Introduction. Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to revive our common political vocabulary, both everyday and academic, and to do so critically. Its entries do not seek to present a definitive history of a concept or an idea, nor do they attempt to summarize or exhaust a range of views regarding certain concepts. The volume's contributors, although well versed in the history of the concept on which they write and the role it plays in various theoretical discussions, seek to present their own original reflection on the question of what is that concept and thereby what sort of work a rethinking of that concept can do for us now. Each addresses a concept posed in the traditional Socratic question format, “What is X?” “What is that thing about which we speak? ” In so doing, the authors take the position of a questioning subject and assume a more direct and personal responsibility than is the academic norm for the answer they give and for the very act of providing such an answer.