George Klosko
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199256204
- eISBN:
- 9780191602351
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199256209.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Provides a full defence of a theory of political obligation on the basis of the principle of fairness (or fair play). The book responds to the most important objections and extends a theory-based on ...
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Provides a full defence of a theory of political obligation on the basis of the principle of fairness (or fair play). The book responds to the most important objections and extends a theory-based on fairness into a developed ‘multiple principle’ theory of obligation. The ‘self-image of the state’ in regard to political obligations is explored through examination of judicial decisions in three different democratic countries, while the book also breaks new ground by studying attitudes towards political obligations, through the use of small focus groups.Less
Provides a full defence of a theory of political obligation on the basis of the principle of fairness (or fair play). The book responds to the most important objections and extends a theory-based on fairness into a developed ‘multiple principle’ theory of obligation. The ‘self-image of the state’ in regard to political obligations is explored through examination of judicial decisions in three different democratic countries, while the book also breaks new ground by studying attitudes towards political obligations, through the use of small focus groups.
Jack Hayward
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199216314
- eISBN:
- 9780191712265
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216314.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
Weak party and trade union organizations have been fragmented by fascination with revolutionary rhetoric despite recourse in practice to reformism. Following a contrast between anarchist outsiders ...
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Weak party and trade union organizations have been fragmented by fascination with revolutionary rhetoric despite recourse in practice to reformism. Following a contrast between anarchist outsiders and Radical insiders, the vicissitudes of partisan French socialism are recounted. The secular decline of the sectarian Communist Party has coincided with the collapse of Marxism's ideological hegemony.Less
Weak party and trade union organizations have been fragmented by fascination with revolutionary rhetoric despite recourse in practice to reformism. Following a contrast between anarchist outsiders and Radical insiders, the vicissitudes of partisan French socialism are recounted. The secular decline of the sectarian Communist Party has coincided with the collapse of Marxism's ideological hegemony.
George Klosko
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199256204
- eISBN:
- 9780191602351
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199256209.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
In arguing for the need for the state, this chapter establishes factual parameters within which discussions of political obligations should be conducted. Certain theorists argue that political ...
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In arguing for the need for the state, this chapter establishes factual parameters within which discussions of political obligations should be conducted. Certain theorists argue that political obligations are not necessary, that various non-state organizations could fulfil the functions commonly assigned to states. However, these theorists do not satisfactorily address questions concerning the provision of essential public goods. Through detailed analysis of numerous alternative mechanisms, libertarian, free-market solutions are found to be unable to provide all necessary public goods. Similarly, technical solutions to N-person prisoner's dilemma are unsuccessful, because of the special conditions they require. Non-state mechanisms, such as the protective associations familiar from Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia, are found to be unable to provide essential public goods, while the same is true of proposals based on a distinction between authority and legitimacy.Less
In arguing for the need for the state, this chapter establishes factual parameters within which discussions of political obligations should be conducted. Certain theorists argue that political obligations are not necessary, that various non-state organizations could fulfil the functions commonly assigned to states. However, these theorists do not satisfactorily address questions concerning the provision of essential public goods. Through detailed analysis of numerous alternative mechanisms, libertarian, free-market solutions are found to be unable to provide all necessary public goods. Similarly, technical solutions to N-person prisoner's dilemma are unsuccessful, because of the special conditions they require. Non-state mechanisms, such as the protective associations familiar from Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia, are found to be unable to provide essential public goods, while the same is true of proposals based on a distinction between authority and legitimacy.
Michael Freeden
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294146
- eISBN:
- 9780191599323
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829414X.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The last three chapters have examined a number of examples of liberal ideology, including an American version, which contains considerable departures from what has normally been identified as ...
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The last three chapters have examined a number of examples of liberal ideology, including an American version, which contains considerable departures from what has normally been identified as liberalism; there is now sufficient evidence to confirm the hypothesis advanced in Ch. 4 that J. S. Mill's morphology is central to the liberal family. However, there is a further category—libertarianism—which is addressed in this chapter and claims to be part of the liberal family, but which on closer observation appears to be seriously attenuated, lacking many of the attributes that bestow on the liberal profile its distinctive contours. It is etymologically related to liberalism through the concept of liberty, but eschews the unique configuration of concepts that typifies liberalism, preferring instead to overemphasize heavily one concept (liberty) at the expense of the others. In some of its variants, libertarianism can lean towards anarchism, when the core concept of power as dispersed (or, if centralized, accountable) is replaced by the absence of any centralized power; in others, organized political power is retained, but as the guarantor of individual liberty alone, and the question of accountability diminishes in importance. Libertarianism may also differ from liberalism in surrounding liberty with adjacent concepts drawn from a political culture that displays conservative characteristics, without itself being wholly conservative.Less
The last three chapters have examined a number of examples of liberal ideology, including an American version, which contains considerable departures from what has normally been identified as liberalism; there is now sufficient evidence to confirm the hypothesis advanced in Ch. 4 that J. S. Mill's morphology is central to the liberal family. However, there is a further category—libertarianism—which is addressed in this chapter and claims to be part of the liberal family, but which on closer observation appears to be seriously attenuated, lacking many of the attributes that bestow on the liberal profile its distinctive contours. It is etymologically related to liberalism through the concept of liberty, but eschews the unique configuration of concepts that typifies liberalism, preferring instead to overemphasize heavily one concept (liberty) at the expense of the others. In some of its variants, libertarianism can lean towards anarchism, when the core concept of power as dispersed (or, if centralized, accountable) is replaced by the absence of any centralized power; in others, organized political power is retained, but as the guarantor of individual liberty alone, and the question of accountability diminishes in importance. Libertarianism may also differ from liberalism in surrounding liberty with adjacent concepts drawn from a political culture that displays conservative characteristics, without itself being wholly conservative.
Thomas Christiano
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198297475
- eISBN:
- 9780191716867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198297475.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Theory
This chapter shows how the principle of public equality grounds the authority of democracy. It characterizes some main desiderata that a successful conception of political authority must satisfy. It ...
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This chapter shows how the principle of public equality grounds the authority of democracy. It characterizes some main desiderata that a successful conception of political authority must satisfy. It lays out three concepts of political authority that have been prominent in recent discussions and argues for the centrality of the idea of a right to rule. The chapter then defines what is meant by saying that democracy has authority. It shows how the principle of public equality grounds the authority of democracy and addresses some important objections to the account. It argues against philosophical anarchism, the consent theory of political authority and instrumentalism approaches to authority. Finally, the complexity of democratic authority is discussed.Less
This chapter shows how the principle of public equality grounds the authority of democracy. It characterizes some main desiderata that a successful conception of political authority must satisfy. It lays out three concepts of political authority that have been prominent in recent discussions and argues for the centrality of the idea of a right to rule. The chapter then defines what is meant by saying that democracy has authority. It shows how the principle of public equality grounds the authority of democracy and addresses some important objections to the account. It argues against philosophical anarchism, the consent theory of political authority and instrumentalism approaches to authority. Finally, the complexity of democratic authority is discussed.
Rex Martin
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292937
- eISBN:
- 9780191599811
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292937.003.0014
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The internal coherence of any system of political institutions and ideas is only one of the considerations we must have in mind in an account of ultimate justification; there is also the idea of a ...
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The internal coherence of any system of political institutions and ideas is only one of the considerations we must have in mind in an account of ultimate justification; there is also the idea of a critical moral justification for it. Thus, the book turns, last of all, to the subject of the possibility and character of such vindication for a system of rights.Two principal theories are canvassed in this regard: the indirect utilitarianism of J. S. Mill and more recent utilitarian thinkers and the contractarian moral justification elaborated by John Rawls in his Theory of Justice (and for several years thereafter). The utilitarian theory is set aside first; it is fundamentally unable to provide a principled justification for the priority of basic rights over policies justified by considerations of aggregate benefit or general well being. And Rawls's contractarianism is set aside as failing in one of its own self‐appointed tasks: it cannot provide an objective basis for assessing competing political or moral theoriesThese two failures to provide, from among leading contemporary moral theories, a critical moral grounding for a democratic system of rights do not serve to establish the creditability of philosophical anarchism; but it is clear, nonetheless, that more than was initially thought to be involved will be required in order to do the job effectively.The chapter and the book, conclude with a brief survey of the tasks of political theory and of what has been accomplished to date. The idea of a system of rights is one of the great ideas of political philosophy and, unlike many of these ideas, it is still a living one; so, some suggestions are made about the way forward.Less
The internal coherence of any system of political institutions and ideas is only one of the considerations we must have in mind in an account of ultimate justification; there is also the idea of a critical moral justification for it. Thus, the book turns, last of all, to the subject of the possibility and character of such vindication for a system of rights.
Two principal theories are canvassed in this regard: the indirect utilitarianism of J. S. Mill and more recent utilitarian thinkers and the contractarian moral justification elaborated by John Rawls in his Theory of Justice (and for several years thereafter). The utilitarian theory is set aside first; it is fundamentally unable to provide a principled justification for the priority of basic rights over policies justified by considerations of aggregate benefit or general well being. And Rawls's contractarianism is set aside as failing in one of its own self‐appointed tasks: it cannot provide an objective basis for assessing competing political or moral theories
These two failures to provide, from among leading contemporary moral theories, a critical moral grounding for a democratic system of rights do not serve to establish the creditability of philosophical anarchism; but it is clear, nonetheless, that more than was initially thought to be involved will be required in order to do the job effectively.
The chapter and the book, conclude with a brief survey of the tasks of political theory and of what has been accomplished to date. The idea of a system of rights is one of the great ideas of political philosophy and, unlike many of these ideas, it is still a living one; so, some suggestions are made about the way forward.
Bernard Schweizer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199751389
- eISBN:
- 9780199894864
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751389.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter offers a sweeping historical overview of misotheism. The major stopping points along this compelling history of ideas are: the Book of Job, Epicurus, Ovid, St. Augustine, Thomas Paine, ...
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This chapter offers a sweeping historical overview of misotheism. The major stopping points along this compelling history of ideas are: the Book of Job, Epicurus, Ovid, St. Augustine, Thomas Paine, James Mill, Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Michael Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Virginia Woolf, Storm Jameson, Naomi Goldenberg, Rosemary Ruether, Sigmund Freud, Albert Camus, William Empson, and Gore Vidal. The author documents the genealogy of God-hatred from the trial-of-God theme in the Book of Job, to Epicureanism, deism, utilitarianism, anarchism, feminism, and secular humanism.Less
This chapter offers a sweeping historical overview of misotheism. The major stopping points along this compelling history of ideas are: the Book of Job, Epicurus, Ovid, St. Augustine, Thomas Paine, James Mill, Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Michael Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Virginia Woolf, Storm Jameson, Naomi Goldenberg, Rosemary Ruether, Sigmund Freud, Albert Camus, William Empson, and Gore Vidal. The author documents the genealogy of God-hatred from the trial-of-God theme in the Book of Job, to Epicureanism, deism, utilitarianism, anarchism, feminism, and secular humanism.
Bernard Schweizer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199751389
- eISBN:
- 9780199894864
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751389.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Contrasting Swinburne’s carefree misotheistic candor, Zora Neal Hurston remained cryptic about her conflicted relationship with God. Partly because she was black and female, readers tend to overlook ...
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Contrasting Swinburne’s carefree misotheistic candor, Zora Neal Hurston remained cryptic about her conflicted relationship with God. Partly because she was black and female, readers tend to overlook indications of misotheism, even when they seem plain. Few, if any, critics have taken the words “all gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason” in Their Eyes Were Watching God as potentially targeting Yahweh as well as any other gods. Instead, critics have either ignored such passages in her work or tried to explain them away. This chapter offers fresh readings of Hurston’s acclaimed works, and it draws on private writings, letters, and memoirs to fill in the picture of Hurston’s latent misotheism. Finally, the author reveals a surprising web of concealed references to writers ranging from Epicurus to Proudhon and Nietzsche, to bolster his claim that Hurston was indeed as hostile to God as the thinkers who influenced her.Less
Contrasting Swinburne’s carefree misotheistic candor, Zora Neal Hurston remained cryptic about her conflicted relationship with God. Partly because she was black and female, readers tend to overlook indications of misotheism, even when they seem plain. Few, if any, critics have taken the words “all gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason” in Their Eyes Were Watching God as potentially targeting Yahweh as well as any other gods. Instead, critics have either ignored such passages in her work or tried to explain them away. This chapter offers fresh readings of Hurston’s acclaimed works, and it draws on private writings, letters, and memoirs to fill in the picture of Hurston’s latent misotheism. Finally, the author reveals a surprising web of concealed references to writers ranging from Epicurus to Proudhon and Nietzsche, to bolster his claim that Hurston was indeed as hostile to God as the thinkers who influenced her.
Bernard Schweizer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199751389
- eISBN:
- 9780199894864
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751389.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter reveals the misotheistic core of Rebecca West’s ethos of heroism and rebellion. It also shows how carefully West mediated her private misotheism as if dreading to admit the full ...
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This chapter reveals the misotheistic core of Rebecca West’s ethos of heroism and rebellion. It also shows how carefully West mediated her private misotheism as if dreading to admit the full implications of this view even to herself. Historically, one of the most searing indictments of God is her unpublished manuscript, written during World War I, in which West rails against God as a “master criminal.” Traces of misotheism can be found throughout her fiction and non-fiction, if one looks for them. Indeed, just like Hurston, West has not heretofore been known as an opponent of God. By connecting the dots, the author reveals a tortured spiritual journey. Indeed, West went from being a fervent misotheist in her twenties, to trying to convert to Catholicism in middle age in an attempt to stop wrestling with God; but the reconciliation failed, and she became again hostile to God toward the end of her life.Less
This chapter reveals the misotheistic core of Rebecca West’s ethos of heroism and rebellion. It also shows how carefully West mediated her private misotheism as if dreading to admit the full implications of this view even to herself. Historically, one of the most searing indictments of God is her unpublished manuscript, written during World War I, in which West rails against God as a “master criminal.” Traces of misotheism can be found throughout her fiction and non-fiction, if one looks for them. Indeed, just like Hurston, West has not heretofore been known as an opponent of God. By connecting the dots, the author reveals a tortured spiritual journey. Indeed, West went from being a fervent misotheist in her twenties, to trying to convert to Catholicism in middle age in an attempt to stop wrestling with God; but the reconciliation failed, and she became again hostile to God toward the end of her life.
Saul Newman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748634958
- eISBN:
- 9780748652846
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748634958.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
What is the relevance of anarchist thought for politics and political theory today? While many have dismissed anarchism in the past, the author of this book contends that its heretical critique of ...
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What is the relevance of anarchist thought for politics and political theory today? While many have dismissed anarchism in the past, the author of this book contends that its heretical critique of authority, and its insistence on full equality and liberty, places it at the forefront of the radical political imagination today. With the unprecedented expansion of state power in the name of security, the current ‘crisis of capitalism’ and the terminal decline of Marxist and social democratic projects, it is time to reconsider anarchism as a form of politics. The book seeks to renew anarchist thought through the concept of postanarchism.Less
What is the relevance of anarchist thought for politics and political theory today? While many have dismissed anarchism in the past, the author of this book contends that its heretical critique of authority, and its insistence on full equality and liberty, places it at the forefront of the radical political imagination today. With the unprecedented expansion of state power in the name of security, the current ‘crisis of capitalism’ and the terminal decline of Marxist and social democratic projects, it is time to reconsider anarchism as a form of politics. The book seeks to renew anarchist thought through the concept of postanarchism.
Steven Huebner
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195189544
- eISBN:
- 9780199868476
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189544.003.0028
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on Gustave Charpentier's opera, Louise. It is argued that Louise was in many ways consonant with Charpentier's project of creating art readable by the masses. His very points ...
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This chapter focuses on Gustave Charpentier's opera, Louise. It is argued that Louise was in many ways consonant with Charpentier's project of creating art readable by the masses. His very points were that father—daughter tensions can be played out in all classes of society, that myth does not bypass the urban poor, that working-class argot could be a viable operatic discourse, and that anarchist rhetoric was critically evaluated among the lower classes.Less
This chapter focuses on Gustave Charpentier's opera, Louise. It is argued that Louise was in many ways consonant with Charpentier's project of creating art readable by the masses. His very points were that father—daughter tensions can be played out in all classes of society, that myth does not bypass the urban poor, that working-class argot could be a viable operatic discourse, and that anarchist rhetoric was critically evaluated among the lower classes.
Jan Sapp
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195156195
- eISBN:
- 9780199790340
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156195.003.0005
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter discusses how some believed in the importance of cooperation or mutual aid in evolutionary progress during the 19th century. The best-known works on mutualism emerged from two sometimes ...
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This chapter discusses how some believed in the importance of cooperation or mutual aid in evolutionary progress during the 19th century. The best-known works on mutualism emerged from two sometimes overlapping philosophies: anarchism and natural theology.Less
This chapter discusses how some believed in the importance of cooperation or mutual aid in evolutionary progress during the 19th century. The best-known works on mutualism emerged from two sometimes overlapping philosophies: anarchism and natural theology.
Robert Adlington
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
This chapter focuses on a singular event in the musical life of late‐1960s Amsterdam: a “political‐demonstrative experimental concert”, which brought together many of the leading lights of the Dutch ...
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This chapter focuses on a singular event in the musical life of late‐1960s Amsterdam: a “political‐demonstrative experimental concert”, which brought together many of the leading lights of the Dutch musical avant‐garde, including Louis Andriessen and Peter Schat. At the time of the concert, its organisers—like many other avant‐garde musicians of the period—were newly in thrall to the social and cultural model of Castro's Cuba. Yet coexistent with this commitment was an equally strongly held belief in the apolitical nature of music itself. Closer investigation of the works performed at the concert reveals, however, that their musical processes were significantly shaped by the composers' earlier interest in anarchism. The resulting “forms of opposition” were not easily reconciled with their creators' new passion for communism.Less
This chapter focuses on a singular event in the musical life of late‐1960s Amsterdam: a “political‐demonstrative experimental concert”, which brought together many of the leading lights of the Dutch musical avant‐garde, including Louis Andriessen and Peter Schat. At the time of the concert, its organisers—like many other avant‐garde musicians of the period—were newly in thrall to the social and cultural model of Castro's Cuba. Yet coexistent with this commitment was an equally strongly held belief in the apolitical nature of music itself. Closer investigation of the works performed at the concert reveals, however, that their musical processes were significantly shaped by the composers' earlier interest in anarchism. The resulting “forms of opposition” were not easily reconciled with their creators' new passion for communism.
Mark Bevir
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150833
- eISBN:
- 9781400840281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150833.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
One of the most distinctive features of ethical socialism was the place it gave to personal transformation and communal utopianism. This chapter explores the intersections between this type of ...
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One of the most distinctive features of ethical socialism was the place it gave to personal transformation and communal utopianism. This chapter explores the intersections between this type of socialism and a new anarchism. For most of the nineteenth century, anarchists were individualists, favoring clandestine organization and violent revolution. Yet, at the turn of the century, there arose a new communal anarchism associated with sexual liberation and moral experiments. The prophets of the new anarchism were Peter Kropotkin and Leo Tolstoy, not Mikhail Bakunin. Its organizational homes included the Freedom Group and the Brotherhood Church. It inspired agricultural and urban utopias in places such as the Cotswolds, Essex, Leeds, and London. And it appeared in discussion groups aimed at transforming personal and private relationships, including the Men and Women's Club.Less
One of the most distinctive features of ethical socialism was the place it gave to personal transformation and communal utopianism. This chapter explores the intersections between this type of socialism and a new anarchism. For most of the nineteenth century, anarchists were individualists, favoring clandestine organization and violent revolution. Yet, at the turn of the century, there arose a new communal anarchism associated with sexual liberation and moral experiments. The prophets of the new anarchism were Peter Kropotkin and Leo Tolstoy, not Mikhail Bakunin. Its organizational homes included the Freedom Group and the Brotherhood Church. It inspired agricultural and urban utopias in places such as the Cotswolds, Essex, Leeds, and London. And it appeared in discussion groups aimed at transforming personal and private relationships, including the Men and Women's Club.
Sean Parson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526107350
- eISBN:
- 9781526142023
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526107350.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
On Labor Day in 1988 two hundred hungry and homeless people went to Golden Gate Park in search of a hot meal, while fifty-four activists from Food Not Bombs, surrounded by riot police, lined up to ...
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On Labor Day in 1988 two hundred hungry and homeless people went to Golden Gate Park in search of a hot meal, while fifty-four activists from Food Not Bombs, surrounded by riot police, lined up to serve them food. The riot police counted twenty-five served meals, the legal number allowed by city law before breaking permit restrictions, and then began to arrest people. The arrests proceeded like an assembly line: an activist would scoop a bowl of food and hand it to a hungry person. A police officer would then handcuff and arrest that activist. Immediately, the next activist in line would take up the ladle and be promptly arrested. By the end of the day fifty-four people had been arrested for “providing food without a permit.” These arrests were not an aberration but part of a multi-year campaign by the city of San Francisco against radical homeless activists. Why would a liberal city arrest activists helping the homeless? In exploring this question, the book uses the conflict between the city and activists as a unique opportunity to examine the contested nature of urban politics, homelessness, and public space, while developing an anarchist alternative to liberal urban politics, which is rooted in mutual aid, solidarity, and anti-capitalism.Less
On Labor Day in 1988 two hundred hungry and homeless people went to Golden Gate Park in search of a hot meal, while fifty-four activists from Food Not Bombs, surrounded by riot police, lined up to serve them food. The riot police counted twenty-five served meals, the legal number allowed by city law before breaking permit restrictions, and then began to arrest people. The arrests proceeded like an assembly line: an activist would scoop a bowl of food and hand it to a hungry person. A police officer would then handcuff and arrest that activist. Immediately, the next activist in line would take up the ladle and be promptly arrested. By the end of the day fifty-four people had been arrested for “providing food without a permit.” These arrests were not an aberration but part of a multi-year campaign by the city of San Francisco against radical homeless activists. Why would a liberal city arrest activists helping the homeless? In exploring this question, the book uses the conflict between the city and activists as a unique opportunity to examine the contested nature of urban politics, homelessness, and public space, while developing an anarchist alternative to liberal urban politics, which is rooted in mutual aid, solidarity, and anti-capitalism.
Jacob Shell
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029339
- eISBN:
- 9780262330404
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029339.001.0001
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
What sorts of transportation technologies and methods of conveyance have political regimes associated with the movement of weapons, papers, or people for political subversion and revolt? In an era ...
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What sorts of transportation technologies and methods of conveyance have political regimes associated with the movement of weapons, papers, or people for political subversion and revolt? In an era when much transfer of information moves across a wire-tappable medium, and much transport of goods and people occurs across a mapped network of tracks and checkpoints, what social history of the specter of subversive trafficking—and of the associated political fears this specter has been able to elicit—might help us better understand the retrenchment of an older range of possibilities for human mobility? This book pursues these lines of inquiry, focusing on several modes of transportation which have been perceived, in different times and places, as especially useful for clandestine, subversive logistics, and which have also become relatively marginalized and divested from over the past century and a half. The examples treated in the book are mostly animal-based forms of transportation (carrier pigeons, mules, elephants, camels, and sled-dogs) or water-based forms of transportation (especially canal and harbor boats). The book’s overall historical-geographic discussion is mainly concerned with the period from 1850 to 1950, though some examples are from well before or well after this period. The discussion extends to many parts of the world, most of them (with exceptions) places which were at some point in their history within the confines of the British Empire.Less
What sorts of transportation technologies and methods of conveyance have political regimes associated with the movement of weapons, papers, or people for political subversion and revolt? In an era when much transfer of information moves across a wire-tappable medium, and much transport of goods and people occurs across a mapped network of tracks and checkpoints, what social history of the specter of subversive trafficking—and of the associated political fears this specter has been able to elicit—might help us better understand the retrenchment of an older range of possibilities for human mobility? This book pursues these lines of inquiry, focusing on several modes of transportation which have been perceived, in different times and places, as especially useful for clandestine, subversive logistics, and which have also become relatively marginalized and divested from over the past century and a half. The examples treated in the book are mostly animal-based forms of transportation (carrier pigeons, mules, elephants, camels, and sled-dogs) or water-based forms of transportation (especially canal and harbor boats). The book’s overall historical-geographic discussion is mainly concerned with the period from 1850 to 1950, though some examples are from well before or well after this period. The discussion extends to many parts of the world, most of them (with exceptions) places which were at some point in their history within the confines of the British Empire.
James Weinstein and Ivan Hare
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199548781
- eISBN:
- 9780191720673
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199548781.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
In addition to introducing the general topics covered in the volume, this chapter sketches the ambivalent relationship between free speech and democracy that has existed since the birth of modern ...
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In addition to introducing the general topics covered in the volume, this chapter sketches the ambivalent relationship between free speech and democracy that has existed since the birth of modern democracy. From the beginning it was recognized that the right of the people to criticize governments, laws, and social conditions is inherent in the very concept of rule by the people. But also from the outset democratic governments have claimed the power to limit criticism deemed so extreme as to endanger other basic societal values. For instance, in 1798 Congress passed the Sedition Act; during World War I the Allies imprisoned anti-war protestors; and in subsequent decades these democracies suppressed advocacy of anarchism, fascism, and communism. The verdict of history is that most of this speech suppression was contrary to the right of people to express dissenting views in a free and democratic society. Will history render a similar judgment on contemporary suppression of extreme speech? Or is this suppression justified because it aims to protect interests of individuals rather than interests of the state?Less
In addition to introducing the general topics covered in the volume, this chapter sketches the ambivalent relationship between free speech and democracy that has existed since the birth of modern democracy. From the beginning it was recognized that the right of the people to criticize governments, laws, and social conditions is inherent in the very concept of rule by the people. But also from the outset democratic governments have claimed the power to limit criticism deemed so extreme as to endanger other basic societal values. For instance, in 1798 Congress passed the Sedition Act; during World War I the Allies imprisoned anti-war protestors; and in subsequent decades these democracies suppressed advocacy of anarchism, fascism, and communism. The verdict of history is that most of this speech suppression was contrary to the right of people to express dissenting views in a free and democratic society. Will history render a similar judgment on contemporary suppression of extreme speech? Or is this suppression justified because it aims to protect interests of individuals rather than interests of the state?
Simona Sawhney
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198078012
- eISBN:
- 9780199080984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198078012.003.0054
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This chapter begins by noting some structural similarities between contemporary ‘terrorists’ in Lahore and the celebrated Punjabi ‘extremist’ Bhagat Singh (1907-1931) and his comrades. It proposes, ...
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This chapter begins by noting some structural similarities between contemporary ‘terrorists’ in Lahore and the celebrated Punjabi ‘extremist’ Bhagat Singh (1907-1931) and his comrades. It proposes, however, that the discursive world inhabited by Bhagat Singh differed significantly from the one available to death-driven youth in Punjab today. Examining the centrality of two elements, hope and death, in Bhagat Singh’s work, the chapter suggests that Bhagat Singh’s existential approach to politics was linked to a quintessentially modern figure of the ‘world’ — a figure that had become an object of immense concern and love. It goes on to contend that the hopeful actions of Bhagat Singh and his comrades can only be understood in relation to international communist and anarchist movements, and hence to a deeply divided West. Conversely, the internal consolidation of the West in our times has sharply constricted, all over the globe, the ability to imagine new worlds and communities.Less
This chapter begins by noting some structural similarities between contemporary ‘terrorists’ in Lahore and the celebrated Punjabi ‘extremist’ Bhagat Singh (1907-1931) and his comrades. It proposes, however, that the discursive world inhabited by Bhagat Singh differed significantly from the one available to death-driven youth in Punjab today. Examining the centrality of two elements, hope and death, in Bhagat Singh’s work, the chapter suggests that Bhagat Singh’s existential approach to politics was linked to a quintessentially modern figure of the ‘world’ — a figure that had become an object of immense concern and love. It goes on to contend that the hopeful actions of Bhagat Singh and his comrades can only be understood in relation to international communist and anarchist movements, and hence to a deeply divided West. Conversely, the internal consolidation of the West in our times has sharply constricted, all over the globe, the ability to imagine new worlds and communities.
Thomas Nail
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780748655861
- eISBN:
- 9780748676651
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748655861.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
We are witnessing the return of political revolution. However, this is not a return to the classical forms of revolution: the capture of the state, the political representation of the party, the ...
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We are witnessing the return of political revolution. However, this is not a return to the classical forms of revolution: the capture of the state, the political representation of the party, the centrality of the proletariat or the leadership of the vanguard. After the failure of such tactics over the last century, revolutionary strategy is now headed in an entirely new direction. This book argues that Deleuze, Guattari and the Zapatistas are at the theoretical and practical heart of this new direction. Returning to Revolution is the first full-length book devoted to Deleuze and Guattari's concept of revolution and to their connection with Zapatismo.Less
We are witnessing the return of political revolution. However, this is not a return to the classical forms of revolution: the capture of the state, the political representation of the party, the centrality of the proletariat or the leadership of the vanguard. After the failure of such tactics over the last century, revolutionary strategy is now headed in an entirely new direction. This book argues that Deleuze, Guattari and the Zapatistas are at the theoretical and practical heart of this new direction. Returning to Revolution is the first full-length book devoted to Deleuze and Guattari's concept of revolution and to their connection with Zapatismo.
Dovid Edelshtat
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814757437
- eISBN:
- 9780814763469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814757437.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter presents a letter written by labor activist Dovid Edelshtat, which describes in optimistic terms the memorial event for the anarchists executed for their alleged roles in the Chicago ...
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This chapter presents a letter written by labor activist Dovid Edelshtat, which describes in optimistic terms the memorial event for the anarchists executed for their alleged roles in the Chicago Haymarket riot of 1886. The event, held at the Cooper Institute in Manhattan, attracted a large crowd of people—notably Russian Jews—who were there to share anarchist ideals. There were speeches from Johann Most and Sergius Schewitch, both leading figures in the Jewish radical movement at the time. For the author, this event marks a triumph of socialism in its display of resilience and solidarity among activists working toward a common goal.Less
This chapter presents a letter written by labor activist Dovid Edelshtat, which describes in optimistic terms the memorial event for the anarchists executed for their alleged roles in the Chicago Haymarket riot of 1886. The event, held at the Cooper Institute in Manhattan, attracted a large crowd of people—notably Russian Jews—who were there to share anarchist ideals. There were speeches from Johann Most and Sergius Schewitch, both leading figures in the Jewish radical movement at the time. For the author, this event marks a triumph of socialism in its display of resilience and solidarity among activists working toward a common goal.
