ABSTRACT
'Predatory' political authority is a term whose implications are explored in Injustice but it may be summarised as meaning a form of political authority which to a significant extent treats people as victims. The atomising effects of the work situation and the incorporating effects of socio-economic, legal and political arrangements have cut off the possibility of reactionary or fascist development. In Social Origins Barrington Moore argues that the responses of rural classes to the disruption or threatened disruption of their established forms of life produced structural consequences which contributed in important ways to the realisation of democratic and dictatorial forms of political regime in industrialising societies. Moore concludes by noticing that although their definitions of friend and foe may differ, radical movements of both left and right tend to glorify violence, use terror and adopt dictatorial forms of political management.
