Haves Without Have-Nots: Essays for the 21st Century on Democracy and Socialism

In six didactic essays dedicated to Mikhail Gorbachev, popular philosopher Adler ( Truth in Religion ) examines the spread of capitalism-based constitutional democracy along with the rise of totalitarian communism and its subsequent fall-- due, he avers, to a failure to achieve true economic socialism. Two of these broad-ranging essays, derived from lectures and seminars held at the Aspen Institute of Philosophical Research (headed by the author), contrast the strict constructionism of Judge Robert Bork with Lincoln's philosophy of ``unalienable rights'' for all, which in Adler's view should include economic rights. Adler concludes, perhaps prematurely, that with the end of conflict between the two systems, democracy--embodying private-property capitalism combined with legislated welfare provisions-- will prevail on a global scale. (Apr.)