To Obey or Not to Obey? Mencius’ Discourse on the Political Duties of Officials

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-216
Author(s):  
Fang Xudong (方旭东)
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Active Service ◽  
Universal Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Way

Mencius’ discourse on officials who could not be summoned by the king reveals that, according to him, no universal definition of a subject’s political duties existed toward his ruler. On the contrary, duties were determined by the subject’s status (i.e., whether he was an official in the bureaucracy) as well as by concrete circumstances (i.e., whether he was on active service or whether the king wanted to see him in order to inquire about the Way). Indeed, from Mencius’ standpoint, context mattered considerably when it came to the question of political duties and in fact, Confucian etiquette always reflected the same spirit of differentiation among status and circumstances. Furthermore, the ministers’ ethics as understood by Mencius appear to be founded on contract, the spirit of which compelled and also conferred the right to any minister with dignity to unilaterally terminate the contract and resign from his post if he found himself unable to carry out successfully his duty or realized that his ruler had no need for his advice.

The Place of Interests in Hobbes’s Civil Science

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-128
Author(s):  
Elliott Karstadt
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Civil Science ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

Many scholars argue that Hobbes’s political ideas do not significantly develop between The Elements of Law (1640) and Leviathan (1651). This article seeks to challenge that assumption by studying the way in which Hobbes’s deployment of the vocabulary of ‘interest’ develops over the course of the 1640s. The article begins by showing that the vocabulary is newly important in Leviathan, before attempting a ‘Hobbesian definition’ of what is meant by the term. We end by looking at the impact that the vocabulary has on two key areas of Hobbes’s philosophy: his theory of counsel and his arguments in favour of monarchy as the best form of government. In both areas, Hobbes’s conception of ‘interests’ is shown to be of crucial importance in lending a new understanding of the political issue under consideration.

Populism in Bulgaria

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-86
Author(s):  
Blagovesta Cholova ◽  
Jean-Michel De Waele
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Demand Side ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
Populist Movements

This article explores the success of populist parties in Bulgaria during the last decade. The first section focuses on the definition of populism and identifies the main populist parties in this country. The second part presents the development of these parties and their specific characteristic as well as the evolution of the “three waves” of populism in Bulgaria. The last section addresses the reasons for the success of these parties both in terms of supply side (the electorate) and the demand side (the strategy of the parties). The main conclusion is that this country is a fertile ground for populist movements due to the attitude of the electorate and the niche on the right-side of the political spectrum and that newly created parties use this opportunity of win elections but they remain short-lived because they cannot continue to mobilize populist rhetoric when they are in office and often face rapid decline.

29. Arendt

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justine Lacroix
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Conception ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Political Interpretation ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Way ◽  
The Human Condition

This chapter examines a number of key concepts in Hannah Arendt's work, with particular emphasis on how they have influenced contemporary thought about the meaning of human rights. It begins with a discussion of Arendt's claim that totalitarianism amounts to a destruction of the political domain and a denial of the human condition itself; this in turn had occurred only because human rights had lost all validity. It then considers Arendt's formula of the ‘right to have rights’ and how it opens the way to a ‘political’ conception of human rights founded on the defence of republican institutions and public-spiritedness. It shows that this ‘political’ interpretation of human rights is itself based on an underlying understanding of the human condition as marked by natality, liberty, plurality and action, The chapter concludes by reflecting on the so-called ‘right to humanity’.

New waves for old rights? Women’s mobilization and bodily rights in Turkey and Norway

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sevil Sümer ◽  
Hande Eslen-Ziya
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Women's Movements ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Neoliberal Policies ◽  
Gender Policies ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

This article focuses on the resurgence of women’s movements in Turkey and Norway against the backdrop of their historical trajectories and wider gender policies. Throughout the 2010s, both countries witnessed a similar set of conservative and neoliberal policies that intervened in women’s bodily rights. In both countries, women’s movements responded with mass mobilizations and influenced the political agenda. The proposed restrictions on abortion were interpreted as a restriction on women’s basic bodily rights in both countries. This article argues that a feminist, multidimensional reconceptualization of the concept of citizenship and a definition of abortion as an element of women’s bodily citizenship rights are useful to promote a strong and encompassing argument for mobilization. The comparative analysis shows that the right to control one’s own body has been a unifying issue for women’s movements in Turkey and Norway which are gradually becoming more inclusive.

Iraqi-Turkish relations and their impact on Kurdistan Region 2003-2017

2019 ◽  
pp. 162
Author(s):  
Abbas Fadhel Atwan
Keyword(s):  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Security Cooperation ◽  
International Support ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Important Player ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Way

The recent developments in the region, especially Iraq and Syria, represented a historic opportunity for the Kurds, which made them an important player with international support and paved the way for partition and federalism. There is no dispute that the referendum is consistent with general principles such as the right of peoples to self-determination, Others with the Iraqi constitution and mechanisms of independence recognized, but it strengthens the position of the region in negotiations with Baghdad, has raised the date of a referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region on 25 September 2017 And the political situation in Iraq and Turkey after the referendum of the Kurdistan region, As a result of the failure of each of them to agree to reject the results of the referendum secession of the Kurdistan region and the intensification of sanctions on the region, but also strengthened military and security cooperation between their countries after months of tension between them.

Is the Way of the Humane Authority a Good Thing?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang Shaoguang
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Good Thing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
The People ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Moral Philosophers ◽  
The Way

This chapter criticizes the emphasis on privatization, the destruction of the Maoist-style emphasis on social welfare, and the growing gap between rich and poor. It argues that more needs to be done to combat the inequalities generated by capitalist modernization in China. Political legitimacy is not something to be defined by moral philosophers in total abstraction from the political reality. Rather, it is a matter of whether or not a political system faces a crisis of legitimacy depends on whether the people who live there doubt the rightness of its power, and whether they consider it the appropriate system for their country. The chapter ultimately endorses a definition of legitimacy as the legitimacy of the popular will.

Political Amnesia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan M. Wald
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
New York Intellectuals ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Way

The career of philosopher Sidney Hook is presented as an example of the way in which the political trajectory of the New York intellectuals is frequently misunderstood. At issue are representations of the post-World War II transformation as explained by William Barrett, William Phillips, and more. Matters such as the definition of intellectuals, the significance of Trotskyism, shifting definitions of Stalinism, and the views of the author are explored.

scholarly journals Danska ríkisráðið og íslensk stjórnmál 1874–1915

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-68
Author(s):  
Birgir Hermannsson
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Council ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Way

The main purpose of this article is to trace the debate in Iceland about the inclusion of the minister of Iceland in the Danish state council from 1874 to 1915. This debate concerned the interpretation of the Danish Positional Law and whether the Danish Constitution was in some regards also enforceable in Iceland. The state council was included in the Icelandic constitution in 1903 and proposed changes hotly debated until 1915. To understand this debate the political discourse on the state council is analyzed and its role in the wider struggle for independence. The Icelandic opposition to the state council was based on the definition of specific Icelandic issues apart from Danish ones in the Positional law and the proposition that the state council was a Danish institution defined by the Danish constitution. It was therefore against Icelandic self-rule to discuss and decide on specific Icelandic issues in a Danish institution. During the independence struggle Icelanders had to decide whether the state council clause was a matter of principle and should therefore stand in the way of agreement with Denmark or whether a more pragmatic view should be taken. The disagreement was therefore not only between Iceland and Denmark but also a source of conflict and disagreement within Iceland.

The citizen as mere human: Litigating denationalization in post-9/11 UK

2020 ◽  
pp. 146349962093135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caylee Hong
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Spatial Control ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
The Social ◽  
National Citizenship ◽  
Narrow Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

Since the publication of The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951, Hannah Arendt’s phrase the ‘right to have rights’ and her claim that having rights depends on belonging to and being recognized by ‘some kind of organized community’ have become key provocations on citizenship, statelessness and human rights. Arendt, however, has been criticized as perpetuating a state-centric framework that scholars and activists alike have sought to reimagine. In particular, the French political theorist Jacques Rancière argues that Arendt’s ‘right to have rights’ formula is based on an artificial distinction between the social and the political, which creates an overly narrow definition of the political subject. This article contends that in the post-9/11 era, the distinction, often attributed to Arendt, between ‘Man’ and ‘Citizen’ is increasingly blurred; yet it suggests that this blurring does not necessarily offer any emancipatory potential. It argues that while national citizenship is still meaningful, being a citizen may not be so different from being a mere human in certain contexts. The article examines three sets of cases shaping the United Kingdom’s ‘regime of nationality deprivation’ in which people are stripped of their UK citizenship for terrorism-related offences: Al-Jedda (2013), Pham (2015, 2018) and K2 (2015). First, it explores the tensions in the regime’s attempt to reconcile a fundamental inconsistency between the recognition of the human right to nationality and the sovereignty of the state to define the citizen; and second, it considers the regime’s spatial control of the denationalization process whereby denationalization orders are commonly issued and thus also contested when the targeted citizen is outside the UK’s jurisdiction.

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