Politics and Power

Abstract

The two quotations, which have been deliberately run together above, come from the first chapter of Moore’s first major work, Soviet Politics — The Dilemma of Power (1950, p.1) and the last chapter of his latest book, Injustice (1978, p.469). Even though the composition of the latter took place almost three decades after the former, they might easily have come from the same paragraph. Although shifts in emphasis, tone and tactics in Moore’s work before and after Social Origins have been indicated in the last two chapters of this present book, the overwhelming impression is that Moore’s writing as a whole displays an impressive degree of thematic unity.

Man has been concerned with the role of ideas in the shaping of human behaviour ever since the first member of the species attempted to influence the behaviour of another by exhortation instead of blows. Throughout the centuries and in modern times a wide variety of views have been presented on the subject … Granted and even emphasizing that ideas cannot be effective without economic (and other) changes, there is still another important point to be made. Without strong moral feelings and indignation, human beings will not act against the social order. In this sense moral convictions become an equally necessary element for changing the social order, along with alterations in the economic structure.