ON REALIST LEGITIMACY

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Wendt
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
The Right ◽  
Realist Perspective ◽  
Distinct Approach

Abstract:In the last ten or fifteen years, realism has emerged as a distinct approach in political theory. Realists are skeptical about the merits of abstract theories of justice. They regard peace, order, and stability as the primary goals of politics. One of the more concrete aims of realists is to develop a realist perspective on legitimacy. I argue that realist accounts of legitimacy are unconvincing, because they do not solve what I call the “puzzle of legitimacy”: the puzzle of how some persons can have the right to rule over others, given that all persons are equals. I focus on the realist accounts of legitimacy developed by Bernard Williams and John Horton.

Normativism and realism within contemporary democratic constitutionalism

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 661-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Fabbrizi
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Realist Perspective ◽  
Realist Conception

The renewed interest on political realism can offer a new reading of the traditional dichotomy between normative and realist conception of constitutionalism. The purpose of this article is to analyse this renewed discussion, especially by focusing on the relationship between “political realism” and “political constitutionalism,” in the light of some theorists and authors—such as Richard Bellamy and Jeremy Waldron. After a brief introduction in which political realism will be discussed, especially through Bernard Williams’ reinterpretation, the article proposes a rereading of democratic constitutionalism from the classical dichotomy between normativism and realism in political theory. The focus will be set on three key issues: 1. Richard Bellamy’s constitutional theory in a realist perspective; 2. An insight of legal constitutionalism under a normative banner; 3. A brief conclusion in which the risks of a majoritarian and populist constitutionalism will be discussed.

“Philosophy, Therefore, Is within Yourself”

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-187
Author(s):  
Elad Carmel
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Human Potential ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Advanced Form ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

The connection that Hobbes makes between reason, method, and science renders reason a faculty that is not only natural but also acquired and even somewhat exclusive. This idea might pose a serious problem to Hobbes’s political theory, as it relies heavily on the successful use of reason. This problem is demonstrated in Hobbes’s account of the laws of nature, for which some equality in human reason is clearly needed, but Hobbes is not explicit about the relationship between that and the more advanced form of reason that eventually leads to science. This article suggests that Hobbes’s account of reason is developmental. The seed of natural reason is common to everyone, and is sufficient for the establishment of the commonwealth. Thereafter, peace and leisure provide the necessary conditions for developing the rational skill, that is, fulfilling the human potential for rationality. Consequently, under the right circumstances, knowledge and science are expected to progress dramatically for the benefit of society, an open-ended vision which Hobbes nevertheless leaves implicit. Following Hobbes’s account of reason and philosophy closely can therefore show that he might have had great hopes for humankind, and that in this sense he was a key member of an English Enlightenment.

Environmental Political Theory, Environmental Ethics, and Political Science

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Smith
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Considerable Difficulty ◽  
Structural Forces ◽  
Social Structural ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
Policy Problems

Environmental political theory serves as an important bridge between political science and environmental ethics. Environmental ethics has traditionally focused on our duties to non-humans and expanding our conception of the moral community. But that focus on individual ethical choice limits its usefulness in addressing environmental policy problems. Political science, in contrast, is well-suited to analyzing social structural forces that give rise to environmental problems, but political scientists have had considerable difficulty in moving away from the field’s anthropocentric foundations. I argue that environmental political theory, in contrast to traditional political science, embraces the critique of anthropocentrism developed by environmental ethicists. It attempts to build theories of justice, citizenship, and political rights and duties on a more expansive understanding of the community of justice.

Do territorial rights include the right to exclude?

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara Nine
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Property Right ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Hard Time ◽  
Territorial Rights ◽  
The Right

Do territorial rights include the right to exclude? This claim is often assumed to be true in territorial rights theory. And if this claim is justified, a state may have a prima facie right to unilaterally exclude aliens from state territory. But is this claim justifiable? I examine the version of territorial rights that has the most compelling story to support the right to exclude: territorial rights as a kind of property right, where ‘territory’ refers to the public and common spaces included in the domain of state jurisdiction. I analyse the work of A. J. Simmons, who develops the political theory of John Locke into one of the most well-articulated and defended theories of territorial rights as a kind of property right. My main argument is that Simmons’ justification for rights of exclusion, which are derived from individual rights of self-government, does not apply to many kinds of public spaces. An upshot of this analysis is that most Lockean-based theories of territorial rights will have a hard time justifying the right to exclude as a prima facie right held by states against aliens.

The Chairman's Problem

1961 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 368-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertrand de Jouvenel
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Simple Problem ◽  
Equal Opportunities ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Right ◽  
Equal Right

One of the major obstacles to the progress of political theory lies in the fact that people speak of rights without paying attention to the feasibility of their exercise. I propose to raise here some elementary problems relating to the right of speech. It is one of the basic tenets of our democratic political philosophy that all people (over a given age) have an equal right of speech. Making this right operational however gives rise to difficulties which have not been faced.I shall start out with a very simple problem, which moreover has the advantage of evoking familiar pictures: this is the chairman's problem. I find myself chairman of an assembly, and regard all participants as formally equal, which commits me to treating them equally. Feeling bound by this principle, I decide as follows: the duration of the meeting is m, the number of participants n: I shall give the floor to each participant for a time m/n; thus the equal right of speech will receive practical application. Assume that the meeting is to be crowned by a vote (the time of actual voting not figuring in m): before the participants cast their equal votes, they will have had equal opportunities to influence the voting, i.e., they shall have had, insofar as depends upon me, equal voices.Now if m the duration of the meeting (in speaking time) is three hours, and if n the number of participants is 12, my procedure is susceptible of being applied: it grants the floor to each participant for a quarter of an hour. This is not a long time but still it may be enough.

Political Ramifications of Formal Ugliness in Kant’s Aesthetics

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-209
Author(s):  
Christopher Buckman ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Human Community ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
The French Revolution

Kant’s theory of taste supports his political theory by providing the judgment of beauty as a symbol of the good and example of teleological experience, allowing us to imagine the otherwise obscure movement of nature and history toward the ideal human community. If interpreters are correct in believing that Kant should make room for pure judgments of ugliness in his theory of taste, we will have to consider the implications of such judgments for Kant’s political theory. It is here proposed that pure, formal ugliness symbolizes regressive, counter-teleological trends in nature and history. Kant’s paradoxical stance on the right to rebellion, both condemning and supporting the French Revolution, is interpreted as failing to take into account negative social forces signified by ugliness, and therefore neglecting the role of moral agency in social change.

1. LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND POLITICAL THEORY

2003 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Kymlicka ◽  
Alan Patten
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
Minority Language Rights ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
Normative Issues

After years of neglect, political theorists in the last few years have started to take an interest in issues of language policy, and to explore the normative issues they raise. In this chapter, we examine why this interest has arisen and provide an overview of the main approaches that have been developed. A series of recent events has made it clear that language policy is central to many of the traditional themes and concepts of political theory, such as democracy, citizenship, nationhood, and the state. The rise of ethnolinguistic conflict in Eastern Europe, the resurgence of language-based secessionist movements in Catalonia, Flanders, and Quebec, the backlash against immigrant multiculturalism, and the difficulties in building a pan-European sense of European Union citizenship—in all of these cases, linguistic diversity complicates attempts to build stable and cohesive forms of political community. In the past, political theorists have often implicitly assumed that this sort of linguistic diversity would disappear, as a natural concomitant of processes of modernization and nation-building. However, it is now widely accepted that linguistic diversity is an enduring fact about modern societies. As a result, political theorists have started to explore the justifications for minority language rights claims, and to consider how different models of language rights relate to broader political theories of justice, freedom, and democracy.

scholarly journals On a botanical analogy in modern theory of society

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-145
Author(s):  
Predrag Krstic
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Given ◽  
Urgent Necessity

The author, first of all, undertakes to perceive and analyze the role that the metaphor of 'root' plays, as well as the discourse connected with it - 'rooted', 'root out' and so on - in order to examine the functioning of botanical metaphors in modern political theory. Ideological duality is here shown as, in equal measure but in different ways, fixed to the idea of the root of human existence or of the well ordered society - and an image of a tree in blossom, if it has grown out of this condition - in which it is a privileged possession, giving the right to 'radical' actions. The difference is found where one group advocates unconditional nurturing of the given root and the other one urgent necessity of replacing it with new one. As a conclusion, it is suggested that the abandoning of the floral metaphor could not only open up space for reasonable dispute about the questions that it was believed to answer, but also that this kind of retreat from the fascination with root could really be - radical.

scholarly journals Refugeehood and Rights: A Theoretical Debate

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Leonardo Barros da Silva Menezes
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Displaced Persons ◽  
Refugee Studies ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Refugee Claim ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Right ◽  
International Refugee Regime

To which rights refugees are entitled? In this paper, I analyze the many challenges that two interrelated theoretical traditions of Refugee Studies have implicitly posed to one another. First, I examine the analytic philosophers’ assumption that we cannot understand the nature of a refugee claim until we know what entitles an individual to make it – i.e., what root cause for displacement could explain, and justify, such status. Second, after examining Critical Citizenship Studies, I mainly discuss a renewed Arendtian tradition whose cosmopolitan claim has advocated granting the right of citizenship to all forced displaced persons. By demonstrating why each response leaves room for strong rebuttals from the other side, I make clear the urgency of rethinking today’s international refugee regime as well as the place of political theory in it.

Hannah Arendt’s Message of Ill Tidings

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyndsey Stonebridge
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Bertolt Brecht ◽  
German Romanticism ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The World ◽  
International Laws ◽  
The Right

Poetic language and literary history mattered to Hannah Arendt in her thinking about community because they told a story about how political worlds, whether bound by nation states or by international laws and treaties, traffic with the worlds we imagine and create. These worlds are not equivalent, but the idea of the world making potential of literature that she inherited from German Romanticism also gave her the means to re-imagine new political terms for humanity at mid-century. What Arendt first described in 1949 as ‘the right to have rights’ had its own poetry. Returning to her work on Rahel Varnhagen, pariah literature, and Bertolt Brecht, this chapter shows how Arendt’s political theory was indebted to her developing understanding of the world-making capacities of poetry and writing in her own period of statelessness.

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