University of Toronto Law Journal

Arthurs, H. W. (Harry William), 1935-
Liberal Democracy and the Social Acceleration of Time (review)
University of Toronto Law Journal - Volume 56, Number 4, Fall 2006, pp. 399-406

University of Toronto Press

H. W. Arthurs - Liberal Democracy and the Social Acceleration of Time (review) - University of Toronto Law Journal 56:4 University of Toronto Law Journal 56.4 (2006) 399-406 Muse Search Journals This Journal Contents Reviewed by H.W. Arthurs Osgoode Hall Law School, York University Liberal Democracy and the Social Acceleration of Time. William E. Scheuerman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004 Pp. xxi, 286 US $42.00 (cloth) In a famous Monty Python skit, Michael Palin enters the waiting room of a business that looks as if it might dispense financial advice or counselling on weight loss. What he is after, however, is an argument. After a mistaken encounter with someone who offers him abuse, he is finally directed to an argument specialist; he books himself in for half an hour, and a good time is had by all. William Scheuerman's provocative book Liberal Democracy and the Social Acceleration of Time, would have given Palin his money's worth. Scheuerman poses the following question: How can the 'social acceleration of time' - of technological change, of social transformation, of the tempo of everyday life - be accommodated within the conceptual and institutional framework of liberal democracy? Drawing heavily (but selectively) on the insights of Carl Schmitt - 'Germany's most impressive authoritarian right-wing political and legal theorist' (xviii) - Scheuerman notes that the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government are...