scholarly journals 1793: The Neglected Legacy of Insurgent Universality

2019 ◽  
pp. 30-70
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Tomba

Comparing the 1789 and 1793 declarations in their respective contexts, the second chapter clarifies the limits of rights declarations as juridical texts and presents a critique of their universal aspirations. In contrast to the juridical universalism of 1789, the insurgent universality of 1793 finds its own background in the insurgencies of women, the poor, and slaves, which questioned the presumed abstract character of the citizen. This chapter outlines an alternative conception of universality that the 1793 Declaration brings into view by examining the insurgencies that directly and indirectly took part in its drafting. These insurgencies, rather than asking for pure inclusion, challenged the social and political order and opened up the political form of the state, thus introducing possibilities for radical social and political change. The 1793 Declaration articulates a new form of agency, while also making a claim to universality that is not rooted in the idea of abstract humanity but, rather, in the particular and concrete struggles of women, slaves, and the poor. Likewise, a different, expansive conception of sovereignty can be found in the insurrectional practices of these diverse sets of actors.

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 344-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saul Newman

In this paper, I call for a re-consideration of anarchism and its alternative ways of conceptualising spaces for radical politics. Here I apply a Lacanian analysis of the social imaginary to explore the utopian fantasies and desires that underpin social spaces, discourses and practices – including planning, and revolutionary politics. I will go on to develop – via Castoriadis and others – a distinctly post-anarchist conception of political space based around the project of autonomy and the re-situation of the political space outside the state. This will have direct consequences for an alternative conception of planning practice and theory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 111-131
Author(s):  
Amira Mittermaier

Abstract Whereas some Muslim-majority countries have centralized alms economies, in others Islamic charity unfolds informally. In Egypt, pious giving occurs on the margins of the state but lies at the heart of society. Egyptians’ daily charitable practices may therefore be read as political in the broad sense proposed by Hannah Arendt: efforts by ordinary citizens to shape the conditions of their collective existence. Although this Arendtian framework helps scholars to think about politics beyond the parameters of the state, even such widened notions of the political are not consistent with how pious givers in Egypt understand their practices. While attending to the poor, pious givers often orient themselves away from the social and material, foregrounding the beyond, paradise and God. Even though the “beyond” is intimately connected to the “here and now,” this decentering of the social poses a provocative challenge to the secular observer’s search for the political.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-99
Author(s):  
Игорь А. Исаев

The article deals with one of the most important issues in the Soviet political and legal history. The choice of the political form that was established almost immediately after the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Revolution of 1917, meant a change in the direction of development of the state. Councils became an alternative to the parliamentary republic. The article analyzes the basic principles of both political systems and the reasons for such a choice. The author emphasizes transnational political direction of the so-called “direct action” which took place not only in Russia, but also in several European countries.


2021 ◽  
pp. 239448112110203
Author(s):  
Supriya Rani ◽  
Neera Agnimitra

Devbans are the parts of forest territory that have been traditionally conserved in reverence to the local deities in various parts of Himachal Pradesh. Today, they stand at the intersection of tradition and modernity. This paper endeavours to study the political ecology of a Devban in the contemporary times by looking at the power dynamics between various stakeholders with respect to their relative decision making power in the realm of managing the Devban of Parashar Rishi Devta. It further looks at howcertain political and administrative factors can contribute towards the growth or even decline of any Devban. The study argues that in the contemporary times when the capitalist doctrines have infiltrated every sphere of the social institutions including the religion, Devbans have a greater probability of survival when both the state and the community have shared conservatory idealsand powers to preserve them.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-112

The article is devoted to a genealogy of the attitude toward viruses in social and political practice in light of the new coronavirus pandemic. The disciplinary society and the society of control have taken on a completely new configuration since the HIV crisis in the 1980s. AIDS and now COVID-19 as phenomena of social crisis have had a great impact on (sexual) relationships and have also caused a significant change in the social and political order. Epidemics and pandemics mobilize political structures and constitute power relations, thus changing the way bodies are controlled, establishing new differentiations and redefining what disease is. The authors trace the development of discourses about syphilis, AIDS and COVID-19 to describe how knowledge about the disease is being generated today; it has origins in myth and would be unthinkable without aesthetic visualization and mass media technologies. Syphilis was an exact fit for the paradigm of the disciplinary society, which stigmatized bodily pleasure and abstracted pathology by activating projection mechanisms as a sign of the Other. However, AIDS already differed significantly from that paradigm because other medical technologies are used to define HIV, and that has affected the epistemology of the disease and epidemic. The article considers HIV/AIDS as a transitional model that forms a bridge between the epidemics of the past (leprosy, plague, smallpox, syphilis) and the COVID-19 pandemic. Above all there is a change in the biopolitical regime so that bodies are no longer controlled and regulated through sexuality. COVID-19 is a new form of sociality which is not based on the exclusion of “pathological” forms of sexuality or on “deviant” or “perverted” bodies, but involves the object-based, microlevel of relations between viruses, the immune system, and the human genome, which are then mapped with distortions and substitutions onto social relationships and practices. The authors use the term “delegated control” in a new context and introduce the original term “omniopticum” to describe the new regime of biopolitics and the “control society” in the post-COVID era.


2011 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 887-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK DINCECCO ◽  
GIOVANNI FEDERICO ◽  
ANDREA VINDIGNI

We examine the relationships between warfare, taxation, and political change in the context of the political unification of the Italian peninsula. Using a comprehensive new database, we argue that external and internal threat environments had significant implications for the demand for military strength, which in turn had important ramifications for fiscal policy and the likelihood of constitutional reform and related improvements in the provision of nonmilitary public services. Our analytic narrative complements recent theoretical and econometric works about state capacity. By emphasizing public finances, we also uncover novel insights about the forces underlying state formation in Italy.“The budget is the skeleton of the state, stripped of any misleading ideologies.”Sociologist Rudolf Goldscheid, 19261


Author(s):  
Luana Faria Medeiros

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY AND THE MINERAL SECTOR: the legislative propositions that impact the management of the territories with mining in the state of Pará – 2011 to 2016GEOGRAFÍA POLÍTICA Y EL SECTOR MINERO: las proposiciones legislativas que impactan la gestión de los territorios con la minería en el estado de Pará – 2011 a 2016O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de resgatar o campo da política na Geografia, no contexto da atividade mineral no estado do Pará, principalmente diante de vários entendimentos de que os conflitos de interesses nas sociedades e nos territórios se resolvem também pelo viés político; partindo de uma leitura teórica do conceito de território, poder e política, onde essa tríade será determinante para o entendimento das proposições legislativas dos anos de 2011 a 2016 voltadas para a mineração, e da análise da gestão política e territorial no setor mineral paraense e seus impactos na sociedade a partir das políticas públicas. A relevância da pesquisa está no aspecto político que envolve a tomada de decisão que é essencialmente importante nas relações sociais de poder do Governo do Estado do Pará que, materializadas, causam impactos no território com mineração, sobretudo na utilização da taxa mineral, instrumento regulador de ação no território.Palavras-chave: Território; Poder; Política; Mineração.ABSTRACTThe present work aims to redeem the field of politics in geography, in the context of the mineral activity in the state of Pará, mainly faced with various understanding that conflicts of interests in societies and territories also resolve by bias Political; Starting from a theoretical reading of the concept of territory, power and politics, where this triad will be decisive for the understanding of the legislative propositions of the years of 2011 to 2016 focused on mining, and the analysis of the political and territorial management in the mineral sector Pará and Its impacts on society from public Policy. The relevance of the research is in the political aspect which involves the decision making which is essentially important in the social relations of the Government of the state of Pará that, materialized, cause impacts on the territory with mining, especially in the use of the mineral rate, Action-regulating instrument in the territory.Keywords: Territory; Power; Policy; Mining.RESUMEN El presente trabajo pretende redimir el campo de la política en geografía, en el contexto de la actividad minera en el estado de Pará, frente principalmente a diversos entendimientos de que los conflictos de intereses en sociedades y territorios también se resuelven por sesgo Política. A partir de una lectura teórica del concepto de territorio, poder y política, donde esta tríada será decisiva para la comprensión de las proposiciones legislativas de los años de 2011 a 2016 se centró en la minería, y el análisis de la gestión política y territorial en el sector minero de Pará y Sus impactos en la sociedad de la política pública. La relevancia de la investigación está en el aspecto político que implica la toma de decisiones que es esencialmente importante en las relaciones sociales del gobierno del estado de Pará que, materializadas, causan impactos en el territorio con la minería, especialmente en el uso de la tasa mineral, Instrumento de regulación de la acción en el territorio.Palabras clave: Territorio; Poder; Política; Minería.


2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 293-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Diamond

Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History (Cambridge 2009) offers a theory of the evolution of the modern state and an even more ambitious framework “for interpreting recorded human history.” The book raises fundamental questions about the political structuring of violence, the functions of the rule of law, and the establishment and maintenance of political order. In doing so, it speaks to a range of political scientists from a variety of methodological and subfield perspectives. We have thus invited four prominent political science scholars of violence and politics to comment on the book: Jack Snyder, Caroline Hartzell, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and Larry Diamond.


Author(s):  
Duncan Bell

This chapter examines how historical time was conceptualized in imperial debate. It explores two broad variations that were articulated across the human sciences and in public debate, focusing in particular on the writings of historians. In the first, the modern British empire was figured as uniquely progressive, as capable—either in actuality or in potentia—of avoiding the social, economic, and political dynamics that had annihilated all previous specimens. This argument was most frequently employed in relation to India. The other strategy was to insist that the empire (or a part of it) was not really an empire at all, but rather a new form of political order that could circumvent the entropic degeneration of traditional imperial forms. To think otherwise was to make a category mistake. This argument was often applied to Britain and its settler colonies from the 1870s onwards. “Greater Britain,” as the settler colonial assemblage was often termed, could attain permanence, a kind of historical grace.


Author(s):  
Jaime Rodríguez Matos

This chapter examines the role of Christianity in the work of José Lezama Lima as it relates to his engagement with Revolutionary politics. The chapter shows the multiple temporalities that the State wields, and contrasts this thinking on temporality with the Christian apocalyptic vision held by Lezama. The chapter is concerned with highlighting the manner in which Lezama unworks Christianity from within. Yet its aim is not to prove yet again that there is a Christian matrix at the heart of modern revolutionary politics. Rather, it shows the way in which the mixed temporalities of the Revolution, already a deconstruction of the idea of the One, still poses a challenge for contemporary radical thought: how to think through the idea that political change is possible precisely because no politics is absolutely grounded. That Lezama illuminates the difficult question of the lack of political foundations from within the Christian matrix indicates that the problem at hand cannot be reduced to an ever more elusive and radical purge of the theological from the political.


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