David Marquand’s life was divided between politics and the academy, with the latter being the place where his greatest achievements lay. The tension between the two spheres led him restlessly: to balance liberalism against social democracy (what he called ‘the progressive dilemma’); to seek to maximise social dialogue and decentralisation while recognising the need for a European level of governance (‘democratic republicanism’); and to reassert moral values in a polity and society increasingly governed by neoliberal materialism (‘Mammon’s kingdom’). The fact that he never found final answers to these dilemmas – and was indeed deeply suspicious of final answers – served only to increase the depth and fascination of his writings.
Posted to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, 22