SCHOOL OF LAW

TOPIC – HAROLD J. LASKI

SUBMITTED BY :
SUBMITTED TO :
DIVYANSHA GOYAL
Dr. K.S PAREEK
B.A.LL.B 3RD YEAR
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR)
170038
 Harold Joseph Laski
Harold Joseph Laski,
(born June 30, 1893,
Manchester, England
—died March 24,
1950, London),
British political
scientist, educator,
and prominent
member of the
British Labour Party
LASKI’S BOOK LIST
Studies In Problem Of Sovereignty (1916)
Authority In The Modern State (1919)
Political Thought From Locke To Bentham (1920)
Karl Marx(1921)
The Foundation Of Sovereignty And Other Essays(1921)
Socialism And Freedom (1922)
A Grammar Of Politics(1925)
Communism (1927)
Liberty In The Modern State(1930)
The Danger Of Obedience(1930)
Democracy In Crisis(1931)
The Introduction To Politics(1931)
Where Socialism Stands Today(1933)
Recovery Through Revolution (1933)
Rise Of European Liberalism(1936)
The Parliamentary Government Of England(1938)
The American Presidency (1940)
Faith Reason And Civilization (1943)
The American Democracy (1948)
The Dilemma Of Our Times (1952)
Laski view on State
• State is reality
• State is above other institution and association
• State had establish itself as an organization
• State has an authority through which it manifest its will.
Laski on State Sovereignty
• Impossible to achieve absolute sovereignty
• He has tried to establish that people obey sovereign authority
• In 1925 put forth positive theory
• After 1931 began to feel that the state was essential for social
good though he still felt that it was an agency which exploited
many.
Laski view on Liberty
• Laski was one of those political thinker who gradually
developed and was open to all adjustment.
Liberty as the positive and equal opportunity.
Laski defines liberty In 1929 , 1930 , 1943, 1944
• Liberty and authority
• Liberty and equality

Kinds of liberty
• Political
• Economic
• Private
Condition Essential for Safeguarding
Liberty
• In a good society people should be educated
honest and efficient.
• Economic security
• Rights should be flow from constitution
• Absence of privileges and all should be treated
equal before law.
• People should have full determination to
preserve their liberty and ready to fight till the
last.
 RIGHTS
“Those conditions of social life without which no
man can seek, in general, to be himself at his best”
KINDS OF RIGHTS
• Those pertaining to an individual
• Those pertaining to a society
• Those pertaining to an association

List of rights
• The right to work
• Citizen has a right to claim adequate wage
• The right to education
• Should have right to be elected as the representative of the people.
 Laski About Private
Property
• Necessity of private property
• Evils of private property
• Property and reward
Marx’ s influence on Laski
Point of Similarity
• He accepted that the institution of private property was an evil
and responsible for many social and economic problems.
• The state in its present form was under the control of a
particular class.

Point of Dissimilarity
• Marx believed in the centralization of authority but laski believe in
decentralization.
• He did not agree with Marx that there should be use of violence
for bringing about a revolution.
• He did not agree with Marx that violence was desirable under all
circumstances.