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.

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?

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.

scholarly journals POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECT OF ADMINISTRATIVE-TERRITORIAL REFORMS OF THE 1930TH ‒ THE 1950TH IN MODERN RUSSIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Белоногов Юрий ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Personal Power ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
Regional Leaders ◽  
Regional Authorities ◽  
The Relationship

The article considers historiographic assessments of the administrative-territorial transformations of the Stalinist period of Soviet history through the prism of relations "Center - Regions." For the supreme government in the period under study, the obvious dilemma was the choice between the economic efficiency of the spatial development of enlarged and self-sufficient regions, on the one hand, and the increase in the political manageability of the Center for regional development, on the other hand. The policy of disengaging the regions and giving the former dis-trict centers the status of regional capitals was connected with the need of the Cen-ter to monitor the processes of industrialization and collectivization, bring man-agement closer to production, as well as weaken the influence of regional leaders to strengthen the regime of personal power of I.V. Stalin. Subsequently, the political struggle for power in the 1950s. contributed to a gradual and irreversible review of the relationship between the central and regional authorities: for political reasons, the Center abandoned the administrative-territorial transformations of the regions.

scholarly journals Una visión de la libertad de comunicación desde la perspectiva de las diferencias entre la libertad de expresión, en sentido estricto, y la libertad de información

2007 ◽  
pp. 359
Author(s):  
José Luis García Guerrero
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
Commercial Speech ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
Constitutional Jurisprudence

The present Project contains a complete synthesis of the constitutional Spanish jurisprudence. The author considers that the right to freedom and the political rights are grouped around three or four genres. It identifies, between those, the freedom of communication that the constitutional assembly and the constitutional jurisprudence have extended to all sorts of activities. After this assumption, the project is focused on giving a view of the freedom of communication from the point of view of the differences between the freedom of information and the freedom of speech in a strict way. After defending a legal nature which protects all kinds of communications and which can be exercised by all sorts of chaps; it is rejected that the institutional offshoot explains the really different limitations that several messages introduce, wide restrictions regarding commercial speech or pornography and dropped ones regarding politics. The argument which is proposed for its justification is based on the different systematic connections that are originated between the constitutional rules by the different matter and the purpose pursued by the messages, and, when this yardstick is insufficient, it is complemented with the concept of relevance or public interest, the one which is pretended to be refined. The exercise of that freedom by journalists and maximizing the professional diligence reinforce the freedom of communication when it has to be pondered with other rights or constitutional goods. In Spain, the affair Terminello versus Chicago is considered as a worth yardstick to solve conflicts with the public order.

scholarly journals How social democrats may become reluctant radicals: Thomas Piketty's Capital and Wolfgang Streeck's Buying Time

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Ronzoni
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Review Article ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

The continuing ramifications of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 have forced social scientists to raise fundamental questions about the relationship between capitalism, democracy and inequality. In particular, Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Wolfgang Streeck’s Buying Time focus on, respectively, the economic and the political contradictions of capitalistic societies. Piketty argues that capitalism naturally tends towards the exacerbation of rent-based wealth inequality, whereas Streeck suggests that capitalism and democracy are ultimately incompatible. A striking feature of these two contributions is that their authors are social democrats, not Marxists or radical anti-capitalist thinkers. In this review article, I illustrate how the combination of social democratic convictions and the acknowledgment that capitalism cannot be tamed generates interesting tensions between the diagnosis offered by the two monographs and the solutions that are proposed. I end the piece by raising two remarks on the implications that this tension might have for normative political theory. On the one hand, it is time for theory to do more work on political action and agency. On the other, liberal egalitarian theorists might have to acknowledge that they are in the same predicament as Piketty and Streeck: social democracy is their ideal, yet it is perhaps unattainable. If this is the case, liberal egalitarians might be committed to adopt a more confrontational attitude towards capitalism: they might have to become reluctant radicals.

On the Persistent Political Under-Representation of Muslims in India

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajeev Bhargava
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Future ◽  
Indian State

This Paper is divided into three sections. In the first section I provide a brief historical overview of Hindu-Muslim relations in India and of the condition of Indian Muslims today. I conclude by claiming that Indian Muslims are a marginalized minority who have been persistently underrepresented in political institutions, particularly in the Indian Parliament. This section is important for those who are less informed about these issues—and I assume that most readers fall in this category. In the second section, I examine the case for political representation for Muslims. This was a much debated issue in pre-independent India. It was debated with subtlety and in considerable detail in the Constituent Assembly debates on the Indian constitution. However, with the partition of the country and the formation of the separate state of Pakistan, all debate on the political representation of Muslims ceased. I examine the merits and demerits of the case for the political representation of Indian Muslims. I also attempt a brief explanation of why this issue has virtually disappeared from the public arena in India. I conclude in the section that although political representation of Muslims qua Muslims is desirable, it is still unfeasible in the prevailing situation in India. In other words, I would support the recommendation to the Indian State that political rights not to be granted to any religious community. If political theory was to remain a handmaiden of state policy, then the matter ends right here. However, since I believe that political theory must think for the long run and design just institutions and policies for the future, and since, there is, I claim, no principled objection to the political representation of Muslims, in the third and final section I briefly outline which of the several electoral mechanisms are best suited to ensure fair political representation for Muslims in the future. In my view, the principle of fair political representation for Indian Muslims is best fulfilled by a complex mechanism consisting of preferential voting in multi-member constituencies with intra-party quotas in proportion to the overall population of Muslims in the country.

scholarly journals Color Designations in German Political Discourse

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 53-63
Author(s):  
Dmitriy V. Shapochkin
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Function Evaluation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Angela Merkel ◽  
The One

Political discourse is currently the subject of various interdisciplinary studies involving a lot of scientific approaches to its description. This article highlights an enormous potential of the use of color in the political discourse. On the one hand, the color involves the emotional sphere, while, on the other, it can lead to instant associations with a certain phenomenon of reality. Politicians actively use the color not only as a distinguishing sign that allows them to identify parties, movements, ethnic groups, etc. with the establishment or the denial of mutual contacts, but also as an independent symbol, which has tremendous possibilities for regulating and organizing of social political processes. Functioning as a symbol of political forces, color greatly simplifies the perception of the political situation. However, the differentiation of political forces is not its only function. Evaluation is of the great importance, i. e. the consolidation of the assessment for a specific phenomenon, which is achieved by many repetitions in the same context. Because of the brightness of color associations, the color designation of political parties is a powerful tool in the political struggle. At the same time, the use of color symbols in the political discourse reveals national-specific features in the struggle for power. Thus, there is a need to study the functioning of color designations in the national political discourses. In this article, the author pays special attention to the study of the color in the German political discourse of the leading political figures of Germany, such as Angela Merkel (CDU), Katya Kipping (Die Linke) and Christian Lindner (FDP).

OFFICE, POLITICAL THEORY, AND THE POLITICAL THEORIST

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID KEARNS ◽  
RYAN WALTER
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
The Political ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Political Theorist ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One

ABSTRACT‘Theory’ is taken for granted as an object of historical study, especially in relation to the history of political thought, and most historiography proceeds as if little were lost by construing authors such as Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Smith as ‘theorists’. This article argues that the costs are likely to be high, and that in consequence ‘theory’ ought not to be considered a generic category capable of neutrally describing a given piece of thinking from the past. On the one hand, ascribing theoretical argument can obscure the nature of rival idioms for making claims regarding political life, such as biblical criticism, the common law, and ‘office talk’. On the other hand, the evidence suggests that the ‘political theorist’, as an avowed identity, only emerged in Britain late in the eighteenth century, tentatively and under the force of peculiar pressures. It follows that it will rarely be appropriate to use the term before c. 1800, and considerable caution will still be necessary when using the label in the post-1800 period. Abiding by this discipline is likely to lead to new discoveries in what has been a flat terrain of ‘political theory’.

scholarly journals The political theory of parties

Politik ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Wolkenstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Insufficient Attention ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The One

Political theory has for a long time paid scant attention to the topic of political parties and partisanship. In recent times, however, there has emerged a body of theoretical research that seeks to draw attention to the place of parties and partisanship in a well-functioning polity. This article offers an overview of this research, discussing approaches that focus on partisanship as an associative practice, on the one hand, and approaches that focus on the party as an institution, on the other. The article argues that, while the two approaches no doubt usefully complement each other, concentrating on partisanship at the expense of party risks paying insufficient attention to the institutional structures that ultimately connect partisans to the state and allow them to exercise power. This is problematic insofar as it is especially the party as institution whose virtues are currently called into question. Given this, the article proposes to shift the emphasis in theoretical research from partisanship-centred theories to party-centred theories.

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