Political Obligations and Jacobins and Utopians: The Political Theory of Fundamental Moral Reform

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-460
Author(s):  
Duncan Ivison
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Moral Reform ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Political Obligations ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Do So

Political Obligations, George Klosko, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. x, 266.Jacobins and Utopians: The Political Theory of Fundamental Moral Reform, George Klosko, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003, pp. xii, 200.Perhaps two of the most persistent and perplexing questions in political theory are: Why should I obey the law (or the state)? And, what is the relation between human perfection and politics? Can (or must) human beings realize their true nature through politics? Or is any such hope not only misplaced, but dangerous—one that is itself a problem that political theory must confront? In these two thoughtful books, George Klosko sets out to address them, drawing on a remarkably diverse range of material to do so.

The Political Theory of the Disruption

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold J. Laski
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Principles ◽  
The Church

“Of political principles,” says a distinguished authority, “whether they be those of order or of freedom, we must seek in religious and quasi-theological writings for the highest and most notable expressions.” No one, in truth, will deny the accuracy of this claim for those ages before the Reformation transferred the centre of political authority from church to state. What is too rarely realised is the modernism of those writings in all save form. Just as the medieval state had to fight hard for relief from ecclesiastical trammels, so does its modern exclusiveness throw the burden of a kindred struggle upon its erstwhile rival. The church, intelligibly enough, is compelled to seek the protection of its liberties lest it become no more than the religious department of an otherwise secular society. The main problem, in fact, for the political theorist is still that which lies at the root of medieval conflict. What is the definition of sovereignty? Shall the nature and personality of those groups of which the state is so formidably one be regarded as in its gift to define? Can the state tolerate alongside itself churches which avow themselves societates perfectae, claiming exemption from its jurisdiction even when, as often enough, they traverse the field over which it ploughs? Is the state but one of many, or are those many but parts of itself, the one?

scholarly journals The Political Theory of F. Guizot on the Nature of Power and the Opposition on the Example of Elections to the State Duma in 2016

nauka.me ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Vladislav Gritsay
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mutual Relations

The article analyzes the political theory of F.Gizo about the nature of power and opposition, about their mutual relations with each other and with the population. The author tries to consider this theory in the context of elections to the Russian Parliament in 2016.

scholarly journals Historia rozwoju Republiki Rzymskiej według Polibiusza

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-93
Author(s):  
Anna Ceglarska ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The State ◽  
Mixed System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mutual Relation ◽  
Perfect System ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment

History of the rise of the Roman Republic as described by Polybius The aim of this article is to refer Polybius’s political theory, included in Book VI of The Histories, to the history of the rise of the Roman Republic. This theme must have been particularly significant for Polybius. For him, Rome was the most perfect example of a mixed government system, and the aim of describing its history was to show the development of this perfect system. The article presents the mutual relation of theory and history, starting with the period of kingship, up to the emergence of the democratic element, i.e. the moment when Rome acquired the mixed system of government. Both the political and social contexts of the changes are outlined. The analysis suggests that Polybius related his political theory to the history of the state he admired, thus providing the theory with actual foundations. Reconstructing his analysis makes it possible to see the history of Rome in a different light, and to ponder the system itself and its decline, even though the main objective of both Polybius and this article is to present its development.

scholarly journals Robespierre y el humanismo cívico.

2021 ◽  
Vol 137 (137) ◽  
pp. 47-62
Author(s):  
Alfredo Pizano Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Italian Renaissance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Civic Humanism ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Republican Liberty ◽  
Real Academia

 La distinción entre el lenguaje del humanismo cívico y el republicanismo resulta una aclaración conceptual adecuada para comprender las acciones de Robespierre ante la apertura de una nueva concepción de la política. En el humanismo cívico es posible encontrar elementos que responden a los presupuestos del comunitarismo, en tanto problemas que se circunscriben a una región limitada, y el republicanismo responde a exigencias que son susceptibles de universalidad. Ahora bien, esta distinción no es clara, ya que, durante la Revolución francesa, en especial en el caso de Robespierre, encontramos una mezcla entre la exigencia de la virtud cívica clásica con la búsqueda de un fundamento de legitimidad política con un enfoque social. Así, la anomalía ideológica de Robespierre solo puede esclarecerse a través de la comprensión de las peculiaridades del lenguaje de la virtud y el universalismo moral  Palabras clave Republicanismo, comunitarismo, lenguaje político, mentalidades. Referencias Baron, H. (1966). The crisis of the early Italian Renaissance. Civic humanism and republican liberty in an age of classicism and tyranny. Princeton, Estados Unidos: Princeton University Press.Benjamin, W. (2013). Über den Begriff der Geschichte. En R. Tiedemann (Ed.).Walter Benjamin. Sprache und Geschichte. Philosophische Essays (pp. 141-154). Stuttgart, Alemania: Reclam.Bergeron, L., Furet, F. y Koselleck, R. (2012). La época de las revoluciones europeas, 1780-1848. Ciudad de México, México: Siglo xxi.Bernal, R. (2016). Fraternidad y democracia en el origen de nuestra modernidad política. En G. Ambriz Arévalo y R. Bernal Lugo (Coords.). El derecho contra el capital. Reflexiones desde la izquierda contemporánea (pp. 36-71). Chilpancingo, México: Contraste.Castro Gómez, S. (2019). Republicanismo transmoderno. En El tonto y los canallas. Notas para un republicanismo transmoderno (pp. 161-220). Bogotá, Colombia: Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.Dubiel, H., Frankenberg, G. y Rödel, U. (1997). El dispositivo simbólico de la democracia. En La cuestión democrática (pp. 137-192). Madrid, España: Huerga y Fierro Editores.Gauthier, F. (2005, 23 de julio). Robespierre: por una república democrática social. Sin Permiso. Recuperado de http://www.sinpermiso.info/textos/robespierre- por-una-repblica-democrtica-y-social.Gaytán, F. (2016). Hacia los nuevos testamentos jacobinos: los decálogos normativos para la laicidad. En Manual de redentores: laicidad y derechos, entre populismo y neojacobinismo (pp. 57-101). Ciudad de México, México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México-Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas.Gilroy, P. (2014). El Atlántico negro. Modernidad y doble conciencia. Madrid, España: Akal.James, C. L. R. (2003). Los jacobinos negros. Toussaint L’Overture y la Revolución de Haití. Ciudad de México, México: Turner-Fondo de Cultura Económica.Kant, I. (1900 s.). Kant’s Gesammelte Schriften (Editado por la Real Academia Prusiana de las Ciencias). Berlín, Alemania: Reimer [hoy De Gruyter]. Koselleck, R. (2017). Erfahrungsraum und Erwartungshorizont zwei historischen Kategorien. En Vergangene Zukunft. Zur Semantik geschichtlicher Zeiten (pp. 349-375). Fráncfort, Alemania: Suhrkamp Verlag.Mandeville, B. (1983). La fábula de las abejas. Ciudad de México, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.Maquiavelo, N. (2015). Discursos sobre la primera década de Tito Livio. Madrid, España: Alianza.McPherson, C.B. (1962). The political theory of possessive individualism: Hobbes to Locke. Nueva York, Estados Unidos: Oxford University Press.  

WHAT “REALISTIC UTOPIAS” ARE — AND AREN’T

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 235-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Galston
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Just Society

Abstract:Political theory is not a purely theoretical enterprise; it is intended to be practical and action-guiding. To perform this role, the requirements of political theory must be possible, and the standard of possibility it employs must be appropriate to the political domain. Because human beings vary in their capacity for morality and justice, a reasonably just society, as Rawls understands it, must not be expected. Despite his concerns to the contrary, the possibility of a just polity is not needed to ward off resignation and cynicism. There is a principled path between a politics of complacency that thwarts feasible progress and a politics of utopian aspiration that ends by inflicting harm in the name of doing good.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Teo Ballvé
Keyword(s):  
Political Influence ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
Do So

This introductory chapter briefly explores the ways in which imaginaries of statelessness have structured the political life of Urabá, Colombia. It argues that Colombia's violent conflicts have produced surprisingly coherent and resilient regimes of accumulation and rule—yet this is not to say they are benevolent. In order to do so, this chapter approaches the state as a dynamic ensemble of relations that is both an effect and an instrument of competing political strategies and relations of power. In Urabá, groups from across the political spectrum, armed and otherwise, all end up trying to give concrete coherence to the inherently unwieldy abstraction of the state in a space where it supposedly does not exist. The way this absence exerts a generative political influence is what this chapter establishes as the “frontier effect.” The frontier effect describes how the imaginary of statelessness in these spaces compels all kinds of actors to get into the business of state formation; it thrusts groups into the role of would-be state builders.

The Exile of Political Theory: The Lost Homeland of Legitimation

1995 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Simons
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legitimation Crisis ◽  
Implicit Definitions ◽  
Recurrent Theme

A sense of distance or exile is a recurrent theme of the literature in which the state of the political theory is either lamented or acclaimed. A review of these tales suggests that implicit definitions of the homeland of the sub-discipline as philosophical, practical or interpretive are inadequate, leading to mistaken diagnoses of the reasons for the ills or recovery of political philosophy. This paper argues that political theory has been exiled from its previous role or homeland of legitimation of political orders. Under contemporary conditions in the advanced liberal capitalist political order, in which a media-generated imagology of society as a communicative system fills the role of a legitimating discourse, political theory faces a legitimation crisis.

Calhoun and Popular Rule: The Political Theory of the Disquisition and Discourse By H. Lee Cheek, Jr. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001. 202p. $29.95.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 609-609
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Popular Rule

C. S. Lewis claimed that he was a democrat because he believed in the fall of man. He went on to suggest that it was not that some men did not deserve to be slaves, but that none deserved to be masters. While not exactly the sort of uplifting proclamation that many partisans of democracy would hope to rally their followers around, it does provide those among us who are persuaded that human beings are limited in their capacities to reject vice and sin with an avenue and persuasive rationale to join their ranks. It is with this sort of view in mind that H. Lee Cheek, Jr.'s provocative and cogently argued book on the political thought of John C. Calhoun ought to be read.

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