Phil Ryan

Policy analysts trained in various social sciences face a generally unacknowledged contradiction. Traditionally, mainstream social science has assumed that there is a gulf –a “dichotomy”– between facts and values, and that rigorous social science must be as uncontaminated by values as possible. But policy analysis, as reflection on the question “what is to be done?,” is intrinsically concerned with matters of value. Evasions of this contradiction have relied on various stratagems that have the effect of smuggling unexamined values into analysis.

This book demonstrates the damage that this contradiction inflicts upon policy analysis, and upon society as a whole. It resolves the contradiction by showing that values are every bit as amenable to critical analysis and reasoned defence as factual beliefs. It also presents key qualities of a policy analysis decisively freed from the “binary view” of facts and values.

The introduction presents the binary view and the alternative to it. Part I then examines the effects, both obvious and subtle, of the dichotomy, effects seen both in the practice of policy analysis and in our broader culture. Part II shows how policy analysis is transformed when one embraces a consistently non-binary approach. The third part addresses some of the dangers of the approach being advocated, while the conclusion discusses the role of a non-binary policy analysis in a deliberative democracy.

The first decade of the twenty-first century saw a number of best-selling books which not only challenged the existence of god, but claimed that religious faith was dangerous and immoral. The New Atheists, as writers such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett have become known, sparked a vicious debate over religion’s place in modern society.

In After the New Atheist Debate, Phil Ryan offers both an elegant summary of this controversy and a path out of the cul-de-sac that this argument has become. Drawing on the social sciences, philosophy, and theology, Ryan examines the claims of the New Atheists and of their various religious and secular opponents and finds both sides wanting.

Rather than the mutual demonization that marks the New Atheist debate, Ryan argues that modern society needs respectful ethical dialogue in which citizens present their points of view and seek to understand the positions of others. Lucidly written and clearly argued, After the New Atheist Debate is a book that brings welcome clarity and a solid path to the often contentious conversation about religion in the public sphere.

Official multiculturalism, established as Canadian government policy in 1971, has drawn criticism from many scholars and journalists who view it as a potential threat to a strong, unified Canadian society. In this timely and original book, Phil Ryan examines the emergence and influence of these criticisms, which continue to provoke an anxiety he calls “multicultiphobia.” Although Ryan argues that multicultiphobic discourse is often marred by important errors of fact and interpretation, a systematic inspection of news coverage and parliamentary debates reveals the persistent influence of these critiques and their underlying concerns.

Rather than simply dismissing multicultiphobia, Ryan acknowledges that critics of multiculturalism have identified issues about which Canadians need to talk. Does multiculturalism discourage adaptation and encourage ‘cultural walls’ between Canadians? Does it promote an ‘anything goes’ relativism? Finally, what do we – both as supporters and critics of multiculturalism – wish to make of Canada’s ethnic diversity? Multicultiphobia perceptively tackles all of these questions by means of a sophisticated analysis that encourages a deeper understanding of the issues at the heart of multiculturalism.

The Fall and Rise of the Market in Sandinista Nicaragua is an insightful look at the difficulties that arise when a particular vision of socialism is applied in a country such as Nicaragua. Phil Ryan argues that the Sandinistas pursued a project of social transformation inspired by a Marxism much more orthodox than has been widely recognized. He maintains that tensions between this project and other factors such as war and external debt led to the severe economic crisis of the mid-1980s.

Ryan focuses on four broad issue areas — the organization and role of the state sector, price policy, relations with the bourgeoisie, and agrarian reform. The interactions between these issue areas, and between the technical and political contradictions they reveal, demonstrate the complexity of choices faced by the Sandinista leadership.

The Fall and Rise of the Market in Sandinista Nicaragua will engage those with an interest in not only Latin American and development studies but also socialist politics.

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