Ideology as the Ethos of the Nation State

1996 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynette Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Current Theory ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

Abstract: Ideology can be considered the ethos of the modern, liberal, democratic, capitalist nation state. Working from the descriptions of political ethos in Aristotle's Rhetoric, Tapies, and Politics, the differences from and similarities to post-Renaissance political structures underline the modern insistence on ways to stabilise the representation of the group in power, giving it its veil of authority, as well as ways to stabilise the description or definition of the individual within the nation. Looking at a number of contemporary commentaries from both political theory and cultural studies, the essay elaborates the rhetoric necessary to constitute ideology as the ethos of the nation state, and goes on to detail some of the constraints on the individual who, in gaining access to power, becomes subject to that state. The rhetoric of ideology provides not only an ethos for the character of the group in power, but also a set of guidelines for establishing a spedfic responsive state in the audience, an ethics of pathos. Its ethos is a strategy that imposes a strategy. The circularity of this ethos marks many of the analyses undertaken by current theory, and it has only recently been challenged by, among others, feminist historians of rhetoric. The discussion moves to a point where it asks: given that multinational and transnational corporations now share with the nation state the regularisation of capitalist exploitation, is ideology effective as a political rhetoric any more? Who is the wife of the nation state? And, what is the ethos of the multinational?

Political Emancipation

2019 ◽  
pp. 89-121
Author(s):  
Joan Wallach Scott
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Formal Equality ◽  
Political Emancipation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Women's Emancipation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

This chapter considers the contradictions of women's emancipation in light of the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions. It shows how the resistance to women's citizenship had less to do with the necessarily slow but inevitable progress of liberal democratic ideas than it did with a contradiction at the very heart of the political thinking that articulated them—a political thinking integral to the discourse of secularism. Liberal political theory postulated the sameness of all individuals as the key to their formal equality—abstracted from their circumstances there was no discernable difference among them, they stood as equals before the law. At the same time there were differences that were thought to refuse abstraction. These were people in a state of dependency, such as propertyless peasants, wage laborers, women, children, slaves. Therefore, they could not be counted as autonomous individuals—autonomy, after all, was at the heart of the very definition of individuality.

Religious Identity, Citizenship, and Welfare

1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-233
Author(s):  
Waqar I. Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Salient Points ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Made In ◽  
Critical Aspects

In addressing the situation of Muslim communities in Britain, it isapparent that one of the major frameworks for understanding their situationhas been the notion of "Citizenship," for citizenship is a means ofidentifying critical aspects of the relationship between the individual andthe state. Following Bottomore (1992), we may make a useful distinctionbetween "formal" and "substantive" citizenship: the former being Simplydefined as "membemhip in a nation state" and the latter as "an array ofcivil, political, and especially social rights, involving also some kind ofparticipation in the business of government'' (ibid.).There are a number of salient points that should be made in relationto examining the implications of this distinction. First, we may note thatthe legal definition of citizenship is always informed by the cultural andethnic agendas historically rooted in the foundation myths of each nationstate.Thus in France, for example, just as the revolutionary iconographyof the Tricolor, Marianne, and Liberty, Equality, and Fratemity continueto serve contemporary national sentiments (Hobsbawm 1983), so todayFrench legal framing of formal citizenship is infused with its revolutionaryroots:La tradition centraliste francaise interdit la reconnaissance dansl'espace public des 'communautes', au sens oii elles existent auWtats-Unis. (Schnapper 1990).Consequently, in France neither ethnicity nor religion are formally relevantin determining access to citizenship ...

FRENCH LIBERALISM’S “INDIAN DETOUR”: LOUIS DUMONT, THE INDIVIDUAL, AND LIBERAL POLITICAL THOUGHT IN POST-1968 FRANCE

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 685-710
Author(s):  
JACOB COLLINS
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Revolution

Liberalism in France has typically been concerned with political, rather than economic, issues. Its classic texts—those of Constant, Guizot, and Tocqueville—were written in the aftermath of the Revolution, and reflected on the historical and political problems that grew out of it: the nature of the modern state, the rights and duties of the individual, and the nexus of institutions that mediated their relationship. These writings defined the contours of modern French liberalism, and became a key resource for thinkers in the late 1970s, notably Pierre Rosanvallon and Marcel Gauchet, who were looking for ways to revitalize the liberal-democratic project. In his 1985 study of Guizot, Rosanvallon could regret that “the question of liberalism in French political culture of the nineteenth century is ‘missing’ in contemporary thought.”1 If the task of political theory was to recover this intellectual tradition, what were the terms of the recovery? Which ideas were missing from the conceptual landscape of the 1970s to inspire it?

Derrida on Pornography: Putting (It) Up for Sale

Derrida Today ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Morris
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
English Translation ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Past ◽  
French Original ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Critical Discourses ◽  
Academic Debate

Over the past thirty years, academic debate over pornography in the discourses of feminism and cultural studies has foundered on questions of the performative and of the word's definition. In the polylogue of Droit de regards, pornography is defined as la mise en vente that is taking place in the act of exegesis in progress. (Wills's idiomatic English translation includes an ‘it’ that is absent in the French original). The definition in Droit de regards alludes to the word's etymology (writing by or about prostitutes) but leaves the referent of the ‘sale’ suspended. Pornography as la mise en vente boldly restates the necessary iterability of the sign and anticipates two of Derrida's late arguments: that there is no ‘the’ body and that performatives may be powerless. Deriving a definition of pornography from a truncated etymology exemplifies the prosthesis of origin and challenges other critical discourses to explain how pornography can be understood as anything more than ‘putting (it) up for sale’.

The Autobiographical Subject and the Death Penalty

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-187
Author(s):  
E. S. Burt
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
First Person ◽  
Philosophical Investigation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

Why does writing of the death penalty demand the first-person treatment that it also excludes? The article investigates the role played by the autobiographical subject in Derrida's The Death Penalty, Volume I, where the confessing ‘I’ doubly supplements the philosophical investigation into what Derrida sees as a trend toward the worldwide abolition of the death penalty: first, to bring out the harmonies or discrepancies between the individual subject's beliefs, anxieties, desires and interests with respect to the death penalty and the state's exercise of its sovereignty in applying it; and second, to provide a new definition of the subject as haunted, as one that has been, but is no longer, subject to the death penalty, in the light of the worldwide abolition currently underway.

On the Will of the People: Notes on the Political “Theory” of Populism

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Offe
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
National People ◽  
The Will

The “will of the (national) people” is the ubiquitously invoked reference unit of populist politics. The essay tries to demystify the notion that such will can be conceived of as a unique and unified substance deriving from collective ethnic identity. Arguably, all political theory is concerned with arguing for ways by which citizens can make e pluribus unum—for example, by coming to agree on procedures and institutions by which conflicts of interest and ideas can be settled according to standards of fairness. It is argued that populists in their political rhetoric and practice typically try to circumvent the burden of such argument and proof. Instead, they appeal to the notion of some preexisting existential unity of the people’s will, which they can redeem only through practices of repression and exclusion.

ГЕРМЕНЕВТИКА ЛИЧНОСТИ КАК МЕТОД СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ПЕРСОНОЛОГИИ

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Елена Старовойтенко
Keyword(s):  
Text Setting ◽  
Research Setting ◽  
Textual Representations ◽  
General Scientific ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Continuum

Персонологическая интерпретация текстов предполагает реализацию общенаучных, а также специфических для персонологии, герменевтических установок, к которым относятся: установка на интерпретацию текста как исследование, установка на разнообразие герменевтических действий с текстом, установка на выявление неисследованных содержаний текста, установка на творческое постижение тайн текста, установка на целостное отношение к личности и "Я" автора текста, установка на выявление способности автора быть "практикующим феноменологом", установка на определение места изучаемого текста в континууме текстовых репрезентаций "личности", установка на соотнесение своего понимания текста с другими интерпретациями и их интеграцию, установка на раскрытие сущности авторской "идеи личности", возможное только в единстве интерпретаций, установка на построение и применение герменевтической модели, определяющей процедуру интерпретации как исследования и творчества, установка на определение места проделанного герменевтического поиска в культуре познания и жизни личности, установка на интерпретацию различных видов "текстов личности". Personological interpretation of texts suggests the implementation of the general scientific and also hermeneutical settings specific for Personology which include the setting of the interpretation of the text as a research, setting of a variety of hermeneutical actions with the text, setting to identify unexplored contents of the text, setting of the creative comprehension of the mysteries of the text, setting of the integrity of the attitude of the individual and the "I" of the author of the text, setting to reveal the author's ability to be "practicing phenomenologist", setting of the definition of the place in the text in the continuum of textual representations of the "personality", setting in the correlation of the understanding of the text with other interpretations and their integration, setting of the disclosure of the author's "ideas person" is possible only in the unity of interpretation, setting of the construction and usage of hermeneutical models defining the procedure for the interpretation of both studies and work, the setting to determine the place of hermeneutical research in culture and knowledge of a person's life, setting of the interpretation of various types of "texts of the individual."

¿Quién soy yo? Reflexiones teórico sistémicas acerca de la indentidad individual

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
Francisco Xavier Morales
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Moral Communication ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

The problem of identity is an issue of contemporary society that is not only expressed in daily life concerns but also in discourses of politics and social movements. Nevertheless, the I and the needs of self-fulfillment usually are taken for granted. This paper offers thoughts regarding individual identity based on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. From this perspective, identity is not observed as a thing or as a subject, but rather as a “selfillusion” of a system of consciousness, which differentiates itself from the world, event after event, in a contingent way. As concerns the definition  of contents of self-identity, the structures of social systems define who is a person, how he or she should act, and how much esteem he or she should receive. These structures are adopted by consciousness as its own identity structures; however, some social contexts are more relevant for self-identity construction than others. Moral communication increases the probability that structure appropriation takes place, since the emotional element of identity is linked to the esteem/misesteem received by the individual from the interactions in which he or she participates.

Public Service Motivation in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Mastracci
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Service Motivation ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Buffy The Vampire Slayer ◽  
The Public ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Public Servant ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

In this paper, the author examines public service as depicted in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS). First, she shows how slaying meets the economist’s definition of a public good, using the BtVS episode “Flooded” (6.04). Second, she discusses public service motivation (PSM) to determine whether or not Buffy, a public servant, operates from a public service ethic. Relying on established measures and evidence from shooting scripts and episode transcripts, the author concludes Buffy is a public servant motivated by a public service ethic. In this way, BtVS informs scholarship on public service by broadening the concept of PSM beyond the public sector; prompting one to wonder whether it is located in a sector, an occupation, or in the individual. These conclusions allow the author to situate Buffy alongside other idealized public servants in American popular culture.

The Concept of the Individual and Its Scope

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Renz
Keyword(s):  
Strict Sense ◽  
Physical Concept ◽  
Individual Group ◽  
Group Minds ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

This chapter discusses the implications of Spinoza’s concept of individual bodies, as introduced in the definition of individuum in the physical digression. It begins by showing that this definition allows for an extremely wide application of the term; accordingly, very different sorts of physical entities can be described as Spinozistic individuals. Given the quite distinct use of the terms divisibilis and indivisibilis in his metaphysics, however, the chapter argues that the physical concept of individuality is not universally applied in the Ethics but reserved for physical or natural-philosophical considerations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the problem of collective individuals. It is argued that, while societies or states are described as individual bodies, they do not constitute individual group minds in the strict sense of the term for Spinoza. This in turn indicates that minds are not individuated in the same way as bodies.

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