John Stuart Mill and the Antagonistic Foundation of Liberal Politics

2010 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon P. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberal Politics ◽  
Institutional Level ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Liberal Citizenship ◽  
The One

AbstractThe agonistic critique of liberalism argues that liberal theory unwisely eliminates conflict from the design of liberal-democratic institutions and understandings of liberal citizenship. John Stuart Mill anticipates and resolves the agonistic critique by incorporating several theories of antagonism into his political theory. At the institutional level, Mill places two antagonisms at the center of his political theory: the tension between the popular and bureaucratic elements in representative government, on the one hand, and that between the democratic and aristocratic elements in modern society, on the other. These tensions guarantee the fluidity of the political sphere. At the experiential level, Mill's embrace of antagonism is even more complete, as he argues that even our objectively correct opinions must be ceaselessly contested to become properlyours. The theory that emerges is both agonistic and liberal; further, it calls into question current liberal attitudes concerning conflict and antagonism.

scholarly journals Is Constitutional Pluralism (Il)liberal? On the Political Theory of European Legal Integration in Times of Crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-505
Author(s):  
Hugo Canihac
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
The One ◽  
Constitutional Pluralism ◽  
Legal Integration ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThis Article uncovers the normative political theory underlying the legal doctrine of constitutional pluralism, as it is used in the EU today. Constitutional pluralism, once described as a semi-official legal doctrine in the EU, is now being used by some member states to challenge its authority and rules. By reconstructing the political thought of one of its founders, N. MacCormick, this Article takes issue with two most common interpretations of constitutional pluralism: On the one hand, it has been claimed that the normative political content of constitutional pluralism is virtually identical, or at least compatible, with that of Kantian rights-based cosmopolitanism; on the other, it has been contended, especially with regard to its uses in Hungary and Poland, that it was an inherently dangerous, illiberal, normative theory. This Article offers to move away from current legal debates to go back to the origins of constitutional pluralism. It argues that constitutional pluralism is not a purely liberal theory indeed. But neither is it inherently illiberal. Rather, both liberal and illiberal readings are possible, but partial, interpretations of MacCormickian constitutional pluralism. A more systematic interpretation shows that constitutional pluralism opens a path to move beyond this somewhat archetypical divide.

Transformation of power sources in post-modern conditions: (macro)sociological implementation of M. Mann's concept

2020 ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
Nikita Ravochkin
Keyword(s):  
Social Power ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Sources ◽  
Institutional Level ◽  
Military Forces

From the standpoint of historical (macro) sociology, the article examines the main directions of transformation of the sources of power identified by the English scientist M. Mann in the realities of post-modern society. The essential characteristics of the four sources of social power, which include ideology, military forces, economics and political characteristics of the organization of states, are considered. The vectors of transformations of these sources of power, contributing to changes in the image of power at the present time, are noted. The interdependence of transformations and the specificity of their manifestation at the institutional level in the political and legal sphere of public life are shown.

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?

Studying Political Leadership: The Case of François Mitterrand

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Cole
Keyword(s):  
General Framework ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Environmental Constraints ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The One

The study of political leadership, in France and elsewhere, must be appreciated in terms of the interaction between leadership resources (personal and positional) on the one hand, and environmental constraints and opportunities on the other. This article proposes a general framework for appraising comparative liberal democratic political leaderships. It illustrates the possibilities of the framework by evaluating the political leadership of the French President François Mitterrand.

Political Emancipation

2019 ◽  
pp. 89-121
Author(s):  
Joan Wallach Scott
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Formal Equality ◽  
Political Emancipation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Women's Emancipation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

This chapter considers the contradictions of women's emancipation in light of the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions. It shows how the resistance to women's citizenship had less to do with the necessarily slow but inevitable progress of liberal democratic ideas than it did with a contradiction at the very heart of the political thinking that articulated them—a political thinking integral to the discourse of secularism. Liberal political theory postulated the sameness of all individuals as the key to their formal equality—abstracted from their circumstances there was no discernable difference among them, they stood as equals before the law. At the same time there were differences that were thought to refuse abstraction. These were people in a state of dependency, such as propertyless peasants, wage laborers, women, children, slaves. Therefore, they could not be counted as autonomous individuals—autonomy, after all, was at the heart of the very definition of individuality.

Another Liberal Theory of Secession

1984 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 596-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony H. Birch
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Alternative Theory ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Special Circumstances

Harry Beran's contention that secession is a somewhat neglected topic in political theory is accepted but his ‘liberal theory of secession’ is criticized and found wanting. An alternative theory is proposed, based on the assumption that secession from a liberal democratic state cannot be justified unless special circumstances exist. Four special circumstances are suggested and the practical consequences of adopting this approach are then outlined.

The People, Rhetoric, and Affect: On the Political Force of Du Bois'sThe Souls of Black Folk

2012 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 188-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
MELVIN L. ROGERS
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Black Folk ◽  
The People ◽  
The Status ◽  
Souls Of Black Folk ◽  
Racial Lines ◽  
The One

In recent decades, the concept of “the people” has received sustained theoretical attention. Unfortunately, political theorists have said very little about its explicit or implicit use in thinking about the expansion of the American polity along racial lines. The purpose of this article in taking up this issue is twofold: first, to provide a substantive account of the meaning of “the people”—what I call its descriptive and aspirational dimensions—and second, to use that description as a framework for understanding the rhetorical character of W.E.B. Du Bois's classic work,The Souls of Black Folk, and its relationship to what one might call the cognitive–affective dimension of judgment. In doing so, I argue that as a work of political theory,Soulsdraws a connection between rhetoric, on the one hand, and emotional states such as sympathy and shame, on the other, to enlarge America's political and ethical imagination regarding the status of African-Americans.

Athenaion Politeia 34, 3, about Oligarchs, Democrats and Moderates in the Late Fifth Century Bc

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-327
Author(s):  
Laura Sancho Rocher
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Political Group ◽  
Political Program ◽  
Ancient Constitution ◽  
The One

The prevailing historiographic reconstruction of the political struggle in Athens during the last years of the fifth century originates from the discovery of the text of the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia [Ath.]. According to this reconstruction, three political options and three political programmes were in effect. These were, on the one hand, traditional democracy and opposing oligarchy; on the other, a new third way, that of ‘the moderates’, who under the leading of Theramenes represents a solution to the stasis. The political program of themoderates is supposed to include the following fundamental items: a return to an ancient constitution (patrios politeia), the reduction of the number of citizens and their political rights, the sovereignty of law, and the recuperation of accord (homonoia) between citizens. This paper tries to highlight the weakness of this interpretation by analysing the difficulties in grasping from the sources this whole program and their adscription to a leader and to a distinctive political group. The misinterpretation was already implicit in the author of the Athenian Constitution, perhaps a disciple of Aristotle. He wrote influenced by the Aristotelian political theory and thereby he interpreted all that he had read about Theramenes, the Five Thousand and the patrios politeia as if the Aristotelian ideals of the mesotes (as a virtue) and of mese politeia (as the best possible constitution) were actually proposed and temporally achieved in Athens by the efforts of Theramenes and his supporters.

scholarly journals Indvandring, offentlig mening og politisk teori

Politik ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian F Rostbøll
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Sharp Contrast ◽  
The Other ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Open Borders ◽  
The One ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

Regarding issues of immigration, there is a sharp contrast between Danish public opinion and public policy on the one hand and liberal political theory on the other hand. This article analyzes whether it is a problem for liberal theory that argues for more open borders to be so far removed from public opinion and vice versa. Considering issues of realism, epistemology, and democracy it is discussed how directly policy-related political theory ought to be. 

Corruption as systemic political decay

2019 ◽  
pp. 019145371986826
Author(s):  
Camila Vergara
Keyword(s):  
Political Corruption ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Normal Functioning ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
The One ◽  
Systemic Corruption

By offering an analysis of different conceptions of corruption connected to the political regime and contingency in which they developed, the article retrieves a systemic meaning of political corruption. Through the works of Plato, Aristotle, Polybius and Machiavelli, it reconstructs a dimension of political corruption particular to popular governments and also engages with recent neo-republican and institutionalist attempts at redefining political corruption. The article concludes that we still lack a proper conception of systemic corruption comparable to the one of the Ancients because we are yet unable to account for the role procedures and institutions play in fostering corruption through their normal functioning and what this means for liberal democratic regimes.

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