Developed Socialism in the Soviet Bloc: Political Theory and Political Reality

Critical legal theory emerged in the United States in the 1970s, at a time when Central and Eastern Europe belonged to the Soviet bloc and was subject to the system of actually existing socialism. Therefore, the arrival of critical jurisprudence into the region was delayed. In Poland, the first texts on critical and postmodern legal theory began to appear at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. Lech Morawski’s monograph, characteristically entitled What Legal Scholarship Has to Gain from Postmodernism?, published in 2001, officially inaugurated a broader interest in postmodern legal theory. Adam Sulikowski has been the main representative of critical legal theory in Poland, developing a postmodern theory of constitutionalism. Other sub-fields of postmodern and critical legal theory, gradually developing in Central European jurisprudence, include such areas as law and literature, law and ideology, law and neocolonial theory, as well as feminist jurisprudence. There is a noticeably growing influence of critical sociology and critical discourse analysis which seem to be a promising paradigm for invigorating critical legal theory from an empirical perspective. The concept of “the political”, in the sense used by Chantal Mouffe, has been evoked to propose a “political theory of law” conceived as an analysis of the juridical phenomenon through the lens of the political. Recently, it has found its concrete applications in the political theory of judicial decision-making.

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When the people are not reasonable: Multiculturalism and realistic normative theory in the contemporary era

Ethnicities ◽

10.1177/1468796819866542 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 265-292

Author(s):

Phil Parvin

Keyword(s):

Political Theory ◽

Political Liberalism ◽

Normative Theory ◽

First Century ◽

Political Reality ◽

The People ◽

Early Twenty ◽

Twenty First Century ◽

Anglo American ◽

Feasible Solutions

In this piece, I offer an original and fundamental critique of a range of approaches to multiculturalism that have dominated the field of Anglo-American political theory since first-wave debates conducted in the 1990s/2000s. I suggest that the politics of the early twenty-first century, and especially the widespread rise of anti-immigrant and anti-minority sentiments among citizens of liberal democratic states throughout the world, requires political theorists who seek feasible solutions to real-world political problems to reject these theories. I focus on two approaches in particular: political liberalism and the politics of difference. Neither offers a vision of politics that is tenable in the early twenty-first century, I argue, as they both require citizens to deliberate about political matters in ways that they cannot. In discussing these approaches, and finding them wanting, it is revealed that political theorists face a choice. They can present a theory which is realistic in the sense that it takes account of political reality and offers a strategy which might be used to genuinely inform a process of reform. Alternatively, they can abandon realism and also the desire to produce an operational normative theory which can resolve real problems in actually existing states. I lay out the nature and importance of this choice and explain some of its implications for the discipline and for our current political predicament. I suggest that the choice is unavoidable and that making it requires political theorists to make a more fundamental decision about the purposes of normative political theory itself.

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Modus vivendi Johna Graye jako alternativní projekt liberálního myšlení: akceptace hodnotového konfliktu coby základu politična

FILOSOFIE DNES ◽

10.26806/fd.v9i1.236 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 24-51

Author(s):

Aneta Květinová

Keyword(s):

Political Theory ◽

The Political ◽

Value Pluralism ◽

Political Reality ◽

Modus Vivendi ◽

John Gray ◽

Gray's Theory ◽

Theory Of Value ◽

Political Philosopher ◽

Contemporary Liberalism

Studie se zabývá analýzou politické teorie modu vivendi britského politického filosofa Johna Graye, přičemž za její hlavní cíl lze považovat především určení autorovy ideologické pozice v kontextu liberálního myšlení, jakož i posouzení koherence Grayovy teorie s koncepcí liberalismu strachu. Na základě kritické reflexe převažujícího univerzalistického pojetí liberalismu článek identifikuje a analyzuje stěžejní atributy Grayova specifického uchopení liberální teorie v podobě ideálu modu vivendi, etické teorie hodnotového pluralismu, univerzálního minima a hodnoty tolerance. V návaznosti na tuto identifikaci je následně zkoumán i etický rozměr Grayovy politické teorie, jehož charakteristika umožňuje zhodnotit, do jaké míry lze autorovu teorii interpretovat v kontextu liberálního myšlení. V této souvislosti se studie rovněž snaží ukotvit Grayovu tvorbu v širším rámci alternativních projektů liberální teorie, když usiluje o prokázání principiálních paralel mezi Grayovým politickým modelem a politickým myšlením Bernarda Williamse jakožto stěžejním představitelem tzv. liberalismu strachu. Výzkum těchto paralel pak přispívá především k nastolení otázek souvisejících s možností důsledného odlišování politické a morální teorie a chápání konfliktu jakožto neodmyslitelné součásti politické reality v rámci současného liberalismu. The paper aims to analyse the political theory of modus vivendi by political philosopher John Gray and to determine the ideological standpoints of Gray's theory within the context of liberal thought as well as to assess its coherence with the concept of liberalism of fear. On the basis of a critical reflection of the prevailing universalistic conception of liberalism, the study identifies and analyses essential attributes of Gray's specific but controversial political theory: the ideal of modus vivendi; ethical theory of value pluralism; universal minimum and the value of toleration. Having interpreted all those main parts of the concept, the study is supposed to clarify also the ethical dimension of Gray's theory which makes it possible to decide to what extent the author might be identified as a liberal thinker. In this regard, the study endeavours to embed Gray's thought in a broader framework of alternative projects of liberal theory by demonstrating fundamental parallels between Gray's model and political thought of Bernard Williams as the main theoretician of liberalism of fear. Investigations of those parallels thus contributes towards articulating questions concerning the possibility of consistently distinguishing between the political and the moral theory as well as perception of a conflict as an ineradicable part of political reality in the framework of contemporary liberalism.

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The Value of Technological Idealisations to Future Ethical Thinking

10.26686/wgtn.17061008.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Adam Kelly

Keyword(s):

Political Theory ◽

Technological Development ◽

Thought Experiments ◽

Human Enhancement ◽

Ideal Theory ◽

Related Field ◽

Political Reality ◽

Ethical Debate ◽

Political Conditions ◽

Theoretical Issues

<p>This thesis focuses on what I have called “technological idealisations”, and how they are valuable to many current and future ethical debates. Technological idealisations refer to a methodology of using technology thought experiments to contribute to ethical debates. I do not claim this to be a new idea, and in fact will go on to give many examples of technological idealisation that already exist in the philosophical literature. The term describes the purposeful effort to collate these examples into a specific methodological framework; one which gives a particular kind of evidence which can ignore concerns of practicality and critically focus on the theoretical issues in a given debate. In order to explore this idea I will first be looking at past, better known, examples of idealisations to facilitate understanding of my own. I will look at Rawlsian ideal theory as a template for my own idealisations, as well as to explain how they can be valuable in contributing to debates (in Rawls’ case political and in my case ethical). Rawls’ split up the field of political theory into ideal and non-ideal theory. Non-ideal theory is practical and works within the constraints of current political reality. Ideal theory idealises the political conditions to allow theorising regarding perfect political theory. The same can be done for ethics and for technology as it relates to ethics, as is my goal. Following on from this, I also examine Johann Roduit’s use of ideal theory in the closely related field of human enhancement, in which he develops an interesting methodology of using ideals to guide human enhancement programmes. However, rather than being concerned with Roduit’s practical aim, my goal is theoretical. I want to take the ethical principles and theories themselves as ideals for technological development; in doing so technologies will be created, through the use of thought experiments, which agree with the theoretical aims of the theory or principle. These technologies can then be ethically examined and the resulting evidence can contribute (and has in the past contributed) to the ethical debate of those concepts and theories. The kind of evidence I see technological idealisations as offering ignores practical concerns and in doing so is also immune to criticisms of impracticality. This allows for more closely focused scrutiny of the ethical theories and principles themselves, undistracted by appeals to practicality which either argue for accepting a theory due to its utility or argue for rejecting a theory due to its impracticality.</p>

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Contextualist political theory about multiculturalism in a post-multiculturalist context

Ethnicities ◽

10.1177/1468796820964304 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 146879682096430

Author(s):

Sune Lægaard

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Political Theory ◽

General Problem ◽

Minority Groups ◽

Critical Distance ◽

Political Opposition ◽

Political Reality ◽

Contextualist Approach ◽

Political Principles ◽

Point Of Departure

Many theorists of multiculturalism have proposed contextualism as an approach particularly suited for theorizing multiculturalism. The so-called Bristol School of Multiculturalism (BSM) is characterized by a ‘bottom up’ and claims-based approach eschewing appeal to abstract political principles. Tariq Modood has articulated this contextualist approach as a version of Michael Oakeshott’s idea of politics as ‘the pursuit of intimations’. The question is how such an approach fares when applied to the specific political and social context characteristic of, especially European, political reality of the last 10–15 years. Political opposition to multiculturalism at ideological and rhetorical levels has characterized this context. At the legal level, many of the laws and rules in place actually protecting minority groups have furthermore not had the form of group rights or policies of recognition proposed by multiculturalist theories. The question therefore arises whether a contextualist approach that takes its point of departure in the facts of such a context can deliver a justification of a recognizable multiculturalist political theory. This is a version of the general problem of critical distance facing contextualism. Modood’s version of the approach appeals to the internal diversity of traditions to answer this problem. However, this leads to additional questions about the nature of the theory and the way in which it is action-guiding. Consideration of these questions qualifies the understanding of in which sense the BSM approach is contextual.

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Meindert Fennema: Political Theory in Polder Perspective

The Review of Politics ◽

10.1017/s0034670500032162 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 63 (4) ◽

pp. 783-804

Author(s):

Dante Germino

Keyword(s):

Political Theory ◽

Political Science ◽

Review Article ◽

Political Order ◽

Collective Consciousness ◽

Political Ideas ◽

Political Reality ◽

History Of ◽

Eric Voegelin ◽

The University

The polder—a strip of land redeemed from the sea—is a symbol in the Dutch collective consciousness for the successful struggle against threatening inundations. Implicit in this struggle is the idea of strong civic communities, because cooperation is mandatory in the building of dikes to keep out the water. It is therefore appropriate to describe the work of Meindert Fennema currently one of the Netherland's leading political theorists, as a view of political reality from the perspective of the polder. This is not meant in a provincial sense, however, for the polder is a form of shelter and as Eric Voegelin wrote in the Introduction to his long unpublished notes on the “History of Political Ideas,” “the function proper of [political] order is the creation of a shelter in which a man may give to his life a semblance of meaning.” “Political Theory in Polder Perspective“ is therefore a fitting title for this review article on the work of the contemporary Dutch political theorist, Meindert Fennema, longtime member of the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam.

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The Value of Technological Idealisations to Future Ethical Thinking

10.26686/wgtn.17061008 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Adam Kelly

Keyword(s):

Political Theory ◽

Technological Development ◽

Thought Experiments ◽

Human Enhancement ◽

Ideal Theory ◽

Related Field ◽

Political Reality ◽

Ethical Debate ◽

Political Conditions ◽

Theoretical Issues

<p>This thesis focuses on what I have called “technological idealisations”, and how they are valuable to many current and future ethical debates. Technological idealisations refer to a methodology of using technology thought experiments to contribute to ethical debates. I do not claim this to be a new idea, and in fact will go on to give many examples of technological idealisation that already exist in the philosophical literature. The term describes the purposeful effort to collate these examples into a specific methodological framework; one which gives a particular kind of evidence which can ignore concerns of practicality and critically focus on the theoretical issues in a given debate. In order to explore this idea I will first be looking at past, better known, examples of idealisations to facilitate understanding of my own. I will look at Rawlsian ideal theory as a template for my own idealisations, as well as to explain how they can be valuable in contributing to debates (in Rawls’ case political and in my case ethical). Rawls’ split up the field of political theory into ideal and non-ideal theory. Non-ideal theory is practical and works within the constraints of current political reality. Ideal theory idealises the political conditions to allow theorising regarding perfect political theory. The same can be done for ethics and for technology as it relates to ethics, as is my goal. Following on from this, I also examine Johann Roduit’s use of ideal theory in the closely related field of human enhancement, in which he develops an interesting methodology of using ideals to guide human enhancement programmes. However, rather than being concerned with Roduit’s practical aim, my goal is theoretical. I want to take the ethical principles and theories themselves as ideals for technological development; in doing so technologies will be created, through the use of thought experiments, which agree with the theoretical aims of the theory or principle. These technologies can then be ethically examined and the resulting evidence can contribute (and has in the past contributed) to the ethical debate of those concepts and theories. The kind of evidence I see technological idealisations as offering ignores practical concerns and in doing so is also immune to criticisms of impracticality. This allows for more closely focused scrutiny of the ethical theories and principles themselves, undistracted by appeals to practicality which either argue for accepting a theory due to its utility or argue for rejecting a theory due to its impracticality.</p>

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Kennedy's Grand Democratic Design

The Review of Politics ◽

10.1017/s0034670500006616 ◽

1965 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 3-16

Author(s):

Neal Riemer

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Political Philosophy ◽

Political Theory ◽

Primary Task ◽

Critical Study ◽

Political Reality

This Article will explore four major questions. Is there a grand democratic design to be detected in John F. Kennedy's political philosophy? Was the design coherent? May it still profitably guide us today? And does it have enduring significance?Perhaps these questions ask too much of a President whose primary task is statesmanship and not philosophy or science. Yet if political theory is a “critical study concerned with harmoniously relating the normative, empirical, and prudential components of politics,” then even a focus on Kennedy's public policy inevitably throws light on his goals and his grasp of political reality. And as the statesman seeks (in the light of political possibility) to advance his policies in order to fulfill his purposes, he must in some fashion grapple with the fundamental problems of politics. Consequently, recognizing that Kennedy's approach to the key problems of political philosophy will not be critical, comprehensive, or complete, we may still want to explore his approach in the context of his own grand democratic design.

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