Abstract
63.2995 ASCHER, Ivan — “
The author offers a new interpretation of Weber's famous lecture “Politics as a vocation”, and argues that one can derive from it a conception of politics different [from] the one Weber himself seems to propose. Specifically, the potential for political innovation is no more extinguished by bureaucracy than it is reducible to the charismatic leadership of an individual. We are all “occasional politicians”, as Weber himself admits, and this is by virtue of politics’ unfolding in relations of language. In the end, Weber's lecture yields a conception of politics that allows us to recognize the political possibilities inherent in language and interpretation, and thus, implicitly, the political dimension of science itself. [R]
63.2996 BARROCHE, Julien —
This article questions the concept of subsidiarity through its semantic contextualization. Official genealogies attribute the notion to Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Althusius, Tocqueville; this work demonstrates that subsidiarity find its roots in a recent past. We trace back two main contexts in the concept's discursive life: (1) subsidiarity as the major component of the social doctrine of the Church; (2) subsidiarity as the major component of the federal governance of Europe. From these reference points, we enlightened a series of structural homologies which, once stylized, share the stigmatization of the same polemical target: the state. Their theoretical exploitation allowed then to disentangle some of the main ideological bridges between the Christian and European phobias about the state. [R, abr.]
63.2997 BØYUM, Steinar —
This paper explores Rawls's strangely neglected notion, the political conception as educator, which captures how the public political culture can educate citizens. The aim is to elucidate both the idea itself and above all its function in Rawls's Political Liberalism. After first surveying its main content and some historical parallels, the main body of the paper explores why Rawls places so much trust in the educative effect of institutions and, apparently, so little in schools. Along the way we shall discuss the relation between political liberalism and republicanism, the border disagreement between political conception and comprehensive doctrine, Mackie's distinction between wide and narrow morality and the importance of trust in Rawls's view of society. [R]
63.2998 CLARKE, Michelle T. —
What are the virtues of a good citizen? This article argues that Machiavelli takes a skeptical view of the Roman social virtues, and especially certain aspects of fides, in light of their strong association with clientelism. Attentive to how these “virtues” have been used by elites to amass significant extralegal powers, Machiavelli urges his readers to condemn them as the political vices they actually are. As part of this effort, he re-examines a classic exemplum of Roman virtue, Manlius Torquatus, both to expose how personal loyalties can endanger republican liberty and to develop a new portrait of good citizenship in which “unsociable” traits assume a central place. [R]
63.2999 COFFEE, Alan M. S. J. —
Even long after their formal exclusion has come to an end, members of previously oppressed social groups often continue to face disproportionate restrictions on their freedom. Wollstonecraft provides an explanation of why such domination may persist and offers a model through which it can be addressed. Republicans rely on processes of rational public deliberation to highlight and combat oppression. However, where domination is primarily social rather than legal or political, then this defense against domination is often negated. Prejudice, she argues, “clouds” people's ability to reason and skews debate in favor of the dominant powers, thereby entrenching patterns of subjection. If they are to be independent, then, citizens require not only political rights but a platform from which to add their perspectives and interests to the background social values which govern political discussion. [R, abr.]
63.3000 CUEVA PERUS, Marcos —
“Neoliberalism” bears hardly any relation to classical liberalism, which defends moral and civic values in the face of religion. “Neoliberalism” has precedents in utilitarianism. In the US, its source is marginalism; its precursors can be found in Prussia; and its followers in US authors, of Austrian extraction. Neoliberalism, in the fight against collectivism, has gone as far as to negate all social issues and to advocate the conversion of politics into a market. That vacuum is filled by the sanctification of calculations and a tyranny of the majority that dissolves personal judgment. [R]
63.3001 DÍAZ I ANABITARTE, Aitor —
This investigation examines the concept of political pacifism as a theoretical framework in International Relations, an analytic axis with Realpolitik, so ass to understand theoretical proposals that exist around the concepts of peace and war. These proposals are more or less based on a justification of war. Political pacifism is one of the ends of the axis and also as a theoretical proposal which starts with the beginning of civilization. [R, abr.]
63.3002 EDWARDS, Jason —
I argue that the work of the Dutch historian J. Huizinga is an important resource for contemporary democratic theory because his employment of the concept of play illustrates both the strengths and weaknesses of agonistic thought. I employ a reading of Huizinga to explore three central problems of contemporary agonism: the distinction between antagonism and agonism; the representative or expressive character of the agon; and the shaping and limiting of the space of the agon by the materials with which we play democratic games. Reading Huizinga reveals the importance of a consideration of the social relations and material conditions that shape the playful features of democratic contestation. [R, abr.]
63.3003 GOVIND, Rahul —
The essay investigates the relation between time and political subjectivity, through a reading of J. Locke and J.S. Mill. The latter's theorization of liberty and progress is contrasted to the former's understanding of the political subject via an eschato-theological understanding of time. Ultimately, Mill's position — as a “stand-in” for modernity — is found to be unjustifiable in its uncritical distinguishing between time and the (political) subject, thereby laying the ground work for what is perhaps the dominant paradigm of political philosophy today: political not metaphysical. A subplot in the essay argues that Mill's well-known endorsement of British Imperialism can be traced to these problems besetting the theoretical relations between political liberty, time and notions of progress. Through a constructive reading of Mill and Locke, we revisit the problem of the political subject though time. [A, abr.]
63.3004 GREEN, Jeffrey Edward —
This article aims to correct the widespread imbalance in contemporary liberal thought, which makes explicit appeal to the “least advantaged” without parallel attention to the “most advantaged” as a distinct group in need of regulatory attention. Rawls's influential theory of justice is perhaps the paradigmatic instance of this imbalance, but I show how a Rawlsian framework nonetheless provides three justifications for why implementers of liberal justice — above all, legislators — should regulate the economic prospects of a polity's richest citizens: as a heuristic device for ensuring that a system of inequalities not reach a level at which inequalities cease being mutually advantageous, as protection against excessive inequalities threatening civic liberty, and as redress for a liberal society's inability to fully realize fair equality of opportunity with regard to education and politics. [R, abr.]
63.3005 HENDRICKSON, Randal R. —
This article dwells on what ways Montesquieu's transformative thought can be understood as an adaptation of Machiavelli's philosophy of aggrandizement. It turns especially on the question of ordinary acquisitiveness, which Montesquieu is glad to find flourishing in a world cured of Machiavellianism. But he is no simple Anti-Machiavel. Joining Machiavelli in excusing worldly acquisitiveness and facing its obstacles, Montesquieu departs from his predecessor on behalf of the ordinary individual whose wish to improve his lot in life the philosophe favors and whose security is among his first concerns. Beginning from Machiavelli's beginnings, Montesquieu moves from the grand acquirer to the ordinary and here takes Machiavellianism to a liberal conclusion. This is Montesquieu's (anti-)Machiavellianism. [R]
63.3006 HIRVONEN, Ari —
The article analyzes relationships between profane and religious illumination, materialism and theology, politics and religion, Marxism and Messianism. For W. Benjamin, every second is “the small gateway in time through which the Messiah might enter”. This is the starting point in the reading of Benjamin's works, where we confront various liaisons and couplings of radical politics and messianic events. through the reading of Benjamin and through the analysis of his conceptions of history and time, the article addresses the question what is possible in the world. [R] [See Abstr. 63.2929]
63.3007 JIMÉNEZ-ANCA, Juan J. —
Today, very few would doubt that there are plenty of reasons to liken M. Weber's and M. Foucault's theories of power. Nevertheless, their respective works have divergent ethical and ontological preoccupations which should be reconsidered. This article explores Foucault's account of a historical episode in Discipline and Punish and Weber's theory of life spheres, uncovering evidence that there is a need to reassess the conceptual bridges which have been built so far. The exploration reveals a radical difference between a monological theory of power (Foucault) and a multidimensional approach to power (Weber). Yet by unbridging the two thinkers and focusing on other aspects of their theories along with their ideas about power, we also find that alternative links between the two frameworks may offer a more promising critical theory. [R]
63.3008 LALOVIĆ, Dragutin —
Rousseau's political theory is shaped in a deliberate and complete opposition to physiocratic economic liberalism, which reduces freedom to its economic and legal aspects, and modern man to a bourgeois. In this, Rousseau is very close to Tocqueville, who questions the physiocratic doctrine from the standpoint of political liberalism. The second part presents and evaluates the critique of Rousseau's political doctrine (of political freedom and popular sovereignty) from the standpoint of B. Constant's classic political liberalism. Finally, the author shows that an adequate comparison of Rousseau's doctrine with the liberal political doctrine must carefully distinguish between the conceptual clusters reflecting affinity (the people and the separation of powers) and those reflecting opposition (the people, the law, the general will and the citoyen). [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 63.3020]
63.3009 LIEVENS, Matthias —
The author argues that Schmitt's work is best understood as staging a metapolitical struggle that unfolds in two steps. First, Schmitt struggles against depoliticizing “types of spirit” and for the particular spiritual form that makes conflicts political. Second, Schmitt articulates the distinction between the political and politics, with the aim of repoliticizing politics. The relation between these two dimensions of Schmitt's metapolitics is aporetic, and discloses the spectral character of each political struggle, which cannot, pace Schmitt, be reduced to a friend/enemy duality, but inevitably entails a multiplication of enmities. [R]
63.3010 LOBO-FERNANDES, Luís —
The contribution of Hugo Grotius to international relations theory is especially relevant given the growth of contemporary global interdependence. Grotius paved the way to a more elaborate vision of international politics. In particular, he pointed out to the existence of an open international society — a more dense concept than the mere interstate system — in which a variety of interests and actors coexist. He was the precursor of a complex liberal formulation, where interests are tantamount, that brings up distributive outcomes as the result of reciprocal costs. [R] [See Abstr. 63.2908]
63.3011 MAGUN, Artemy —
The article is dedicated to the politico-theological critique of Judaism from the position of Christianity. It shows the affinity of Marx's early critique of liberal state and on Arendt's criticism of formal legalistic thinking in the contemporary judicial treatment of Nazism (and of similar international political crimes). Marx's critique of nation-state finds its unlikely continuation in Arendt's critique of international law. The politico-theological argument is explicit in Marx and implicit in Arendt, but both develop the Hegelian criticism of liberal state which shows its reliance on the abstract law, on the one hand, and on the egotistic abstract individual, on the other. The theological undercurrent of the argument is both sign of its limitations, and of the subsisting relevance of the politico-theological framework, even in the similarly novel circumstances of the 20th c. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 63.2929]
63.3012 MALIKS, Reidar —
This paper argues that, although no resistance or revolution is permitted in the Kantian state, very tyrannical regimes must not be obeyed because they do not qualify as states. The essay shows how a state ceases to be a state, argues that persons have a moral responsibility to judge about it and defends the compatibility of this with Kantian authority. The reconstructed Kantian view has implications for how we conceive authority and obligation. It calls for a morally demanding definition of the state and asserts that the primary personal responsibility is not to evaluate the morality of every single law but to evaluate the moral standing of the polity. [R]
63.3013 MANNEWITZ, Tom — “
The study defines the phenomenon of political extremism with the help of a parsimonious frame. Whereas it seems clear that extremism can be described both with the help of its hostility towards constitutional democracy and with typical thinking patterns, this approach tries to reduce the eight structural features of extremist thinking to one feature: the statement that political reality is coherent due to social laws. [R]
63.3014 McCORMICK, William —
While “political theology” has attracted widespread attention for decades, it is often taken to be too fideist for orthodox Christianity and too illiberal for secular politics. But in the work of Maritain one finds a defence of a certain political theology, one whose character is key to grasping Maritain's justification of another controversial concept: “Christian philosophy”. I draw out Maritain's distinction between Christian philosophy and theology, paying particular attention to the relevance of their differences in the realm of practical thought. To illustrate what Maritain has in mind by these claims, I further consider his intriguing classification of the political works of Thomas Aquinas. I argue that distinguishing between rival notions of political theology clarifies the opportunities for dialogue between believing and secular citizens. [R]
63.3015 NEOCLEOUS, Mark — “
This article challenges a received wisdom in the liberal peace thesis, namely that the roots of the conjunction of liberalism and peace can be traced back to the idea of an essentially pacific commercial civil society in the 18th c. Scottish Enlightenment. The article instead shows that the Scottish Enlightenment was committed to the idea of military virtue. Textual analysis of the work of Adam Smith and A. Ferguson reveals a deep and abiding commitment to martial values. The article explores this commitment via an account of the rise of concerns over “effeminacy” in the 18th c., understood as a threat to both military virtue and masculine strength. In exploring these ideas the article claims that IR has helped perpetuate one of today's key political myths: that liberalism is committed to peace. [R]
63.3016 OJAKANGAS, Mika —
In line with his theory of secularization according to which all significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts, Schmitt argues in Constitutional Theory that people's constitution-making power in modern democracy is analogical to God's potestas constituens in medieval theology. It is also undoubtedly possible to find a resemblance between Schmitt's constitution-making power and God's power as it is described in medieval theology. In the same sense as the constitution-making power is absolutely free from all normative ties, God's potestas constituens, or rather, God's potentia absoluta is free from such ties. Yet, unlike the Schmittian constitution-making power, God's potentia absoluta was not, in medieval theology, originally intended as a description of some form of divine action: the absolute power of God referred to the total possibilities initially open to God. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 63.2929]
63.3017 OSTROVE, Geoff —
T. Adorno once claimed, “Hitler has imposed a new categorical imperative upon humanity …: to arrange their thinking and conduct, so that Auschwitz never repeats itself, so that nothing similar ever happen again”. I analyze what Adorno meant by this statement, and how he believes humanity should act in order to arrange their thinking, conduct, and communication. I also explore Adorno's thoughts on why the Holocaust was able to occur, how contemporary society should respond to such a catastrophe, and why he felt the creation of the state of Israel was not an appropriate response to the Holocaust. Adorno felt that the only true form of revolutionary praxis was to change the dominant means of production and any lesser form of rebellion was futile and only reified the contemporary commodity-form capitalist system. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 63.2963]
63.3018 OVE, Peter —
I discuss the extension of M. Foucault's work on governmentality into the fields of global studies in general and development studies in particular. Drawing on insights from post-development theory and critical race theory, I present an adaptation of governmentality — labeled developmentality — that is intended to bridge the gap between those studies dealing with the regulatory aspects of development in the global South and those dealing with construction of ethical identities in the North. [R] [See Abstr. 63.2963]
63.3019 PODUNAVAC, Milan —
Until the first half of the 19th c., two major contending families were predominant in political theory: republicanism and liberalism. The early 19th c. unambiguously resolved this theoretical contestation in favor of liberalism. In the last two centuries, liberalism has been the leading political theory. The paper analyzes the revival of republican political theory within the framework of the “historical school” and puts forward the theoretical views of Q. Skinner and J. Pocock. [R] [See Abstr. 63.3020]
63.3020 POSAVEC, Zvonko —
Republicanism and liberalism are presented in terms of how they are interconnected and condition one another, as expressed in the conception of J. Habermas's deliberative democracy. First, both concepts are concisely defined: republicanism stresses the principle of virtue and community, while liberalism reveals the freedom of the individual and of particular provinces as the basic point in the development of a free order. Second, the author shows how Habermas links the two in the concept of deliberative democracy as inseparable parts of the modern political order. How Habermas uses the concept in his analysis of the EU, i.e., of the possibility of deliberative democracy in the space of Europeanization and globalization, is discussed. [R, abr.] [Introduction to a thematic issue on “Republicanism and liberalism, frères ennemis in political modernity”. See also Abstr. 63.3008, 3019]
63.3021 RILEY, Jonathan —
Berlin's political thought consistently combines tragic value pluralism with moral priority for a minimum sphere of individual liberty which is defined and protected by a core set of basic human rights. His fundamental concept of a common moral minimum includes multiple components, including the idea that there is a common moral world of plural and conflicting incommensurable objective values and the idea that humans share a common nucleus of needs and interests centered on the overriding goal of human survival. The basic human rights have priority over competing values because the rights are essential for human survival. Berlin's focus is on decency, which he insists can be maintained without a commitment to political democracy. [R, abr.]
63.3022 SCHIFF, Jacob —
This article explores problems of thoughtlessness through a critical engagement with H. Arendt. Thoughtlessness was more complicated for Arendt than her interpreters have acknowledged. Arendt identifies the cultivation of everyday thoughtfulness as a remedy for failures of conscience, but this provides no defense against ideological and everyday thoughtlessness, which can actually reinforce failures of conscience. To address them Arendt turns to storytelling. But narratives can combat and reinforce thoughtlessness. To confront thoughtlessness we need to attend to narrative production and reception. Drawing on P. Ricoeur, I call for deeper engagement between political theorists, literary critics and philosophers of literature on the roles of narrative in promoting or undermining thinking in contemporary politics. [R, abr.]
63.3023 SMOLENSKI, Jan —
This paper critically explores Schmitt's theory of democracy. I present the emergence of the democratic principle of legitimacy as described by Schmitt, then elaborate on the people as sovereign qua constituent power and present its threefold relationship with the constitution. Later I formulate three lessons to be taken from Schmitt's theory and discuss its importance and implications for democratic theory in terms of the normative and formative principle of democracy, core subject and core mode of democratic politics, and conditions of possibility of constituent democratic politics. In conclusion, I discuss the differences between liberal, republican and deliberative model of democracy and Schmitt-inspired theory. [R]
63.3024 THIBAUD, Paul —
Instead of assuming its use of power and governance, the French left wing cultivates its irresponsibility and thus creates a false belief of incarnating an ideal, while opposite it the right wing is disqualified and therefore incapable of acting, reforming or even expressing itself. What are the historical reasons that have led to this twofold failure which deprives the French from the political capacity history has shown to be so essential? It is necessary to understand one essential aspect of the present French lifelessness which concerns the right/left division: the disappearance of Gaullism and how it has ceased to be a source of action and has instead become an aesthetic object.
63.3025 URBINATI, Nadia —
This article shows through Sismondi's work how peculiarly modern issues like the revolution, equal political rights and an industrial and commercial society contributed to renewing the identity of republicanism. That renewal took place in Europe, after the French Revolution, and in a direct confrontation with democracy rather than liberalism. The problem in relation to which Sismondi reflected on the institutions of political liberty, the republican constitution and the role of individual liberty was the unstoppable growth of equality, political and social. The modern threat to liberty originated in the majoritarian principle on which democracy relies necessarily. This principle, the republican Sismondi argued, contains the seed of the suppression of minorities, that is to say of individual liberty. [R, abr.]