ABSTRACT
Karl Mannheim's sociological work—as writer as well as teacher—has a strong rhetorical dimension. His teaching and his texts evince throughout the sense of mission he emphasized in his descriptions of the sociological project after his arrival in England in 1933. The crisis of democracy, he contends, calls for a sociological theory of the changes undermining earlier conditions for the social effectiveness of democratic institutions and overtaxing the adaptability of existing institutional designs. Although dedication to democratic values is a necessary condition for resistance to dictatorship, it is not sufficient. Sociological awareness is integral to a political practice capable of steering society through the age of reconstruction. Democratic elections and parliamentary procedures should remain, unless political structures and traditions have been wholly disrupted. Mannheim defines "politics" as "the struggle between the rival groups and authorities which determines the trend of development", and he insists that "the reduction of the political element is essential for any form of planning".
