Aristotle’s realist regime theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-249
Author(s):  
Zoltán Gábor Szűcs
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Regime Theory ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Political Justice ◽  
Sociological Factors ◽  
Delicate Balance ◽  
Regime Types ◽  
Political Virtues

The ambition of this article is threefold. First, it is to offer a realist reading of Aristotle’s regime theory as it is laid out mostly in Books IV–VI of his Politics. The author argues that Aristotle’s regime theory has three fundamentally realist claims about the workings of politics: first, the search for a perfect regime is not the only legitimate subject of political theory; second, every regime is built on a delicate balance of a particular understanding of political justice, a variety of sociological factors and the institutional design and political virtues of its politicians; third, there are almost as many different regimes as polities, and although they can be grouped into major regime types, there are many sub-types and mixed and transitory regimes. Second, the article argues that modern democratic theories have an unacceptable ‘moralistic bias’ from a realist point of view. Third, that a neo-Aristotelian regime theory can offer an attractive realist alternative to the predominant contemporary understandings of political regimes.

Constitution-making and institutional design. The transformations of presidentialism in Argentina

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel L. Negretto
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Design ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Constitutional Design ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Constitution Making

This paper presents an analytical framework for the study of constitutional design from the point of view of the structure of interaction and mechanisms of institutional selection that affect the behavior and choices of the actors involved in a constitution-making process. This framework is used to explain the various limitations introduced to the powers of the President in the Argentine constitution of 1994. I argue that two levels of causation determined this reform. At the macro level, the limitation of presidential powers was the outcome of a distribution of political resources and a configuration of preferences among the actors that made possible the resolution of conflicts by means of compromise. At the micro level, the new set of institutions derived from the limited influence of the incumbent executive over constitutional design, the pluralism of the constituent assembly that approved the constitution, and the prevalence of bargaining as a mechanism of collective decision-making. Both levels of action facilitated a consensual constitution-making process from which emerged a powersharing structure that has the potential to lower the stakes of political competition for presidential office and create new rules of mutual trust between government and opposition.

scholarly journals International Political Theory Meets International Public Policy

2018 ◽  
pp. 480-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Barry
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
International Political Theory

How should International Political Theory (IPT) relate to public policy? Should theorists aspire for their work to be policy-relevant, and if so in what sense? When can we legitimately criticize a theory for failing to be relevant to practice? In this chapter, I argue that it counts heavily against a theory if it is not precise enough to guide policy and reform given certain empirical assumptions, but that theorists should be very cautious when engaging with questions of policy and institutional design. Some principles of IPT can be criticized for being insufficiently precise, but a degree of abstraction from concrete policy recommendations is a virtue, rather than a vice, of IPT. I discuss this issue with reference to John Rawls’s principle of a duty of assistance.

scholarly journals On the Enlightenment of Humanistic Curriculum Theory to the Reform of Ideological and Political Theory Course in Colleges and Universities

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Chen
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Curriculum Theory ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Teaching Evaluation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Basic Point ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Teaching Content ◽  
Humanistic Curriculum

Humanistic curriculum theory has important guiding significance for the reform of Ideological and political theory course in Colleges and universities. This paper expounds the basic point of view of the humanistic curriculum theory, analyzes the problems existing in the teaching content, teaching methods and teaching evaluation of the ideological and political theory course in Colleges and universities at this stage, and puts forward some suggestions on the reform of the ideological and political course in Colleges and Universities under the guidance of the humanistic curriculum theory.

Restoring Catharine Macaulay’s Enlightenment Republicanism?

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 39-57
Author(s):  
Karen Green ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Tragedy Of The Commons ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Moral Law ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
The Commons

Can Catharine Macaulay’s enlightenment democratic republicanism be justified from the point of view of contemporary naturalism? Naturalist accounts of political authority tend to be realist and pessimistic, foreclosing the possibility of enlightenment. Macaulay’s utopian political philosophy relies on belief in a good God, whose existence underpins the possibility of moral and political progress. This paper attempts a restoration of her optimistic utopianism in a reconciliation, grounded in a revision of natural law, of naturalist and utopian attitudes to political theory. It is proposed that the coevolution of language, moral law, and conscience (the disposition to judge one’s own actions in the light of moral principles) can be explained as solutions to the kinds of tragedy of the commons situations facing our ancestors. Moral dispositions evolved, but, in the light of its function, law is subject to rational critique. Liberal democracy plausibly offers the best prospect for developing rationally justifiable law.

scholarly journals Noch einmal: Zum Verhältnis von Moralität und Sittlichkeit

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 729-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Habermas
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ethical Life ◽  
Philosophical Discourse ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Relations Of Power

Abstract Ever since Hegel made poignant the difference between morality and ethical life (“Sittlichkeit”), philosophical discourse in the traditions that developed subsequently, up to and including the Frankfurt school, has oscillated between those poles. This paper starts out with a short exposition of autonomy as one of the few large-scale innovations in the history of philosophy and then proceeds to discuss Hegel’s concept of “Sittlichkeit” and the objections to be raised against it from a Kantian point of view. Political theory, however, has to move beyond pure normativism and consider actual social relations of power, as Marx disclosed. Mapping out this winding trajectory from Kant to Marx provides some perspective that may be illuminating for challenging present-day issues.

Interaction of Psychological and Sociological Factors in Political Behavior

1952 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Else Frenkel-Brunswik
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Extreme Points ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Sociological Factors ◽  
The Individual

The theoretical models developed to deal with the interaction of sociological and psychological factors in the formation of political behavior indicate a wide divergence of opinion. At one extreme area group of scientists, mainly psychiatrists and anthropologists, who see most social phenomena as deriving from the subjective experiences of the individual. The specific traumata inherent in different methods of upbringing and in the resulting renunciations imposed upon the child are regarded by them as the formative basis for customs, religions, social attitudes, and so forth. Some specific examples of their point of view may be found in attempts to explain war as an expression of the destructive instincts, or capitalism as a manifestation of the anal syndrome. But at the other extreme are proponents of the view that the social structure is independent of the single individual and that individual behavior can be explained and predicted in terms of membership in classes and groups as they have developed historically, mainly on the basis of mode of subsistence.Failing to agree with either of these extreme points of view, one may argue that any speculation about the causal interrelation of sociological and psychological factors in the group and in the individual must recognize the fact that these factors have been artificially isolated and abstracted and that no exclusive factual primacy can be given to any of the aspects in a pattern so closely interwoven.

Managerial Strategies of Domination. Power in Soft Bureaucracies

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Courpasson
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Organizational Sociology ◽  
Managerial Strategies ◽  
Network Form

This paper discusses the emergence and reinforcement of organizational political regimes based on domination and centralization in French organizations. Domination and power are old concepts in organizational sociology, but the confrontation of two well-known approaches to politics in organizations, that of Weber and that of Crozier, suggests that an `archaic' notion such as domination is still very useful for understanding how business leaders `govern' organizations today. Based on empirical studies, the paper proposes that organizations should be seen as `soft bureaucracies', in which centralization and entrepreneurial forms of governance are combined. Thus, choosing a Weberian point of view, this paper simultaneously describes organizations as `structures of domination' and as `structures of legitimacy'. It defends the idea that, in spite of the success of the network form utopia, the re-emergence of bureaucracies is a sign that organizations are more and more politically centralized and governed.

Presidential Powers and Consolidation of New Postcommunist Democracies

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail V. Beliaev
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Design ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Marginal Effect ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Ability To Act ◽  
Democratic Performance ◽  
Head Of Government

The present study analyzes the institutional design of the presidency in 22 postcommunist countries from 1993 to 1998 and its effects in terms of democratization. The analysis indicates that two dimensions of presidential powers should be distinguished: (a) a president’s ability to act as a de facto head of government and (b) his or her authority to serve as an arbiter between the legislative and executive branches of government and to patronize the courts. Other factors hold that constant, political regimes with stronger executive powers of presidents exhibit worse contemporaneous democratic performance and are less able to consolidate as democracies. The results show that superpresidential regimes, in which presidents had been vested with authorities of both types, perform the worst. However, the marginal effect of presidential arbiter authorities is rather positive.

scholarly journals THE CONCEPT OF GOVERNMENT IN THE EARLY WORKS OF ABU HASAN AL-MAWARDI

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-104
Author(s):  
F. Q. TOJIDINOV
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
National Importance ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship of politics to religion is a characteristic feature of Islam. The rules of divine law have to be unswervingly respected in all matters related to social, economic and political problems, or at least should not contradict the essence of Islamic principles. But despite this, the political doctrine of Islam — the caliphate, being the main medieval Muslim political thought, still caused many controversies due to the lack of regulations on the nature of power in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Many scholars of the Islamic world, understanding the origins of the problem, tried in every way to write the concept of Islamic political science. Even the existence of political ideas related to the authority in Islam in such Muslim writings on the caliph could not reveal and provide the theory of government from a religious point of view. These works are mostly devoted to the art of power and refl ect the norms of behavior of the ruling authorities and other representatives of the state in order to solve the necessary tasks of national importance. The Islamic experience of the thinkers who wrote these works justifi es the existence of an Islamic element in them. The art of government has been revealed to them since the emergence of Islamic practice in their lives. But there were theories of Islamic political science based on the Koran and the Sunnah. Al-Mawardi is one of the authors of books on Islamic political science. His books became very important for subsequent Muslim thinkers, this importance lies in the fact that the very followers who wrote works on political theory accepted al-Mawardi as an authority on this issue and continue to accept not only for the theory of the caliphate/imamate, but also because of his works related to public law. It is important to note that the work of al-Mawardi is the fi rst work, which presents the theory of the imamate/caliphate, taking into account the political conditions that surrounded him. 

scholarly journals The "Arab Spring": New Mechanisms of Change of Authoritarian Political Regimes

2015 ◽  
pp. 238-246
Author(s):  
E. A. Antyukhova
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Government ◽  
Real Picture ◽  
The Arab Spring

The article explores the use of mechanisms in bringing down authoritarian political regimes in the Middle East and North Africa with the "Arab spring" in focus. The technique of "non-violent" methods of fight suggested by "godfather" of the "Arab spring" Gene Sharp is analyzed. It is noted that the distinctive features of his system were planned, determined and dynamic actions of protest forces. A special place in the article is devoted to the study of the role of non-governmental organizations in selecting and training protest leaders and activists and in creating a network of supporters of prodemocratic movements. The article examines the role of the Internet and cyber technologies used by the opposition during protest rallies. Non-violence as means of bringing down the existing power turned out to be an alternative to armed resistance. The key role of non-violent actions consisted in changing the point of view of anti-government forces, demonstrating that the public solidarity could make the regime overthrow possible. It is noted that the latest information means gave the process of political changes due activity and focus which was followed by the information actions designed to discredit the government in place and form the corresponding public opinion. Mediatization of politics promoted the creation of a dense information veil retouching a real picture. The overall system of methods used during the "the Arab spring" indicates that the mechanism of overthrowing authoritarian regimes and its technologies came from Western culture and were borrowed by Arab activists.

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