Andrew Kuper
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- November 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199274901
- eISBN:
- 9780191601552
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199274908.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Global organizations are exercising unprecedented power–from the hallowed halls of the UN to the closed boardrooms of multinational corporations. Yet their leaders are often scandalously ...
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Global organizations are exercising unprecedented power–from the hallowed halls of the UN to the closed boardrooms of multinational corporations. Yet their leaders are often scandalously unaccountable to the people they claim to serve. How can we ensure that global leaders act responsively, and effectively, in the interests of the world’s people? In this lucid and provocative book, Andrew Kuper develops persuasive and practical answers.Democracy Beyond Borders criticizes conventional theories of justice and democracy that focus almost exclusively on the state and its electoral cycles. Kuper shows how non-state actors, such as corporations and civil society advocates, can be brought into multi-level government as partners with states. He presents an original theory of representation to answer the problem of accountability. At the core of this vision is a new separation of powers, in which different global actors check and balance one another in a complex harmony. This innovative framework complements electoral accountability and enables Kuper to recommend far-reaching reforms to the World Courts, the UN, and advocacy agencies including Transparency International.Democracy Beyond Borders stands at the forefront of a new generation of political thought, for which globalization is the challenge and deepening democracy the solution.Less
Global organizations are exercising unprecedented power–from the hallowed halls of the UN to the closed boardrooms of multinational corporations. Yet their leaders are often scandalously unaccountable to the people they claim to serve. How can we ensure that global leaders act responsively, and effectively, in the interests of the world’s people? In this lucid and provocative book, Andrew Kuper develops persuasive and practical answers.Democracy Beyond Borders criticizes conventional theories of justice and democracy that focus almost exclusively on the state and its electoral cycles. Kuper shows how non-state actors, such as corporations and civil society advocates, can be brought into multi-level government as partners with states. He presents an original theory of representation to answer the problem of accountability. At the core of this vision is a new separation of powers, in which different global actors check and balance one another in a complex harmony. This innovative framework complements electoral accountability and enables Kuper to recommend far-reaching reforms to the World Courts, the UN, and advocacy agencies including Transparency International.Democracy Beyond Borders stands at the forefront of a new generation of political thought, for which globalization is the challenge and deepening democracy the solution.
Erik Jones
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199208333
- eISBN:
- 9780191708985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208333.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Economy
This chapter analyses the adjustment strategies pursued by Wilfried Martens in Belgium (Poupehan) and Ruud Lubbers in the Netherlands (Wassenaar). It shows how they were able to restart price-incomes ...
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This chapter analyses the adjustment strategies pursued by Wilfried Martens in Belgium (Poupehan) and Ruud Lubbers in the Netherlands (Wassenaar). It shows how they were able to restart price-incomes policy within the context of the European monetary system and so to recapture competitiveness by depreciating the real exchange rate. It also explains how difficult this policy was to initiate politically. Once started, however, the policy was both effective and easy to maintain. What was more difficult to control was the political reactions. When Martens and Lubbers lost power in the 1990s, they augured the end of Christian Democratic hegemony in both countries — in the Netherlands by 1994 and in Belgium by 1999.Less
This chapter analyses the adjustment strategies pursued by Wilfried Martens in Belgium (Poupehan) and Ruud Lubbers in the Netherlands (Wassenaar). It shows how they were able to restart price-incomes policy within the context of the European monetary system and so to recapture competitiveness by depreciating the real exchange rate. It also explains how difficult this policy was to initiate politically. Once started, however, the policy was both effective and easy to maintain. What was more difficult to control was the political reactions. When Martens and Lubbers lost power in the 1990s, they augured the end of Christian Democratic hegemony in both countries — in the Netherlands by 1994 and in Belgium by 1999.
Andrew Kuper
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- November 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199274901
- eISBN:
- 9780191601552
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199274908.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
In the face of globalization, an international political system based on states is unable to meet daunting political challenges that confront our world. Is it possible to develop a global order that ...
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In the face of globalization, an international political system based on states is unable to meet daunting political challenges that confront our world. Is it possible to develop a global order that would enable more justifiable and effective rule for the world’s people? In particular, can the principles and practices of justice and representative democracy be extended, to answer this challenge, beyond the state contexts for which they were devised? This book argues that we should end our dubious romance with the nation-state in favour of a multi-form global system called Responsive Democracy. To this end, the book presents core components of (a) a theory of global justice that arises out of a critique of the influential political philosophy of John Rawls; (b) a theory of democratic representation that constitutes an alternative to the approach taken by Jurgen Habermas and his deliberative democratic followers; and (c) a theory of how political and moral ideals that are necessarily framed in abstract terms can help orient practice in messy, non-ideal conditions. Together, these three currents of this text form a novel approach to global justice and democracy. The concrete implications of this approach to constitutionalism, institutional design, and politics will be explored for four leading global institutions.Less
In the face of globalization, an international political system based on states is unable to meet daunting political challenges that confront our world. Is it possible to develop a global order that would enable more justifiable and effective rule for the world’s people? In particular, can the principles and practices of justice and representative democracy be extended, to answer this challenge, beyond the state contexts for which they were devised? This book argues that we should end our dubious romance with the nation-state in favour of a multi-form global system called Responsive Democracy. To this end, the book presents core components of (a) a theory of global justice that arises out of a critique of the influential political philosophy of John Rawls; (b) a theory of democratic representation that constitutes an alternative to the approach taken by Jurgen Habermas and his deliberative democratic followers; and (c) a theory of how political and moral ideals that are necessarily framed in abstract terms can help orient practice in messy, non-ideal conditions. Together, these three currents of this text form a novel approach to global justice and democracy. The concrete implications of this approach to constitutionalism, institutional design, and politics will be explored for four leading global institutions.
Andrew Kuper
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- November 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199274901
- eISBN:
- 9780191601552
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199274908.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The conclusion compares the theories of global justice and democracy developed by Rawls, Habermas, and Kuper. It does so along ten dimensions: (1) Sources of Normativity, (2) Moral Scope, (3) ...
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The conclusion compares the theories of global justice and democracy developed by Rawls, Habermas, and Kuper. It does so along ten dimensions: (1) Sources of Normativity, (2) Moral Scope, (3) Political Scope, (4) Spheres of Governance, (5) Political Interests, (6) Constraints on Governance, (7) Political Judgement, (8) Political Discretion, (9) Political Participation, and (10) Sites of Governance. The chapter argues that Kuper’s theory of Responsive Democracy has advantages along all these axes. These advantages are due to, above all, deep differences in the three theorists’ assumptions about power, knowledge, and the role of ideals in politics.Less
The conclusion compares the theories of global justice and democracy developed by Rawls, Habermas, and Kuper. It does so along ten dimensions: (1) Sources of Normativity, (2) Moral Scope, (3) Political Scope, (4) Spheres of Governance, (5) Political Interests, (6) Constraints on Governance, (7) Political Judgement, (8) Political Discretion, (9) Political Participation, and (10) Sites of Governance. The chapter argues that Kuper’s theory of Responsive Democracy has advantages along all these axes. These advantages are due to, above all, deep differences in the three theorists’ assumptions about power, knowledge, and the role of ideals in politics.
Robert E. Goodin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199547944
- eISBN:
- 9780191720116
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199547944.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Theory
This chapter develops a principled role for political parties. What would be lacking in a polity that is perfectly democratic but that has no parties? The answer is: the politics of ideas, ...
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This chapter develops a principled role for political parties. What would be lacking in a polity that is perfectly democratic but that has no parties? The answer is: the politics of ideas, systematically pursued. Democracy requires that a community is collectively self-legislating; a ‘ratio’ is required to have truly ‘given a law to yourself’, and to be ‘self-legislating’ in that sense; and collective ‘ratio’ is necessarily absent from the uncoordinated votes of independent actors in a No-Party Democracy. The ‘giving law to ourselves’ requirement, further unpacked, suggests a need for at least (and perhaps at most) two parties, and further imposes a requirement that they be ‘ideationally unified’ rather than catch-all parties.Less
This chapter develops a principled role for political parties. What would be lacking in a polity that is perfectly democratic but that has no parties? The answer is: the politics of ideas, systematically pursued. Democracy requires that a community is collectively self-legislating; a ‘ratio’ is required to have truly ‘given a law to yourself’, and to be ‘self-legislating’ in that sense; and collective ‘ratio’ is necessarily absent from the uncoordinated votes of independent actors in a No-Party Democracy. The ‘giving law to ourselves’ requirement, further unpacked, suggests a need for at least (and perhaps at most) two parties, and further imposes a requirement that they be ‘ideationally unified’ rather than catch-all parties.
Anita L. Allen and Milton C. Regan (eds)
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294962
- eISBN:
- 9780191598708
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294964.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
In Democracy’s Discontent, Michael Sandel contrasts the civic republican approach to American politics with that of liberal neutrality and shows how the two views have played out over the course of ...
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In Democracy’s Discontent, Michael Sandel contrasts the civic republican approach to American politics with that of liberal neutrality and shows how the two views have played out over the course of US history. Sandel argues that liberal neutrality is overwhelmingly dominant today, and he urges a return to a more Aristotelian, republican politics; both positions are controverted here. Under republicanism, government, acting on the premise that self-government is intrinsically good, would take on the challenge of inculcating the virtues of character necessary for effective citizenship. Sandel is not completely clear as to just what America’s lost republican ideals are and precisely what policies his republicanism would justify that liberalism cannot; he fails to acknowledge what both he and his critics should reject as the dark sides of republicanism: right-wing extremism and the tendency toward aristocracy. Republicanism, as well as liberalism, has special dangers for women, though heterosexual women might benefit from a republican discourse on homosexual marriage. The traditional civic virtues may not be those most appropriate to the contemporary United States; liberalism may be able to justify the promotion of virtues appropriate to our times, and a new civic pluralism may be more desirable than a more traditional republicanism. Many Americans are encumbered with traditional group identities that do not sit well with Sandel’s democratic, progressive, redistributivist republicanism; religion can promote virtue and progress, but it can also conflict with republican citizenship. Whether strong beliefs and commitments are valuable is subject to debate; they can produce culture wars, and some way must be found of responding to Americans who are unwilling to yield cherished values in the face of procedural rules. The emotional void republicanism is offered to fill, as well as the goals it is offered to pursue, proceed in part from the behavior of corporations and the desire of middle-class individuals to control them. Americans, Michael Sandel among them, are encumbered with individualism.Less
In Democracy’s Discontent, Michael Sandel contrasts the civic republican approach to American politics with that of liberal neutrality and shows how the two views have played out over the course of US history. Sandel argues that liberal neutrality is overwhelmingly dominant today, and he urges a return to a more Aristotelian, republican politics; both positions are controverted here. Under republicanism, government, acting on the premise that self-government is intrinsically good, would take on the challenge of inculcating the virtues of character necessary for effective citizenship. Sandel is not completely clear as to just what America’s lost republican ideals are and precisely what policies his republicanism would justify that liberalism cannot; he fails to acknowledge what both he and his critics should reject as the dark sides of republicanism: right-wing extremism and the tendency toward aristocracy. Republicanism, as well as liberalism, has special dangers for women, though heterosexual women might benefit from a republican discourse on homosexual marriage. The traditional civic virtues may not be those most appropriate to the contemporary United States; liberalism may be able to justify the promotion of virtues appropriate to our times, and a new civic pluralism may be more desirable than a more traditional republicanism. Many Americans are encumbered with traditional group identities that do not sit well with Sandel’s democratic, progressive, redistributivist republicanism; religion can promote virtue and progress, but it can also conflict with republican citizenship. Whether strong beliefs and commitments are valuable is subject to debate; they can produce culture wars, and some way must be found of responding to Americans who are unwilling to yield cherished values in the face of procedural rules. The emotional void republicanism is offered to fill, as well as the goals it is offered to pursue, proceed in part from the behavior of corporations and the desire of middle-class individuals to control them. Americans, Michael Sandel among them, are encumbered with individualism.
Allen Buchanan
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780198295358
- eISBN:
- 9780191600982
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198295359.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This second part of the book turns to an examination of the conditions under which it is morally justifiable to exercise political power to enforce international law in the pursuit of justice. Ch. 5 ...
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This second part of the book turns to an examination of the conditions under which it is morally justifiable to exercise political power to enforce international law in the pursuit of justice. Ch. 5 develops a justice‐based conception of political legitimacy, where “political legitimacy” is defined as follows: An entity has political legitimacy if and only if it is morally justified in exercising political power, where the exercise of political power may, in turn, be defined as the (credible) attempt to achieve supremacy in the making, application, and enforcement of laws within a jurisdiction. It is argued that an entity that exercises political power is morally justified in doing so only if it meets a minimal standard of justice, understood as the protection of basic human rights. The conception of political legitimacy offered is meant to be perfectly general, and applies to any entity that wields political power, whether at the state, regional, or international level; it is used again in Chs 6–8. The eight sections of the chapter are: I. Political Legitimacy and the Morality of Political Power; The Irrelevance of the Idea that We Owe Compliance to the Government; III. Explaining the Preoccupation with the Government's Right to be Obeyed; IV. Toward a Theory of Political Legitimacy; V. Why Should Some Persons Rather than Others Wield Political Power?; VI. Democracy and Mutual Obligations among Citizens; and VIII. Conclusions.Less
This second part of the book turns to an examination of the conditions under which it is morally justifiable to exercise political power to enforce international law in the pursuit of justice. Ch. 5 develops a justice‐based conception of political legitimacy, where “political legitimacy” is defined as follows: An entity has political legitimacy if and only if it is morally justified in exercising political power, where the exercise of political power may, in turn, be defined as the (credible) attempt to achieve supremacy in the making, application, and enforcement of laws within a jurisdiction. It is argued that an entity that exercises political power is morally justified in doing so only if it meets a minimal standard of justice, understood as the protection of basic human rights. The conception of political legitimacy offered is meant to be perfectly general, and applies to any entity that wields political power, whether at the state, regional, or international level; it is used again in Chs 6–8. The eight sections of the chapter are: I. Political Legitimacy and the Morality of Political Power; The Irrelevance of the Idea that We Owe Compliance to the Government; III. Explaining the Preoccupation with the Government's Right to be Obeyed; IV. Toward a Theory of Political Legitimacy; V. Why Should Some Persons Rather than Others Wield Political Power?; VI. Democracy and Mutual Obligations among Citizens; and VIII. Conclusions.
Carl A. Raschke
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231173841
- eISBN:
- 9780231539623
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231173841.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter argues that the crisis of representation proves itself to be intertwined with a crisis in the theory of sovereignty, suggesting a deeper challenge to liberalism.
This chapter argues that the crisis of representation proves itself to be intertwined with a crisis in the theory of sovereignty, suggesting a deeper challenge to liberalism.
Thomas F. Farr
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195179958
- eISBN:
- 9780199869749
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179958.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Robert Seiple, a Republican evangelical, was chosen by President William Clinton to lead his administration's religious freedom initiative. Initially the administration hoped that Seiple's ...
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Robert Seiple, a Republican evangelical, was chosen by President William Clinton to lead his administration's religious freedom initiative. Initially the administration hoped that Seiple's appointment would forestall the IRF Act itself. When the Act was passed anyway, Seiple became the first IRF Ambassador at Large, a position established by the Act. Within the Department, however, the bureaucracy reverted to its default position of isolating the new initiative within the bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, itself out of the mainstream of foreign policy. Seiple fought for a permanent staff but ultimately acquiesced in functional and bureaucratic isolation, choosing instead to travel widely. His legacy lies in the dens of persecution abroad, and with his having won the “battle over China,”—i.e., convincing Secretary Madeleine Albright to designate China as a “country of particular concern” under the IRF Act. Seiple also began the “Islamic Roundtable” at State, a prescient idea whose time was yet to come.Less
Robert Seiple, a Republican evangelical, was chosen by President William Clinton to lead his administration's religious freedom initiative. Initially the administration hoped that Seiple's appointment would forestall the IRF Act itself. When the Act was passed anyway, Seiple became the first IRF Ambassador at Large, a position established by the Act. Within the Department, however, the bureaucracy reverted to its default position of isolating the new initiative within the bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, itself out of the mainstream of foreign policy. Seiple fought for a permanent staff but ultimately acquiesced in functional and bureaucratic isolation, choosing instead to travel widely. His legacy lies in the dens of persecution abroad, and with his having won the “battle over China,”—i.e., convincing Secretary Madeleine Albright to designate China as a “country of particular concern” under the IRF Act. Seiple also began the “Islamic Roundtable” at State, a prescient idea whose time was yet to come.
Raymond Plant
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199281756
- eISBN:
- 9780191713040
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199281756.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Theory
A central theme of this chapter is the role of monetary theory within the neo‐liberal account of the role of the state. For a neo‐liberal thinker such as Mises, monetary theory consists of a set of a ...
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A central theme of this chapter is the role of monetary theory within the neo‐liberal account of the role of the state. For a neo‐liberal thinker such as Mises, monetary theory consists of a set of a priori truths derived from the concept of money itself. Thus, the quantity of money theory or monetarism is not one hypothesis among others within economics, but has a more profound status and basis than that. Such a monetary theory when allied to the points made in the first part of Chapter 8 along with other economic theories (such as crowding out and neo‐liberal microeconomic theories) undermine in a fundamental way Keynesian ideas. Such ideas have been central to Social Democracy and again therefore such a critique of Keynes is an attempt to undermine a basic means of arriving at social democratic ends such as social justice which have already been the subject of critical analysis. One central role for the state from a neo‐liberal view is the provision of public goods that is to say goods which rely on cooperation to produce but which cannot be partitioned so that only those who cooperate in their production can benefit (clean air would be an example). The market will not produce such goods because each individual has a strong incentive from a rational utility maximizing point of view not to contribute and they will therefore not be produced. The details of this argument are considered and analysed.Less
A central theme of this chapter is the role of monetary theory within the neo‐liberal account of the role of the state. For a neo‐liberal thinker such as Mises, monetary theory consists of a set of a priori truths derived from the concept of money itself. Thus, the quantity of money theory or monetarism is not one hypothesis among others within economics, but has a more profound status and basis than that. Such a monetary theory when allied to the points made in the first part of Chapter 8 along with other economic theories (such as crowding out and neo‐liberal microeconomic theories) undermine in a fundamental way Keynesian ideas. Such ideas have been central to Social Democracy and again therefore such a critique of Keynes is an attempt to undermine a basic means of arriving at social democratic ends such as social justice which have already been the subject of critical analysis. One central role for the state from a neo‐liberal view is the provision of public goods that is to say goods which rely on cooperation to produce but which cannot be partitioned so that only those who cooperate in their production can benefit (clean air would be an example). The market will not produce such goods because each individual has a strong incentive from a rational utility maximizing point of view not to contribute and they will therefore not be produced. The details of this argument are considered and analysed.
Adrienne LeBas
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199546862
- eISBN:
- 9780191728594
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546862.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
Chapter 6 argues that civic life in both Zambia and Kenya was characterized by weak social ties, which impeded party-building before and after democratic transitions began. The structure of these ...
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Chapter 6 argues that civic life in both Zambia and Kenya was characterized by weak social ties, which impeded party-building before and after democratic transitions began. The structure of these ties differed. In Zambia, the loose cross-regional networks of organized labor provided likely opposition supporters with a focal point and a means of coordinating votes. In Kenya, on the other hand, civic life was atomized to the district level, which made the coordination of protest across space or across ethnic groups far more difficult. In Zambia, trade unions provided a mobilizing structure that allowed for a successful protest movement as opposition to the ruling party increased. In Kenya, the absence of this mobilizing structure led opposition leaders to rely on ethnic mobilization. In the two countries, different network structures had different implications for the coordination of protest, but they were similarly unsuited for the building of strong, durable opposition parties.Less
Chapter 6 argues that civic life in both Zambia and Kenya was characterized by weak social ties, which impeded party-building before and after democratic transitions began. The structure of these ties differed. In Zambia, the loose cross-regional networks of organized labor provided likely opposition supporters with a focal point and a means of coordinating votes. In Kenya, on the other hand, civic life was atomized to the district level, which made the coordination of protest across space or across ethnic groups far more difficult. In Zambia, trade unions provided a mobilizing structure that allowed for a successful protest movement as opposition to the ruling party increased. In Kenya, the absence of this mobilizing structure led opposition leaders to rely on ethnic mobilization. In the two countries, different network structures had different implications for the coordination of protest, but they were similarly unsuited for the building of strong, durable opposition parties.
James D. Tracy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199209118
- eISBN:
- 9780191706134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199209118.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
Historians of republicanism have focussed on states where princely rule was overthrown (15th‐century Florence, 17th‐century England). Yet even in princely realms town magistrates claimed to be part ...
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Historians of republicanism have focussed on states where princely rule was overthrown (15th‐century Florence, 17th‐century England). Yet even in princely realms town magistrates claimed to be part of a underline respublica mixta, a state combining the principles of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Dutch writers understood the United Provinces as a underline respublica mixta—that is, a stable, balanced constitution. Some embraced the democratic principle, invoking the memory of ancient Athens. Others (partisans of the House of Orange) bemoaned the weakness of the monarchical principle. Still others, like Holland's Hugo Grotius, saw the town oligarchies as forming a proper, aristocratic republic, like Sparta or Venice. Thus understood, the new polity was hardly democratic; but in a Europe dominated by strong monarchies, it was a beacon of republican liberty.Less
Historians of republicanism have focussed on states where princely rule was overthrown (15th‐century Florence, 17th‐century England). Yet even in princely realms town magistrates claimed to be part of a underline respublica mixta, a state combining the principles of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Dutch writers understood the United Provinces as a underline respublica mixta—that is, a stable, balanced constitution. Some embraced the democratic principle, invoking the memory of ancient Athens. Others (partisans of the House of Orange) bemoaned the weakness of the monarchical principle. Still others, like Holland's Hugo Grotius, saw the town oligarchies as forming a proper, aristocratic republic, like Sparta or Venice. Thus understood, the new polity was hardly democratic; but in a Europe dominated by strong monarchies, it was a beacon of republican liberty.
Cornelia D. J. Pearsall
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195150544
- eISBN:
- 9780199871124
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195150544.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book explores Tennyson’s representation of rapture, or being carried away, as a radical mechanism of transformation—theological, social, political, or personal—and as a figure for critical ...
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This book explores Tennyson’s representation of rapture, or being carried away, as a radical mechanism of transformation—theological, social, political, or personal—and as a figure for critical processes in his own poetics. The poet’s fascination with transformation is figured formally in the genre he is credited with inventing, the dramatic monologue. Situating Tennyson within communities of Victorian classicists, explorers, politicians, theologians, and sexologists, this book offers substantial original readings of a range of Tennyson’s major poems. Tennyson’s Rapture investigates the poet’s previously unrecognized intimacy with the theological movements in early Victorian Britain that are the acknowledged roots of contemporary Pentacostalism (with its belief in the oncoming rapture), and its formative relation to his poetic innovation. Tennyson’ work recurs persistently as well to classical instances of rapture, of mortals being borne away by immortals, a pattern illuminated by the poet’s intellectual and emotional investments in advances in philological scholarship and archeological exploration, in particular the contested discovery of Homer’s raptured Troy. Tennyson’s attraction to processes of personal and social change is bound to his significant but generally overlooked Whig ideological commitments, informed by the political and philosophical writings of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam (the subject of In Memoriam) and a half-century of interaction with William Gladstone. Pearsall shows the comprehensive engagement of seemingly apolitical monologues with the rise of democracy over the course of Tennyson’s long career. Proposing a new approach to reading all Victorian dramatic monologues, this book argues against a critical tradition that sees speakers as unintentionally self-revealing and ignorant of the implications of their speech, demonstrating instead the commanding cultural ambitions of dramatic speakers and the poet himself.Less
This book explores Tennyson’s representation of rapture, or being carried away, as a radical mechanism of transformation—theological, social, political, or personal—and as a figure for critical processes in his own poetics. The poet’s fascination with transformation is figured formally in the genre he is credited with inventing, the dramatic monologue. Situating Tennyson within communities of Victorian classicists, explorers, politicians, theologians, and sexologists, this book offers substantial original readings of a range of Tennyson’s major poems. Tennyson’s Rapture investigates the poet’s previously unrecognized intimacy with the theological movements in early Victorian Britain that are the acknowledged roots of contemporary Pentacostalism (with its belief in the oncoming rapture), and its formative relation to his poetic innovation. Tennyson’ work recurs persistently as well to classical instances of rapture, of mortals being borne away by immortals, a pattern illuminated by the poet’s intellectual and emotional investments in advances in philological scholarship and archeological exploration, in particular the contested discovery of Homer’s raptured Troy. Tennyson’s attraction to processes of personal and social change is bound to his significant but generally overlooked Whig ideological commitments, informed by the political and philosophical writings of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam (the subject of In Memoriam) and a half-century of interaction with William Gladstone. Pearsall shows the comprehensive engagement of seemingly apolitical monologues with the rise of democracy over the course of Tennyson’s long career. Proposing a new approach to reading all Victorian dramatic monologues, this book argues against a critical tradition that sees speakers as unintentionally self-revealing and ignorant of the implications of their speech, demonstrating instead the commanding cultural ambitions of dramatic speakers and the poet himself.
Carlo Accetti
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231170789
- eISBN:
- 9780231540377
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231170789.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Moral relativism is deeply troubling for those who believe that, without a set of moral absolutes, democratic societies will devolve into tyranny or totalitarianism. Carlo Invernizzi Accetti traces ...
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Moral relativism is deeply troubling for those who believe that, without a set of moral absolutes, democratic societies will devolve into tyranny or totalitarianism. Carlo Invernizzi Accetti traces the roots of contemporary anti-relativist fears to the antimodern rhetoric of the Catholic Church and then rescues a form of philosophical relativism for modern, pluralist societies, arguing that this viewpoint provides the firmest foundation for an allegiance to democracy. In his analyses of the relationship between religious arguments and political authority and the implications of philosophical relativism for democratic theory, Accetti makes a far-ranging contribution to contemporary debates over the revival of religion in politics and the conceptual grounds for a commitment to democracy. He presents the first comprehensive genealogy of anti-relativist discourse and reclaims for English-speaking readers the overlooked work of Hans Kelsen on the connection between relativism and democracy. By engaging with contemporary attempts to replace the religious foundation of democratic values with a neo-Kantian conception of reason, Accetti also makes a powerful case for relativism as the best basis for a civic ethos that integrates different perspectives into democratic politics.Less
Moral relativism is deeply troubling for those who believe that, without a set of moral absolutes, democratic societies will devolve into tyranny or totalitarianism. Carlo Invernizzi Accetti traces the roots of contemporary anti-relativist fears to the antimodern rhetoric of the Catholic Church and then rescues a form of philosophical relativism for modern, pluralist societies, arguing that this viewpoint provides the firmest foundation for an allegiance to democracy. In his analyses of the relationship between religious arguments and political authority and the implications of philosophical relativism for democratic theory, Accetti makes a far-ranging contribution to contemporary debates over the revival of religion in politics and the conceptual grounds for a commitment to democracy. He presents the first comprehensive genealogy of anti-relativist discourse and reclaims for English-speaking readers the overlooked work of Hans Kelsen on the connection between relativism and democracy. By engaging with contemporary attempts to replace the religious foundation of democratic values with a neo-Kantian conception of reason, Accetti also makes a powerful case for relativism as the best basis for a civic ethos that integrates different perspectives into democratic politics.
Anja Eleveld
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447340010
- eISBN:
- 9781447340164
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447340010.003.0012
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
This chapter examines how the republican theory of non-domination can be used for a normative analysis of WTW relationships. It is argued that Lovett’s conception of non-domination captures some of ...
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This chapter examines how the republican theory of non-domination can be used for a normative analysis of WTW relationships. It is argued that Lovett’s conception of non-domination captures some of the defining elements of these relationships. However, his conception of rules is (too) strongly rooted in the ideas of reasonability and impartiality, as a result of which vulnerable people in particular are at risk of being excluded from its (potentially protective) scope. Therefore, a republican normative analysis of WTW practices should also take account of Pettit’s more inclusive, democratic account of the republican theory of non-domination that is more attentive to the need for democratic oversight over discretionary spaces of welfare officers and work supervisors.Less
This chapter examines how the republican theory of non-domination can be used for a normative analysis of WTW relationships. It is argued that Lovett’s conception of non-domination captures some of the defining elements of these relationships. However, his conception of rules is (too) strongly rooted in the ideas of reasonability and impartiality, as a result of which vulnerable people in particular are at risk of being excluded from its (potentially protective) scope. Therefore, a republican normative analysis of WTW practices should also take account of Pettit’s more inclusive, democratic account of the republican theory of non-domination that is more attentive to the need for democratic oversight over discretionary spaces of welfare officers and work supervisors.
P. J. Cain
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198203902
- eISBN:
- 9780191719141
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203902.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter shows the complex ways in which Hobson's views on imperialism were influenced by his encounter of the First World War and the beginning of the next. During the First World War, his views ...
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This chapter shows the complex ways in which Hobson's views on imperialism were influenced by his encounter of the First World War and the beginning of the next. During the First World War, his views gradually shifted back towards those he had put forward in Imperialism: A Study, as evident in The New Protectionism and especially in Democracy after the War. After the war and through to the mid-1930s, his views moved in the opposite direction, back to those expressed in An Economic Interpretation of Investment though without ever quite matching the heady optimism of that work. After the war, and to some extent because of it, Hobson's views as expressed in Imperialism: A Study slowly became more acceptable in academic circles and on the left of politics. The chapter ends with a brief summary of Hobson's views on imperialism over the period 1887-1938.Less
This chapter shows the complex ways in which Hobson's views on imperialism were influenced by his encounter of the First World War and the beginning of the next. During the First World War, his views gradually shifted back towards those he had put forward in Imperialism: A Study, as evident in The New Protectionism and especially in Democracy after the War. After the war and through to the mid-1930s, his views moved in the opposite direction, back to those expressed in An Economic Interpretation of Investment though without ever quite matching the heady optimism of that work. After the war, and to some extent because of it, Hobson's views as expressed in Imperialism: A Study slowly became more acceptable in academic circles and on the left of politics. The chapter ends with a brief summary of Hobson's views on imperialism over the period 1887-1938.
Elizabeth Teresa Groppe
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195166422
- eISBN:
- 9780199835638
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195166426.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter concludes the analysis with reflection on the contemporary significance of Congar’s integration of pneumatological anthropology and pneumatological ecclesiology. The author uses Congar’s ...
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This chapter concludes the analysis with reflection on the contemporary significance of Congar’s integration of pneumatological anthropology and pneumatological ecclesiology. The author uses Congar’s theology of the Holy Spirit as the basis for the formulation of constructive proposals on three issues facing the theological discipline today: the discussion as to whether the Catholic Church is a hierarchy or a democracy, the suitability of “persons in communion” as a framework for ecclesiological discourse, and reflection on the personhood of the Holy Spirit and the theology of appropriations.Less
This chapter concludes the analysis with reflection on the contemporary significance of Congar’s integration of pneumatological anthropology and pneumatological ecclesiology. The author uses Congar’s theology of the Holy Spirit as the basis for the formulation of constructive proposals on three issues facing the theological discipline today: the discussion as to whether the Catholic Church is a hierarchy or a democracy, the suitability of “persons in communion” as a framework for ecclesiological discourse, and reflection on the personhood of the Holy Spirit and the theology of appropriations.
MICHAEL WHEATLEY
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199273577
- eISBN:
- 9780191706165
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199273577.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Political rhetoric, whether defined as the calculated use of public language by practitioners of ‘high’ politics or the everyday, background noise of local politicians, suffused the Irish provincial ...
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Political rhetoric, whether defined as the calculated use of public language by practitioners of ‘high’ politics or the everyday, background noise of local politicians, suffused the Irish provincial press. ‘Nationalist’ political language covered a strikingly wide variety of attitudes — from conciliation to threat; from democratic radicalism, to Whiggish imperialism, to visceral Anglophobia. Examples of the full range of this rhetoric could be found in the language of mainstream politicians and newspapers throughout the pre-war period. Locally, however, although virtually all professed their loyalty to Redmond, only a minority sympathised instinctively with the conciliation that he advocated. The passive ‘background noise’ of nationalist rhetoric was suffused with a vocabulary of heroic struggle, grievance, injustice, and enemies. A clear strain of Anglophobia was expressed by politicians, clerics, and newspapers. The language that was to be used during the more general political crises of 1914 or 1916–18 was already fully developed.Less
Political rhetoric, whether defined as the calculated use of public language by practitioners of ‘high’ politics or the everyday, background noise of local politicians, suffused the Irish provincial press. ‘Nationalist’ political language covered a strikingly wide variety of attitudes — from conciliation to threat; from democratic radicalism, to Whiggish imperialism, to visceral Anglophobia. Examples of the full range of this rhetoric could be found in the language of mainstream politicians and newspapers throughout the pre-war period. Locally, however, although virtually all professed their loyalty to Redmond, only a minority sympathised instinctively with the conciliation that he advocated. The passive ‘background noise’ of nationalist rhetoric was suffused with a vocabulary of heroic struggle, grievance, injustice, and enemies. A clear strain of Anglophobia was expressed by politicians, clerics, and newspapers. The language that was to be used during the more general political crises of 1914 or 1916–18 was already fully developed.
Lucien Jaume
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691152042
- eISBN:
- 9781400846726
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691152042.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Many American readers like to regard Alexis de Tocqueville as an honorary American and democrat—as the young French aristocrat who came to early America and, enthralled by what he saw, proceeded to ...
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Many American readers like to regard Alexis de Tocqueville as an honorary American and democrat—as the young French aristocrat who came to early America and, enthralled by what he saw, proceeded to write an American book explaining democratic America to itself. Yet, as this book argues, Democracy in America is best understood as a French book, written primarily for the French, and overwhelmingly concerned with France. “America,” this book claims, “was merely a pretext for studying modern society and the woes of France.” For Tocqueville, in short, America was a mirror for France, a way for Tocqueville to write indirectly about his own society, to engage French thinkers and debates, and to come to terms with France's aristocratic legacy. By taking seriously the idea that Tocqueville's French context is essential for understanding Democracy in America, the book provides a powerful and surprising new interpretation of Tocqueville's book as well as a fresh intellectual and psychological portrait of the author. Situating Tocqueville in the context of the crisis of authority in postrevolutionary France, this book shows that Tocqueville was an ambivalent promoter of democracy, a man who tried to reconcile himself to the coming wave, but who was also nostalgic for the aristocratic world in which he was rooted—and who believed that it would be necessary to preserve aristocratic values in order to protect liberty under democracy. Indeed, the book argues that one of Tocqueville's most important and original ideas was to recognize that democracy posed the threat of a new and hidden form of despotism.Less
Many American readers like to regard Alexis de Tocqueville as an honorary American and democrat—as the young French aristocrat who came to early America and, enthralled by what he saw, proceeded to write an American book explaining democratic America to itself. Yet, as this book argues, Democracy in America is best understood as a French book, written primarily for the French, and overwhelmingly concerned with France. “America,” this book claims, “was merely a pretext for studying modern society and the woes of France.” For Tocqueville, in short, America was a mirror for France, a way for Tocqueville to write indirectly about his own society, to engage French thinkers and debates, and to come to terms with France's aristocratic legacy. By taking seriously the idea that Tocqueville's French context is essential for understanding Democracy in America, the book provides a powerful and surprising new interpretation of Tocqueville's book as well as a fresh intellectual and psychological portrait of the author. Situating Tocqueville in the context of the crisis of authority in postrevolutionary France, this book shows that Tocqueville was an ambivalent promoter of democracy, a man who tried to reconcile himself to the coming wave, but who was also nostalgic for the aristocratic world in which he was rooted—and who believed that it would be necessary to preserve aristocratic values in order to protect liberty under democracy. Indeed, the book argues that one of Tocqueville's most important and original ideas was to recognize that democracy posed the threat of a new and hidden form of despotism.
Thomas Docherty
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526132741
- eISBN:
- 9781526138965
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526132741.001.0001
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
This book addresses the condition of the university today. There has been a fundamental betrayal of the institution by the political class, perverting it from its proper social and cultural ...
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This book addresses the condition of the university today. There has been a fundamental betrayal of the institution by the political class, perverting it from its proper social and cultural functions. The betrayal has narrowed the scope of the university, through the commercial financialisation of knowledge as such. In short, the sector has been politicized, and now works explicitly to advance and serve a market-fundamentalist ideology. When all human values are measured by money, then wealth is mistaken for ‘the good’. Social, cultural and political corruption follow.
The University’s leadership has become complicit in a yet more fundamental betrayal of society, as an ever-widening wedge is driven between the lives of ordinary citizens and the self-interest of the privileged and wealthy. It is no wonder that ‘experts’ are in the dock today.
In 1927, the philosopher Julien Benda accused intellectuals of treason. His argument was that their thinking had been politicized, polluted by a nationalism that could only culminate in war. In 1939, Nazism explicitly corrupted the University and the intellectuals, demanding ideological allegiance instead of thought. We continue to live through the aftermath of this, only worse: by endorsing an entire ideology of ‘competition’, intellectuals have established a neo-Hobbesian war of all against all as the new cornerstone of societies. This now threatens human ecological survival.
In light of this, the intellectual and the University have a duty to extend democracy and social justice. This book calls upon the intellectual to assist in the survival of the species.Less
This book addresses the condition of the university today. There has been a fundamental betrayal of the institution by the political class, perverting it from its proper social and cultural functions. The betrayal has narrowed the scope of the university, through the commercial financialisation of knowledge as such. In short, the sector has been politicized, and now works explicitly to advance and serve a market-fundamentalist ideology. When all human values are measured by money, then wealth is mistaken for ‘the good’. Social, cultural and political corruption follow.
The University’s leadership has become complicit in a yet more fundamental betrayal of society, as an ever-widening wedge is driven between the lives of ordinary citizens and the self-interest of the privileged and wealthy. It is no wonder that ‘experts’ are in the dock today.
In 1927, the philosopher Julien Benda accused intellectuals of treason. His argument was that their thinking had been politicized, polluted by a nationalism that could only culminate in war. In 1939, Nazism explicitly corrupted the University and the intellectuals, demanding ideological allegiance instead of thought. We continue to live through the aftermath of this, only worse: by endorsing an entire ideology of ‘competition’, intellectuals have established a neo-Hobbesian war of all against all as the new cornerstone of societies. This now threatens human ecological survival.
In light of this, the intellectual and the University have a duty to extend democracy and social justice. This book calls upon the intellectual to assist in the survival of the species.
