. Though Worsley is a leader of England’s “New Left” and I adhere to more conventional liberal principles, we arrive at essentially the same convictions concerning the emerging nations.

Perhaps we are witnessing the spontaneous growth of a new school of thought on this matter: an approach which, while recognizing the multitude of obstacles, stresses that democracy in some form can flourish in ...