scholarly journals The opportunism of populists and the defense of constitutional liberalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Lane Scheppele
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism ◽  
Public Critique

AbstractLiberal constitutionalism is under attack from a new breed of autocrats broadly classified as populist. These populists understand the weaknesses of constitutional liberalism and attack their opponents with criticisms that take advantage of internal weaknesses of the theory. But a closer analysis of theoretical framework used by populists to substitute for constitutional liberalism reveals that they are not really committed to populism in any serious sense. Instead, they have abandoned liberalism in the quest for raw power. Focusing on Viktor Orbán of Hungary and his chief ideologist András Lánczi, this article shows how their public critique of liberalism has attempted to wrong-foot their critics and how their recipe for gaining and wielding political power is only populist to the extent that these leaders are determined to (and often succeed in) winning elections. By peeling back the cover of populist ideology to look at the theories of legitimation under which they rule, however, we can see that the new breed of autocrats aims at primarily constitutional deconstruction through the concentration of political power in one leader. This sort of challenge to liberal constitutionalism is easily countered.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 197-208
Author(s):  
Ismail K. White ◽  
Chryl N. Laird
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Black Politics ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
Black Institutions

This concluding chapter examines the broader implications of this research, both empirical and normative. It discusses the potential for this theoretical framework to further understanding of the political behavior of other social groupings in America. The chapter also considers the framework's applicability to understanding the political homogeneity of localized racial groupings. If the foundational mechanism of political power through unity is that identified by the framework—coracial social ties—then desegregation and the loss of black institutions are a fundamental challenge to the doing of black liberation politics. The chapter discusses what this might mean for the future of black politics. In so doing, it also engages arguments about the harms of coracial policing and weighs how to think about balancing those concerns against the reality that the political unity that has consistently enabled black political power relies on a process of social sanctioning. Finally, the chapter considers the questions future research might answer by engaging and applying this theoretical framework and charts a course for future progress.

FEDERALISM AND THE OLD AND NEW LIBERALISMS

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 306-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob T. Levy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
Public Philosophy ◽  
Classical Liberal ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism ◽  
History Of

The transition from a relatively federal to a relatively centralized constitutional structure in the United States has often been identified with the shift from classical to welfare liberalism as a matter of public philosophy. This article argues against that distinction. The liberal argument for federalism is a contingent one, built on approximations, counterbalancing, and political power. A more federalist constitution is not automatically a freer one on classical liberal understandings of freedom. Neither is a more centralized constitution automatically a better match with the ideals of welfare liberalism. The article sketches a constitutional history of federalism from the founding, through an era in which centralization was aligned with skepticism about liberal constitutionalism (for both meanings of liberal), to an era in which centralization was aligned with increases in liberal freedom (for both meanings of liberal).

scholarly journals Power and Violence in the Realism of Hans J. Morgenthau

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 320-333
Author(s):  
Sergey Kucherenko
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Critical Potential ◽  
Wide Range

The development of political realism found mainly in English works determined the fact that the term “power” denotes a wide range of concepts which at times turn out to be contradictory. Among the deepest problems is the relation of the concept of political power (authority) and power as the capability to coerce (might). The realism studies of recent decades are aimed to criticize the perceived neorealist misinterpretation of power as a material capability. The figure of Hans J. Morgenthau, an acknowledged founder of the realist school of thought in IR, is used by the critics to redefine power and to criticize neorealism as “unfaithful to its origin.” This article analyzes the attempt to reinterpret Morgenthau’s concept of power with the help of Arendt’s notion of power. This re-interpretation results in the splitting of Morgenthau’s understanding of power into two concepts, one of which is devoid of violence and coercion. The author claims that Morgenathau’s notion of power is essentially violent, and therefore cannot be split into two on such grounds. An attempt to create a non-violent concept of power within Morgenthau’s theoretical framework results in the loss of the critical potential of his project of political realism.

Liberal Constitutionalism in the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848: An Inquiry Based on Roll-Call Analysis

1979 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald J. Mattheisen
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
German History ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
German State ◽  
Parliamentary Debates ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism

There are few politicians in German history who have so persistently held the attention of historians as the moderate liberals of the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848. That is not astonishing, for these moderates held political power—or thought they did—at a true historical watershed, and they provide one of the very rare examples of German liberalism at the helm. But it is surprising that after more than a century of historiographical scrutiny it is still possible to disagree about what sort of regime they really intended for the German state they believed they were creating. The parliamentary debates were stenographically recorded, the committee minutes have been published, their constitution was promulgated, and the leading participants have written their memoirs. Yet enough ambiguity remains to support quite drastically differing interpretations of their political and constitutional purposes.

scholarly journals The complacency of legality: Constitutionalist vulnerabilities to populist constituent power

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-361
Author(s):  
Julian Scholtes
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Social Embeddedness ◽  
Constituent Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism ◽  
Positive Perspective ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
The Way

AbstractWhat role do public law and liberal constitutionalism play in an era of political populism? This article approaches this question by exploring the concept of constituent power in the light of recent constitutional developments in countries with populist governments. It attempts to outline and contrast conceptions of constituent power as inherent in liberal constitutionalist and populist thinking, respectively. While constitutionalists draw heavily upon Kelsenian normativism in framing the way political power is generated, populists juxtapose this with a concept of constituent power that is inspired by Carl Schmitt’s ‘decisionist’ view. The complacency of legality inherent in liberal constitutionalist thinking is susceptible to a populist challenge that draws attention to the necessity for the social embeddedness of any legal order. Populism, it is argued, exposes a core tension inherent in constitutionalism: How do constitutionalists reconcile their democratic aspirations with the simultaneous preclusion of certain political choices from the democratic realm? Populists can attack constitutionalism also because of the deficient conception of constituent power that underlies the latter. The article concludes that, where challenged by populists, public law can at some point no longer rely on its own force to defend itself. Its authority needs to be re-established from an extra-legal, pre-positive perspective. In an era of political populism, constitutionalist public law becomes a discourse that can challenge populism by means of the powerful reasons that inhere in the former.

Mind wandering as data augmentation: How mental travel supports abstraction

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myrthe Faber
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Data Augmentation ◽  
Mental Content ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Important Addition

Abstract Gilead et al. state that abstraction supports mental travel, and that mental travel critically relies on abstraction. I propose an important addition to this theoretical framework, namely that mental travel might also support abstraction. Specifically, I argue that spontaneous mental travel (mind wandering), much like data augmentation in machine learning, provides variability in mental content and context necessary for abstraction.

Adaptive and Maladaptive Neural Plasticity Due to Facial Nerve Palsy

2016 ◽  
Vol 224 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten M. Klingner ◽  
Stefan Brodoehl ◽  
Gerd F. Volk ◽  
Orlando Guntinas-Lichius ◽  
Otto W. Witte
Keyword(s):  
Facial Nerve ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Cortical Plasticity ◽  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Motor Nerve ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Cortical Reorganization ◽  
Nerve Lesion ◽  
Peripheral Facial Palsy

Abstract. This paper reviews adaptive and maladaptive mechanisms of cortical plasticity in patients suffering from peripheral facial palsy. As the peripheral facial nerve is a pure motor nerve, a facial nerve lesion is causing an exclusive deefferentation without deafferentation. We focus on the question of how the investigation of pure deefferentation adds to our current understanding of brain plasticity which derives from studies on learning and studies on brain lesions. The importance of efference and afference as drivers for cortical plasticity is discussed in addition to the crossmodal influence of different competitive sensory inputs. We make the attempt to integrate the experimental findings of the effects of pure deefferentation within the theoretical framework of cortical responses and predictive coding. We show that the available experimental data can be explained within this theoretical framework which also clarifies the necessity for maladaptive plasticity. Finally, we propose rehabilitation approaches for directing cortical reorganization in the appropriate direction and highlight some challenging questions that are yet unexplored in the field.

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