Homo Politicusand Argument (Nearly) All the Way Down: Persuasion in Politics

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neta C. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Brute Force ◽  
Strategic Action ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Mutual Communication ◽  
Point Argument ◽  
The Way

Much theorizing about world politics and many policy recommendations are predicated on a rather thin view ofhomo politicus,often assuming that humans are rational and self-interested strategic actors and that force is theultima ratioof politics. This thin notion should be replaced by a richer understanding ofhomo politicusthat includes the characteristic activities of political actors: we fight, we feel, we talk, and we build institutions. This understanding helps illuminate the scope and limits of strategic action, argument and persuasion in world politics in both empirical and normative senses. I describe the spectrum of political action that situates the role of argument and persuasion within the extremes of brute force on one side and mutual communication on the other. I also discuss barriers to argument and communication. Noting the role of argument in this spectrum of international and domestic political practice suggests that it is argument (nearly) all the way down and that the scope of argument can be and in some cases has increased over thelongue durée.Coercion, by itself, has a limited role in world politics. The claim that there are distinctive logics of argumentation, strategic action, or appropriateness misses the point. Argument is the glue of politics—its characteristic practice. Understanding politics as argumentation has radical empirical and normative implications for the study and practice of politics.

Between dominance and decline: status anxiety and great power rivalry

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
TUDOR A. ONEA
Keyword(s):  
World Politics ◽  
Great Power ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Emergent States

AbstractThis article investigates the role of status considerations in the response of dominant powers to the rise of emergent states. Accordingly, the hypothesis explored is that dominant actors are prone to fear that they will lose their upper rank, and, due to this status anxiety, resist the efforts of emergent powers to match or surpass them. The article begins by explaining why political actors deem status important and puts forward a theory of status anxiety in world politics. The more pronounced is this anxiety across status dimensions (economic and military capabilities as well as prestige), the higher the likelihood of conflict. This argument is then tested against competing theories of dominant power behaviour in two cases: the relations between France and Britain from the 1740s to Napoleon and those between Britain and Germany from the 1880s to World War One.

scholarly journals “Governance” em Tempo de Pandemia: Um Enquadramento Filosófico

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 141-155
Author(s):  
Orlando Coutinho ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Western Democracies ◽  
The Way

The way in which an unknown virus has moved from a local to a global case, taking on a pandemic outline, has caused significant changes in the lives of all human beings. Firstly, for that reason, it is unknown, then because behind the ignorance comes mistrust and fear. Nowadays, these ingredients are - in the political-social space - substance for the biggest factors of action and decision of the actors of the power. Have we been in a war context, as some have said? Was confinement, global and so prolonged, really necessary? Was decreeing a state of emergency essential? Were the exception measures proportional? And are they reversible? This article aims, in the way of the ideas of several authors that thinking about the political philosophical role of health contexts, of exception state, and of political control of the State, in face of public health issues and not only, understand the “state of the art” in the way of governing western democracies, in the firstly, but flying over other geographies and systems as the virus has assumed global contours. And, by means of the concrete measures, politically adopted, by the different political actors, what real impacts they had on the life and the institutions working, and on the psychology of the persons individually or socially considered.

The torture convention, rendition and Kant's critique of ‘pseudo-politics’

2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-214
Author(s):  
HOWARD WILLIAMS
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Convention Against Torture ◽  
Kantian View ◽  
Ordinary Morality ◽  
The Way

AbstractBy what standards ought we to judge politicians? The article addresses the question in the light of the treatment of two controversial issues in contemporary world politics: the implementation of the 1984 UN Convention against Torture; and the post 9/11 rendition of terrorist suspects to US authorities by European governments. Their treatment brings out the way in which the role of political leaders is popularly conceived and understood. This conventional understanding is contrasted with the role recommended by Kant's political philosophy. An answer to the question depends on how we conceive politics in the first place. If politics is seen as a ‘free for all’ where all strategies can be canvassed then the response will be entirely different from a situation where we consider ourselves bound by rules of legitimacy and its attendant problems of morality and law. The article represents a rejection of certain received accounts of politics and approval of a Kantian view. The account of politics which in one respect or another tries to drive a wedge between politics and ordinary morality is seen as inferior to a Kantian concept of politics which is always conditioned by morality.

The Operational Codes of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen G. Walker ◽  
Mark Schafer ◽  
Gary Smith
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Philosophical Beliefs ◽  
Operational Code ◽  
Strategic Approach

This chapter profiles the bounded rationality of two major candidates for US president in the 2016 presidential election. It identifies their philosophical beliefs regarding (1) the friendly or hostile nature of the political universe, (2) the achievement of fundamental political values, (3) the predictability of the future, (4) control over historical development, and (5) the role of chance in political life. It also examines their instrumental beliefs regarding (1) the optimum strategic approach to political goals, (2) tactical flexibility in carrying out a strategy, (3) calculation and management of risk, (4) role of timing, and (5) utility of various means in taking political action. These beliefs define a leader’s “operational code” regarding the exercise of power by self and others in world politics. The chapter extrapolates from these beliefs some game theory predictions for how Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton as the next US president would exercise power in world politics.

Role of Enforcement in Stabilization of Non-Proliferation Regime

2010 ◽  
pp. 14-27
Author(s):  
A. Kalyadin
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
The Way

The practical use of nuclear weapons displayed the necessity to toughen the responsibility for serious contempt of the international legal non-proliferation norm, to make the NPT regime more "sharp-toothed", to fill vivid gaps in this regime and place a reliable safety screen in the way of nuclear arsenals creation. The author investigates the means and tools of nuclear proliferation interception, and suggests options to produce an essential positive effect by weakening of pressure on the world politics from some countries' powerful forces which make the case for other legitimized coercion sources referring to the "ineffectiveness" of the UN.

Fear Disarmed

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 332-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Jeffries
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Social Relation ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Political Emotions ◽  
The City ◽  
Productive Role ◽  
The Way

Abstract Fear is seen to be one of the defining political emotions of late modernity. Sociologists, artists, philosophers, activists, and pundits see fear everywhere. If fear has become a way of life, the contemporary city is seen to be one of its most prominent and productive social laboratories. However, while the growing fear scholarship argues that is such a politically significant emotion, the way it is studied often both naturalizes and exteriorizes fear from politics. As a result, fear’s antagonistic status as both a social relation and an arena of political action is submerged. In this article I raise the productive role of social protest and propose a different approach to thinking about, and acting in, the city of fear.

Promoting or Preventing Change Through Political Participation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert Klandermans
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Individual Factors ◽  
Group Efficacy ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Identity Model ◽  
Social Level

This chapter examines political participation as a unique capacity possessed by humans that “fundamentally shapes a human being.” It argues that without political participation, we would lose much of our identity as “political actors” who seek to influence and change the world they live in. The chapter first explains what political participation is and why some people participate in collective political action while others do not. It then considers a range of individual factors that motivate political participation, such as ideology, identity, emotion, and instrumentality, and the role of social-level factors including social networks. It also describes a social identity model of collective action (SIMCA), which suggests that affective injustice (e.g., group-based anger), perceived group efficacy, and politicized collective identity predict engagement in collective action. The chapter concludes by discussing moral obligation as a motive for participating in political collective action.

scholarly journals Protean Power Concept in International Relations: Origins and Prospects

2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-21
Author(s):  
I. D. Loshkariov
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Informal Leadership ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Scientific Discussion ◽  
Holistic Interpretation ◽  
International Interactions ◽  
Power Concept ◽  
The Way

In contrast to the representatives of other directions in International Relations Science, constructivists have long distanced themselves from the notion of power, but in the 2000s and 2010s, due to the increasing interest in conceptualizing this phenomenon, the first attempts of the constructivist interpretation of the concept of power started to emerge. Such interpretations received their fullest expression in the concept of Protean power, developed by a group of researchers under the informal leadership of Peter Katzenstein. The article analyzes the main features of the Protean power, as well as the emerging practices. The author shows that this type of power is less associated with specific actors and their intentions than other types of power, since it is aimed at overcoming uncertainty under the conditions when it is impossible to calculate risks. This formulation of the question allows one to reconsider the role of the creativity principle in international interactions and provide it with a higher ontological status. According to the author’s conclusion, the concept of Protean power continues the line of revising the ontological foundations of the studies of world politics, which has emerged within constructivism in the last decade. Similarly to some other constructivist concepts, this concept implies a holistic interpretation of the phenomenon of power in international relations and reflects the desire to move away from the classical (Newtonian) worldview. Although today it provides many reasons for criticism and, perhaps, needs further elaboration and reinterpretation, its contribution to the scientific discussion of the ontology of power in international interactions is beyond doubt. Protean power is paving the way that allows bypassing the neo-positivist consensus that has so far set the tone in the International Relations Science.

scholarly journals Impact of Internet companies on World Politics

2013 ◽  
pp. 43-47
Author(s):  
E. S. Zinovyeva
Keyword(s):  
World Politics ◽  
Information Space ◽  
Global Information ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The World ◽  
Internet Companies

The article analyzes the role of Internet companies in contemporary world politics. Large internetcompanies such as Facebook, Google etc., shape basic trends of the global information space thus influencing the environment of the world politics. Pivotal interests of internet companies lie in the commercial, but not political sphere, resulting in their indirect role as world political actors.

MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE FOR ALPHABET-SWITCHING IN THE WORKS OF CICERO: COMMON NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 498-516
Author(s):  
Neil O'Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Consistent Pattern ◽  
Current Interest ◽  
Reliable Transmission ◽  
Accurate Record ◽  
The Way

Of the hundreds of Greek common nouns and adjectives preserved in our MSS of Cicero, about three dozen are found written in the Latin alphabet as well as in the Greek. So we find, alongside συμπάθεια, also sympathia, and ἱστορικός as well as historicus. This sort of variation has been termed alphabet-switching; it has received little attention in connection with Cicero, even though it is relevant to subjects of current interest such as his bilingualism and the role of code-switching and loanwords in his works. Rather than addressing these issues directly, this discussion sets out information about the way in which the words are written in our surviving MSS of Cicero and takes further some recent work on the presentation of Greek words in Latin texts. It argues that, for the most part, coherent patterns and explanations can be found in the alphabetic choices exhibited by them, or at least by the earliest of them when there is conflict in the paradosis, and that this coherence is evidence for a generally reliable transmission of Cicero's original choices. While a lack of coherence might indicate unreliable transmission, or even an indifference on Cicero's part, a consistent pattern can only really be explained as an accurate record of coherent alphabet choice made by Cicero when writing Greek words.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document