scholarly journals Conceptualising peace and its preconditions: The anti-Pelagian imagination and the critical turn in peace theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 175508822095159
Author(s):  
Sophia Dingli
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Critical Turn

This article examines the conceptualisations of peace and its preconditions manifested in the critical turn in peace theory: bottom-up approaches which begin with particular contexts and postulate diverse local actors as integral to the process of peace-building. This article argues that the turn is at an impasse and is unable to address the crucial charge that its conceptualisation of peace is inconsistent. To explain the persistence of inconsistency and to move us forward, the article analyses, evaluates and responds to the turn through the lens of Nicholas Rengger’s work on the anti-Pelagian imagination in political theory. This is defined as a tendency to begin theorising from non-utopian, anti-perfectionist and sceptical assumptions. Through this examination the article argues that the critical turn is anti-Pelagian but not consistently so because it often gives way to perfectionism, adopts naïve readings of institutions and postulates demanding conceptions of political agency and practice. This inconsistency with its own philosophical premises makes the turn’s conceptualisation of peace and its preconditions incoherent. Finally, the article sketches an alternative account of peace which draws upon a number of anti-Pelagian scholars and mobilises Rengger’s particular defense of anti-Pelagianism. The suggested alternative, the article argues, provides us with a more coherent theory of peace and a way out of existing dead ends.

scholarly journals THE NORMATIVITY OF NATURE IN PUFENDORF AND LOCKE

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 528-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
HANNAH DAWSON
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Moral Sentiment ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
Push And Pull

abstractAt the beginning of De jure naturae et gentium (1672), Samuel von Pufendorf proposed a radical dichotomy between nature and morality. He was followed down this arid path by his great admirer John Locke. This article begins by exploring their descriptions of this dichotomy, examining the ways in which human animals were supposed to haul themselves out of the push and pull of the mechanistic world in order to become free moral agents. The article then argues that bubbling up from within this principal account of morality is an alternative account according to which virtue seems to infuse nature, thereby blurring the lines between obligation and motivation, and refiguring the character of moral and political agency. In uncovering this refiguration, I highlight the importance of Aristotelianism and Stoicism for Pufendorf and Locke, suggest continuities rather than breaks between the natural lawyers of the seventeenth century and the theorists of moral sentiment of the next, and gesture towards a hitherto underappreciated discourse in early modern thought: the normativity of nature.

Representation, Bicameralism, Political Equality, and Sortition: Reconstituting the Second Chamber as a Randomly Selected Assembly

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arash Abizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Many ◽  
Treat All ◽  
Legislative Review ◽  
Political Turn

The two traditional justifications for bicameralism are that a second legislative chamber serves a legislative-review function (enhancing the quality of legislation) and a balancing function (checking concentrated power and protecting minorities). I furnish here a third justification for bicameralism, with one elected chamber and the second selected by lot, as an institutional compromise between contradictory imperatives facing representative democracy: elections are a mechanism of people’s political agency and of accountability, but run counter to political equality and impartiality, and are insufficient for satisfactory responsiveness; sortition is a mechanism for equality and impartiality, and of enhancing responsiveness, but not of people’s political agency or of holding representatives accountable. Whereas the two traditional justifications initially grew out of anti-egalitarian premises (about the need for elite wisdom and to protect the elite few against the many), the justification advanced here is grounded in egalitarian premises about the need to protect state institutions from capture by the powerful few and to treat all subjects as political equals. Reflecting the “political” turn in political theory, I embed this general argument within the institutional context of Canadian parliamentary federalism, arguing that Canada’s Senate ought to be reconstituted as a randomly selected citizen assembly.

Pragmatic Belief and Political Agency

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 651-666
Author(s):  
Jakob Huber
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Scant Attention

According to a recent methodological critique, much of contemporary political theory has lost touch with the realities of political life. The aim of this article is to problematise the underlying antagonism between distant ideals and concrete contexts of agency. Drawing on Kant’s notion of pragmatic Belief – the idea that in certain situations we can put full confidence in something we lack sufficient evidence for – I point to the distinctly practical function of political ideals that these disputes pay scant attention to. Particularly in political contexts, action is itself often framed by ‘ideal constructions’ that not only motivate and enable us to pursue uncertain goals but also ultimately feed back onto what is practically possible. The upshot is that especially if we are interested in a kind of theorising that is less detached from political practice, we should be wary of disregarding distant ideals as unduly utopian from the outset.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics and International Relations

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Fourth Edition ◽  
General Reader ◽  
Current Affairs ◽  
New Material

Over 1,700 entriesWritten by a leading team of political scientists, this dictionary embraces the multi-disciplinary spectrum of political theory including political thinkers, history, institutions, theories, and schools of thought, as well as notable current affairs that have shaped attitudes to politics.Fully updated for its fourth edition, it has had its coverage of international relations heavily revised and expanded, reflected in its title change, and it includes a wealth of new material in areas such as international institutions, peace building, human security, security studies, global governance, and open economy politics.The dictionary is international in its coverage and will prove invaluable to students and academics studying politics and related disciplines, as well as politicians, journalists, and the general reader seeking clarification of political terms.

The Power of the Powerless and Václav Havel’s “Responsibilityism”

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-333
Author(s):  
Barbara J. Falk
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
Taking Responsibility

Havel’s essay The Power of the Powerless is a key expression of Havel’s views on responsibility, particularly as personified in the greengrocer taking responsibility for his actions and his decision to authentically “live in truth.” Havel’s “responsibilityism” undergirds his argument that the powerless do indeed have power—although assuming this heavy responsibility is not for the faint-hearted. As a defense of “bottom-up” politics and a call to action in both authoritarian and depersonalized bureaucratic regimes, moreover, the essay remains relevant today, an important contribution to the canon of political theory.

Working at the Seams of Colonial Structures: Alternative Sociotechnical Infrastructures Revealed by Hurricane Maria

2021 ◽  
pp. 016224392110584
Author(s):  
Fatima K. Espinoza Vasquez
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Relief Efforts

This study explains why and how Puerto Rican activists responded effectively to the crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. By relying on a structural approach, this study analyzes the local institutional environment. Using the seamful work framework, it examines activists’ practice to reveal activists’ relation with their official state infrastructure and their interactions with said infrastructure before and after Maria. Using semi-structured interviews, observations, and publicly available documents, this study shows that activists navigate the state’s unequal infrastructure by building their infrastructures, called alternative sociotechnical infrastructures, which consist of a set of heterogeneous assortments of actors, organizations, and technologies to address state-driven inequality and natural disasters. Activists do not work to restore existing state infrastructures, instead, they deploy their expertise in their communities to address many of the challenges brought on by disasters. This study emphasizes a bottom-up approach, highlighting local actors’ agency by focusing on the convergence of their knowledge, organizations, and Information and Communication Technologies. Moreover, this research proposes that state-community disconnect is rooted in neoliberal and colonial measures and cautions against considering disasters as opportunities to start anew. Finally, this research proposes new possibilities to plan bottom-up relief efforts that acknowledge the role of civil society and activists.

Jos Bottom-up & top-down approaches to peace building

2018 ◽  
pp. 308-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Raufu Mustapha ◽  
Adam Higazi ◽  
Jimam Lar ◽  
Karel Chromy
Keyword(s):  
Peace Building ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up

scholarly journals Contested Inclusions: Pitfalls of NGO Peace-Building Activities in Liberia

2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Fuest
Keyword(s):  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Secret Societies ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Traditional Institutions ◽  
Building Activities ◽  
Post War ◽  
Participatory Intervention

In post-war situations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) feature highly in peace-building processes in their (perceived) capacities as both representatives of civil society and as grassroots agents to be employed in the reconstruction and transformation of society. As elsewhere, in Liberia, peace-building approaches include, first, international blueprints of representation that intend to empower groups generally perceived to be socially subordinate and, second, supporting traditional institutions considered social capital in reconciliation. Using the example of Liberia, this paper explores how in local conflict arenas, NGO workshops – the most popular mode of participatory intervention – are interpreted and appropriated by local actors; it highlights some fallacies and unintended consequences of inclusive procedures in practice and questions the support furnished to heads of gendered secret societies.

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