Charles D. Kenney
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199256372
- eISBN:
- 9780191602368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199256373.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter explores the concept of horizontal accountability in Latin America. It presents a definition of horizontal accountability in which the agents of accountability are limited to those ...
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This chapter explores the concept of horizontal accountability in Latin America. It presents a definition of horizontal accountability in which the agents of accountability are limited to those within the state, and in which the scope of accountability is limited to actions or omissions that are unlawful. It argues that the democratic legitimacy achieved by undemocratic leaders such as Fujimori in Peru and Chavez in Venezuela lies in their massive public support which constitutes a democratic trump of their more republic opposition. Those who raise the republican banner of horizontal accountability have themselves lost even the republic bases for legitimacy.Less
This chapter explores the concept of horizontal accountability in Latin America. It presents a definition of horizontal accountability in which the agents of accountability are limited to those within the state, and in which the scope of accountability is limited to actions or omissions that are unlawful. It argues that the democratic legitimacy achieved by undemocratic leaders such as Fujimori in Peru and Chavez in Venezuela lies in their massive public support which constitutes a democratic trump of their more republic opposition. Those who raise the republican banner of horizontal accountability have themselves lost even the republic bases for legitimacy.
Rachel S. Turner
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748632688
- eISBN:
- 9780748652792
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748632688.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter explores liberal traditions in Germany, Britain, and the United States. It details unifying themes and varieties of thought in the history of German, British, and American liberalism and ...
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This chapter explores liberal traditions in Germany, Britain, and the United States. It details unifying themes and varieties of thought in the history of German, British, and American liberalism and notes the decline in traditional understandings of liberalism in the early part of the twentieth century. The chapter aims to outline, historically, the liberal traditions that neo-liberalism has both drawn upon and reacted against.Less
This chapter explores liberal traditions in Germany, Britain, and the United States. It details unifying themes and varieties of thought in the history of German, British, and American liberalism and notes the decline in traditional understandings of liberalism in the early part of the twentieth century. The chapter aims to outline, historically, the liberal traditions that neo-liberalism has both drawn upon and reacted against.
Ramchandra Chintaman Dhere
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199777594
- eISBN:
- 9780199919048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199777594.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter presents several Purāṇic and Purāṇic-style stories of Vaiṣṇava devotees named Puṇḍalīk, and shows that many of these stories were used in creating the Māhātmyas of Pandharpur and in ...
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This chapter presents several Purāṇic and Purāṇic-style stories of Vaiṣṇava devotees named Puṇḍalīk, and shows that many of these stories were used in creating the Māhātmyas of Pandharpur and in piecing together the story of Puṇḍalīk, the filial devotee on account of whom Kṛṣṇa came to Pandharpur and became Viṭṭhal. Dhere also reviews the history of scholarship on Puṇḍalīk and considers the reasons why scholars would ignore the obvious fact that Puṇḍalīk's image is one of Śiva. Finally, Dhere discusses the Śaiva (Nāth) background of the earliest of the poet-saints devoted to Viṭṭhal, and the liberal Maharashtrian tradition of the unity of Viṣṇu and Śiva (Hari and Hara). Dhere traces this tradition ultimately to the ancient Pāśupata sect, which was once spread over all of India and later merged into new sects (Mahānubhāvs, Vīraśaivas, Nāths) that arose in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and became influential in Maharashtra and Karnataka.Less
This chapter presents several Purāṇic and Purāṇic-style stories of Vaiṣṇava devotees named Puṇḍalīk, and shows that many of these stories were used in creating the Māhātmyas of Pandharpur and in piecing together the story of Puṇḍalīk, the filial devotee on account of whom Kṛṣṇa came to Pandharpur and became Viṭṭhal. Dhere also reviews the history of scholarship on Puṇḍalīk and considers the reasons why scholars would ignore the obvious fact that Puṇḍalīk's image is one of Śiva. Finally, Dhere discusses the Śaiva (Nāth) background of the earliest of the poet-saints devoted to Viṭṭhal, and the liberal Maharashtrian tradition of the unity of Viṣṇu and Śiva (Hari and Hara). Dhere traces this tradition ultimately to the ancient Pāśupata sect, which was once spread over all of India and later merged into new sects (Mahānubhāvs, Vīraśaivas, Nāths) that arose in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and became influential in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226222677
- eISBN:
- 9780226222691
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226222691.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, European Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the pre-war ideological context in German anthropological circles. Despite the encroachment of völkisch and racist strains of thought around the turn of the century, the liberal ...
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This chapter examines the pre-war ideological context in German anthropological circles. Despite the encroachment of völkisch and racist strains of thought around the turn of the century, the liberal precepts of Virchow and his followers continued to inform anthropological work in the laboratory, the field, and the lecture hall. Even as the liberal tradition slipped from its previous position as the dominant paradigm, it persisted within the discipline, often existing alongside competing and often contradictory modes of anthropological thought.Less
This chapter examines the pre-war ideological context in German anthropological circles. Despite the encroachment of völkisch and racist strains of thought around the turn of the century, the liberal precepts of Virchow and his followers continued to inform anthropological work in the laboratory, the field, and the lecture hall. Even as the liberal tradition slipped from its previous position as the dominant paradigm, it persisted within the discipline, often existing alongside competing and often contradictory modes of anthropological thought.
Fred Feldman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199571178
- eISBN:
- 9780191722547
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571178.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Writers on happiness often discuss a question about our authority with respect to our own happiness. Some maintain that we do have authority; others deny it. This is a vexed topic, in part because ...
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Writers on happiness often discuss a question about our authority with respect to our own happiness. Some maintain that we do have authority; others deny it. This is a vexed topic, in part because talk of ‘authority’ is ambiguous. To say that a person “has authority” over his own happiness might be to say that he has knowledge about his own happiness. In another sense it might be to say that she has some sort of control over how happy she will be. Section 11.1 contains discussion of several different principles about epistemic authority. Arguments are presented to show that all these principles about epistemic authority are false. Section 11.2 contains discussion of several different principles about controlling authority. Each of these principles is false. A strategy for increasing one's own level of happiness is proposed. If Attitudinal Hedonic Eudaimonism is true, then there is a procedure that we can use to make ourselves happier.Less
Writers on happiness often discuss a question about our authority with respect to our own happiness. Some maintain that we do have authority; others deny it. This is a vexed topic, in part because talk of ‘authority’ is ambiguous. To say that a person “has authority” over his own happiness might be to say that he has knowledge about his own happiness. In another sense it might be to say that she has some sort of control over how happy she will be. Section 11.1 contains discussion of several different principles about epistemic authority. Arguments are presented to show that all these principles about epistemic authority are false. Section 11.2 contains discussion of several different principles about controlling authority. Each of these principles is false. A strategy for increasing one's own level of happiness is proposed. If Attitudinal Hedonic Eudaimonism is true, then there is a procedure that we can use to make ourselves happier.
Tony Smith Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691183480
- eISBN:
- 9781400883400
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691183480.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The liberal internationalist tradition is credited with America's greatest triumphs as a world power—and also its biggest failures. Beginning in the 1940s, imbued with the spirit of Woodrow Wilson's ...
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The liberal internationalist tradition is credited with America's greatest triumphs as a world power—and also its biggest failures. Beginning in the 1940s, imbued with the spirit of Woodrow Wilson's efforts at the League of Nations to ‘make the world safe for democracy,’ the United States steered a course in world affairs that would eventually win the Cold War. Yet in the 1990s, Wilsonianism turned imperialist, contributing directly to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the continued failures of American foreign policy. This book explains how the liberal internationalist community can regain a sense of identity and purpose following the betrayal of Wilson's vision by the brash ‘neo-Wilsonianism’ being pursued today. The book traces how Wilson's thinking about America's role in the world evolved in the years leading up to and during his presidency, and how the Wilsonian tradition went on to influence American foreign policy in the decades that followed. It traces the tradition's evolution from its ‘classic’ era with Wilson, to its ‘hegemonic’ stage during the Cold War, to its ‘imperialist’ phase today. The book calls for an end to reckless forms of U.S. foreign intervention, and a return to the prudence and ‘eternal vigilance’ of Wilson's own time. It renews hope that the United States might again become effectively liberal by returning to the sense of realism that Wilson espoused, one where the promotion of democracy around the world is balanced by the understanding that such efforts are not likely to come quickly and without costs.Less
The liberal internationalist tradition is credited with America's greatest triumphs as a world power—and also its biggest failures. Beginning in the 1940s, imbued with the spirit of Woodrow Wilson's efforts at the League of Nations to ‘make the world safe for democracy,’ the United States steered a course in world affairs that would eventually win the Cold War. Yet in the 1990s, Wilsonianism turned imperialist, contributing directly to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the continued failures of American foreign policy. This book explains how the liberal internationalist community can regain a sense of identity and purpose following the betrayal of Wilson's vision by the brash ‘neo-Wilsonianism’ being pursued today. The book traces how Wilson's thinking about America's role in the world evolved in the years leading up to and during his presidency, and how the Wilsonian tradition went on to influence American foreign policy in the decades that followed. It traces the tradition's evolution from its ‘classic’ era with Wilson, to its ‘hegemonic’ stage during the Cold War, to its ‘imperialist’ phase today. The book calls for an end to reckless forms of U.S. foreign intervention, and a return to the prudence and ‘eternal vigilance’ of Wilson's own time. It renews hope that the United States might again become effectively liberal by returning to the sense of realism that Wilson espoused, one where the promotion of democracy around the world is balanced by the understanding that such efforts are not likely to come quickly and without costs.
Ben Jackson and Marc Stears (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199600670
- eISBN:
- 9780191738203
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600670.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Liberalism is the dominant ideology of our time, yet its character remains the subject of intense scholarly and political controversy. Debates about the liberal political tradition — about its ...
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Liberalism is the dominant ideology of our time, yet its character remains the subject of intense scholarly and political controversy. Debates about the liberal political tradition — about its history, its central philosophical commitments, its implications for political practice — lie at the very heart of the discipline of political theory. Many outstanding political theorists have contributed to the growing sophistication of these debates in recent years, but the original voice of Michael Freeden deserves particular attention. In the course of a body of work that spans over thirty years, Freeden's iconoclastic contributions have posed important challenges to the dominant understandings of liberal ideology, history, and theory. Such work has sought to redefine the very essence of what it is to be a liberal. This book brings together an international group of historians, philosophers, and political scientists to evaluate the impact of Freeden's work and to reassess its central claims.Less
Liberalism is the dominant ideology of our time, yet its character remains the subject of intense scholarly and political controversy. Debates about the liberal political tradition — about its history, its central philosophical commitments, its implications for political practice — lie at the very heart of the discipline of political theory. Many outstanding political theorists have contributed to the growing sophistication of these debates in recent years, but the original voice of Michael Freeden deserves particular attention. In the course of a body of work that spans over thirty years, Freeden's iconoclastic contributions have posed important challenges to the dominant understandings of liberal ideology, history, and theory. Such work has sought to redefine the very essence of what it is to be a liberal. This book brings together an international group of historians, philosophers, and political scientists to evaluate the impact of Freeden's work and to reassess its central claims.
William Taussig Scott and Martin X. Moleski
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195174335
- eISBN:
- 9780199835706
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019517433X.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Polanyi served as a medical officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army. As time allowed, he worked on the Nernst Heat Theorem, a novel theory about the adsorption of gases and the paradoxes associated with ...
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Polanyi served as a medical officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army. As time allowed, he worked on the Nernst Heat Theorem, a novel theory about the adsorption of gases and the paradoxes associated with isotopes. His experience of war left him with a life-long concern about understanding the strength of the liberal tradition that had enriched European civilization from 1870 to 1914 as well as the loss of faith in the tradition that had led Europe down the path of self-destruction.Less
Polanyi served as a medical officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army. As time allowed, he worked on the Nernst Heat Theorem, a novel theory about the adsorption of gases and the paradoxes associated with isotopes. His experience of war left him with a life-long concern about understanding the strength of the liberal tradition that had enriched European civilization from 1870 to 1914 as well as the loss of faith in the tradition that had led Europe down the path of self-destruction.
Jeffrey K. Tulis and Nicole Mellow
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226515298
- eISBN:
- 9780226515465
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226515465.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Among scholars of American politics who study the regime as a whole, two approaches loom large. Identified most notably by the work of Walter Dean Burnham, Theodore Lowi, and Bruce Ackerman, regime ...
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Among scholars of American politics who study the regime as a whole, two approaches loom large. Identified most notably by the work of Walter Dean Burnham, Theodore Lowi, and Bruce Ackerman, regime change scholarship focuses on the three extraordinary constitutional moments in American political development—the Founding, Reconstruction, and the New Deal. This book’s account of the Anti-Federalists, Andrew Johnson, and Barry Goldwater shows that there were three anti-moments as crucial to American political development as the well-known winners of those critical constitutional junctures. The new interpretation here also challenges the proposition that the moments were equivalent in constitutional significance, suggesting instead that the first moment and anti-moment established a political logic and rhetorical repertoire that structured the subsequent two junctures. The second narrative of American politics emerges from the work of scholars who have tried to understand the relation between the liberal tradition and anti-liberal practices in American political development. Underscoring the persistence of multiple traditions in American political culture, this account shows how both are built into the constitutional architecture, sustained over time, and braided in these extraordinary contests.Less
Among scholars of American politics who study the regime as a whole, two approaches loom large. Identified most notably by the work of Walter Dean Burnham, Theodore Lowi, and Bruce Ackerman, regime change scholarship focuses on the three extraordinary constitutional moments in American political development—the Founding, Reconstruction, and the New Deal. This book’s account of the Anti-Federalists, Andrew Johnson, and Barry Goldwater shows that there were three anti-moments as crucial to American political development as the well-known winners of those critical constitutional junctures. The new interpretation here also challenges the proposition that the moments were equivalent in constitutional significance, suggesting instead that the first moment and anti-moment established a political logic and rhetorical repertoire that structured the subsequent two junctures. The second narrative of American politics emerges from the work of scholars who have tried to understand the relation between the liberal tradition and anti-liberal practices in American political development. Underscoring the persistence of multiple traditions in American political culture, this account shows how both are built into the constitutional architecture, sustained over time, and braided in these extraordinary contests.
Samuel Freeman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- July 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190699260
- eISBN:
- 9780190699291
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190699260.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter discusses the main distinguishing features of two liberal traditions—classical liberalism and what I call “the high liberal tradition”—and their respective positions regarding capitalism ...
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This chapter discusses the main distinguishing features of two liberal traditions—classical liberalism and what I call “the high liberal tradition”—and their respective positions regarding capitalism as an economic and social system. It also compares the two traditions’ different positions regarding equality of opportunity and the distributive role of markets in establishing economic justice. I critically assess the classical liberal principle that economic agents deserve to be rewarded according to their marginal contribution to economic product. The chapter concludes with some reflections upon the essential role that dissimilar conceptions of persons and society play in grounding the different positions on economic justice that classical and high liberals advocate.Less
This chapter discusses the main distinguishing features of two liberal traditions—classical liberalism and what I call “the high liberal tradition”—and their respective positions regarding capitalism as an economic and social system. It also compares the two traditions’ different positions regarding equality of opportunity and the distributive role of markets in establishing economic justice. I critically assess the classical liberal principle that economic agents deserve to be rewarded according to their marginal contribution to economic product. The chapter concludes with some reflections upon the essential role that dissimilar conceptions of persons and society play in grounding the different positions on economic justice that classical and high liberals advocate.
ROBERT P. GEORGE
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198267713
- eISBN:
- 9780191683343
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198267713.003.0014
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter considers Alasdair MacIntyre’s critique, from a Thomistic-Aristotelian perspective, of the mainstream of the liberal tradition in moral and political philosophy in his important book ...
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This chapter considers Alasdair MacIntyre’s critique, from a Thomistic-Aristotelian perspective, of the mainstream of the liberal tradition in moral and political philosophy in his important book Whose Justice? Which Rationality? This chapter expresses concern on MacIntyre’s strong ‘particularism,’ (viz., his view of moral inquiry as not only ‘tradition-constitutive,’ but also ‘tradition-constituted’) which renders the idea of objective moral truth highly and unnecessarily problematic, and risks collapsing into a form of moral relativism. Certain modifications have been suggested of the view MacIntyre defends that would give ‘tradition’ its due moral analysis, yet avoid any strong relativist implications.Less
This chapter considers Alasdair MacIntyre’s critique, from a Thomistic-Aristotelian perspective, of the mainstream of the liberal tradition in moral and political philosophy in his important book Whose Justice? Which Rationality? This chapter expresses concern on MacIntyre’s strong ‘particularism,’ (viz., his view of moral inquiry as not only ‘tradition-constitutive,’ but also ‘tradition-constituted’) which renders the idea of objective moral truth highly and unnecessarily problematic, and risks collapsing into a form of moral relativism. Certain modifications have been suggested of the view MacIntyre defends that would give ‘tradition’ its due moral analysis, yet avoid any strong relativist implications.
Arvind Sharma
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195679489
- eISBN:
- 9780199081714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195679489.003.0011
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter examines the liberal argument for the claim that human rights are Western. It states that human rights are Western inasmuch as they constitute a manifestation or an expression of the ...
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This chapter examines the liberal argument for the claim that human rights are Western. It states that human rights are Western inasmuch as they constitute a manifestation or an expression of the Western liberal society, both in a general and a specific sense. The general point sets up a contrast between a liberal society and an authoritarian society. To speak in very general terms, traditional societies are typically authoritarian. They tend to accept one way of understanding the world as unquestionably right, and to impose it upon the entire society either by law or at least by opinion. A liberal society, by contrast, is a tolerant society. It accepts that there are many ways of understanding the world, any one of which may prove to be right or partly right, and it is willing to allow a free competition between opinions vying for acceptance. But at the same time, as pointed out in this chapter, it is true that the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights the so-called negative rights actually far outweigh the positive rights. Moreover, human rights documents include certain rights, which, although they are mentioned alongside the rights of the classical liberal tradition and whose inclusion in these documents may be attributed to the modern liberal tradition, yet have not found as firm a footing as the so-called negative rights. The relationship of liberal democracy and human rights is actually not as unproblematic as it might appear at first sight even in the West.Less
This chapter examines the liberal argument for the claim that human rights are Western. It states that human rights are Western inasmuch as they constitute a manifestation or an expression of the Western liberal society, both in a general and a specific sense. The general point sets up a contrast between a liberal society and an authoritarian society. To speak in very general terms, traditional societies are typically authoritarian. They tend to accept one way of understanding the world as unquestionably right, and to impose it upon the entire society either by law or at least by opinion. A liberal society, by contrast, is a tolerant society. It accepts that there are many ways of understanding the world, any one of which may prove to be right or partly right, and it is willing to allow a free competition between opinions vying for acceptance. But at the same time, as pointed out in this chapter, it is true that the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights the so-called negative rights actually far outweigh the positive rights. Moreover, human rights documents include certain rights, which, although they are mentioned alongside the rights of the classical liberal tradition and whose inclusion in these documents may be attributed to the modern liberal tradition, yet have not found as firm a footing as the so-called negative rights. The relationship of liberal democracy and human rights is actually not as unproblematic as it might appear at first sight even in the West.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226222677
- eISBN:
- 9780226222691
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226222691.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, European Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines anthropology in the aftermath of the conflict. The impact of the war continued to be felt long after 1918, not only through the hardships of difficult daily working conditions ...
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This chapter examines anthropology in the aftermath of the conflict. The impact of the war continued to be felt long after 1918, not only through the hardships of difficult daily working conditions and financial strain, but also in the larger ideological directions of the discipline itself. The process of transforming anthropology into Rassenkunde or “racial science” was carried out primarily by a younger group of anthropologists, many of whom had professionalized at the very moment of World War I. Seeking to refashion their discipline, these men rejected the earlier morphological and liberal tradition of Virchow's generation as “the science out of which nothing is allowed to come,” and instead took inspiration from genetic approaches as well as völkisch racial theorists. Most important, they sought to explore the connections between race, nation, and Volk, the very categories that liberal anthropologists had argued were distinct and unrelated. With the rise of Rassenkunde, the liberal tradition in German anthropology faded from the scene, replaced by a form of racial science that paralleled the racial ideologies of the National Socialists in the 1930s.Less
This chapter examines anthropology in the aftermath of the conflict. The impact of the war continued to be felt long after 1918, not only through the hardships of difficult daily working conditions and financial strain, but also in the larger ideological directions of the discipline itself. The process of transforming anthropology into Rassenkunde or “racial science” was carried out primarily by a younger group of anthropologists, many of whom had professionalized at the very moment of World War I. Seeking to refashion their discipline, these men rejected the earlier morphological and liberal tradition of Virchow's generation as “the science out of which nothing is allowed to come,” and instead took inspiration from genetic approaches as well as völkisch racial theorists. Most important, they sought to explore the connections between race, nation, and Volk, the very categories that liberal anthropologists had argued were distinct and unrelated. With the rise of Rassenkunde, the liberal tradition in German anthropology faded from the scene, replaced by a form of racial science that paralleled the racial ideologies of the National Socialists in the 1930s.
Tony Smith
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691183480
- eISBN:
- 9781400883400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691183480.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This concluding chapter argues that from early 2002 until today, American foreign policy has been premised on convictions that are both utopian and imperialist in a fashion quite foreign to the ...
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This concluding chapter argues that from early 2002 until today, American foreign policy has been premised on convictions that are both utopian and imperialist in a fashion quite foreign to the liberal internationalist tradition as it existed prior to 1990s. With its confidence in the ease of a transition from authoritarian to democratic order, its insistence on a “just war” doctrine that overthrew the Westphalian system of states by legitimizing the armed intervention of democracies against autocratic states, and its redefinition of American exceptionalism from a defense of the democratic world to a world-order project that knew no limits, neo-Wilsonianism sabotaged the very tradition from which it had emerged. The question, then, is whether the liberal internationalist tradition can be resuscitated in such a way that it contributes positively to world affairs.Less
This concluding chapter argues that from early 2002 until today, American foreign policy has been premised on convictions that are both utopian and imperialist in a fashion quite foreign to the liberal internationalist tradition as it existed prior to 1990s. With its confidence in the ease of a transition from authoritarian to democratic order, its insistence on a “just war” doctrine that overthrew the Westphalian system of states by legitimizing the armed intervention of democracies against autocratic states, and its redefinition of American exceptionalism from a defense of the democratic world to a world-order project that knew no limits, neo-Wilsonianism sabotaged the very tradition from which it had emerged. The question, then, is whether the liberal internationalist tradition can be resuscitated in such a way that it contributes positively to world affairs.
Jeffrey K. Tulis and Nicole Mellow
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226515298
- eISBN:
- 9780226515465
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226515465.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Legacies of Losing in American Politics shows the enduring and unnoticed significance of defeated leaders and ideas at three crucial junctures of American constitutional history. The Anti-Federalists ...
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Legacies of Losing in American Politics shows the enduring and unnoticed significance of defeated leaders and ideas at three crucial junctures of American constitutional history. The Anti-Federalists at the Founding, Andrew Johnson at Reconstruction, and Barry Goldwater at the height of the New Deal order were all losers in the battles that defined the major turning points of American political development. Yet all defied conventional wisdom and prevailed in important ways over the long run. Still more surprising, the mechanisms that account for their well-known profound losses prove to be the very instruments that ultimately transformed their failure into success. These counter-intuitive victories, and the unusual reasons for them, provoke a re-thinking of the two most important synoptic accounts of American politics. The standard narrative that American politics is marked by successive and progressive “constitutional moments” is recast to reflect the profound effects of these “anti-moments.” And a recent and powerful argument that the United States is not defined solely by its liberal tradition is reinforced by this account of how America’s multiple traditions are sustained by the actions of leaders at the highest levels in the nation’s most constitutive moments. Legacies of Losing describes and explains American politics as a braiding of constitutional and anti-constitutional arguments, and liberal and anti-liberal inheritances.Less
Legacies of Losing in American Politics shows the enduring and unnoticed significance of defeated leaders and ideas at three crucial junctures of American constitutional history. The Anti-Federalists at the Founding, Andrew Johnson at Reconstruction, and Barry Goldwater at the height of the New Deal order were all losers in the battles that defined the major turning points of American political development. Yet all defied conventional wisdom and prevailed in important ways over the long run. Still more surprising, the mechanisms that account for their well-known profound losses prove to be the very instruments that ultimately transformed their failure into success. These counter-intuitive victories, and the unusual reasons for them, provoke a re-thinking of the two most important synoptic accounts of American politics. The standard narrative that American politics is marked by successive and progressive “constitutional moments” is recast to reflect the profound effects of these “anti-moments.” And a recent and powerful argument that the United States is not defined solely by its liberal tradition is reinforced by this account of how America’s multiple traditions are sustained by the actions of leaders at the highest levels in the nation’s most constitutive moments. Legacies of Losing describes and explains American politics as a braiding of constitutional and anti-constitutional arguments, and liberal and anti-liberal inheritances.
Sharon R. Krause
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226234694
- eISBN:
- 9780226234724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226234724.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Being an agent is generally understood within the liberal tradition in ways that draw on the notion of personal sovereignty as self-determination or control over one’s action. The sovereigntist view ...
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Being an agent is generally understood within the liberal tradition in ways that draw on the notion of personal sovereignty as self-determination or control over one’s action. The sovereigntist view of agency identifies agency at least in the ideal case with being in control of one’s action, where the content of one’s will defines the meaning of the action and one’s effects manifest one’s own reasoned choices. This way of understanding agency permeates many of the most familiar and influential theories of freedom today, and it is implicit in much of the freedom talk that is everywhere in American popular culture. Yet this way of understanding agency fails to capture key features of how agency operates, and it contributes to persistent injustice and failures of freedom for individuals who are members of marginalized groups. The chapter summarizes the key arguments of the book and sketches the main claims of each of its seven chapters.Less
Being an agent is generally understood within the liberal tradition in ways that draw on the notion of personal sovereignty as self-determination or control over one’s action. The sovereigntist view of agency identifies agency at least in the ideal case with being in control of one’s action, where the content of one’s will defines the meaning of the action and one’s effects manifest one’s own reasoned choices. This way of understanding agency permeates many of the most familiar and influential theories of freedom today, and it is implicit in much of the freedom talk that is everywhere in American popular culture. Yet this way of understanding agency fails to capture key features of how agency operates, and it contributes to persistent injustice and failures of freedom for individuals who are members of marginalized groups. The chapter summarizes the key arguments of the book and sketches the main claims of each of its seven chapters.
John Durham Peters
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226662749
- eISBN:
- 9780226662756
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226662756.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This book updates the philosophy of free expression for a world that is very different from the one in which it originated. The notion that a free society should allow Klansmen, neo-Nazis, sundry ...
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This book updates the philosophy of free expression for a world that is very different from the one in which it originated. The notion that a free society should allow Klansmen, neo-Nazis, sundry extremists, and pornographers to spread their doctrines as freely as everyone else has come increasingly under fire. At the same time, in the wake of 9/11, the Right and the Left continue to wage war over the utility of an absolute vision of free speech in a time of increased national security. The book revisits the tangled history of free speech, finding resolutions to these debates hidden at the very roots of the liberal tradition. An account of the role of public communication in the Anglo-American world, it shows that liberty's earliest advocates recognized its fraternal relationship with wickedness and evil. While we understand freedom of expression to mean “anything goes,” the author asks why its advocates so often celebrate a sojourn in hell and the overcoming of suffering. He directs us to such well-known sources as the prose and poetry of John Milton and the political and philosophical theory of John Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., as well as lesser-known sources such as the theology of Paul of Tarsus. In various ways they all, the author shows, envisioned an attitude of self-mastery or self-transcendence as a response to the inevitable dangers of free speech, a troubled legacy that continues to inform ruling norms about knowledge, ethical responsibility, and democracy today. A world of gigabytes, undiminished religious passion, and relentless scientific discovery calls for a fresh account of liberty that recognizes its risk and its splendor. Instead of celebrating noxious doctrine as proof of society's robustness, this book invites us to rethink public communication today by looking more deeply into the unfathomable mystery of liberty and evil.Less
This book updates the philosophy of free expression for a world that is very different from the one in which it originated. The notion that a free society should allow Klansmen, neo-Nazis, sundry extremists, and pornographers to spread their doctrines as freely as everyone else has come increasingly under fire. At the same time, in the wake of 9/11, the Right and the Left continue to wage war over the utility of an absolute vision of free speech in a time of increased national security. The book revisits the tangled history of free speech, finding resolutions to these debates hidden at the very roots of the liberal tradition. An account of the role of public communication in the Anglo-American world, it shows that liberty's earliest advocates recognized its fraternal relationship with wickedness and evil. While we understand freedom of expression to mean “anything goes,” the author asks why its advocates so often celebrate a sojourn in hell and the overcoming of suffering. He directs us to such well-known sources as the prose and poetry of John Milton and the political and philosophical theory of John Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., as well as lesser-known sources such as the theology of Paul of Tarsus. In various ways they all, the author shows, envisioned an attitude of self-mastery or self-transcendence as a response to the inevitable dangers of free speech, a troubled legacy that continues to inform ruling norms about knowledge, ethical responsibility, and democracy today. A world of gigabytes, undiminished religious passion, and relentless scientific discovery calls for a fresh account of liberty that recognizes its risk and its splendor. Instead of celebrating noxious doctrine as proof of society's robustness, this book invites us to rethink public communication today by looking more deeply into the unfathomable mystery of liberty and evil.
Nicholas Buccola
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814787113
- eISBN:
- 9780814725405
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814787113.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Frederick Douglass, one of the most prominent figures in African-American and United States history, was born a slave, but escaped to the North and became a well-known anti-slavery activist, orator, ...
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Frederick Douglass, one of the most prominent figures in African-American and United States history, was born a slave, but escaped to the North and became a well-known anti-slavery activist, orator, and author. This book provides an important and original argument about the ideas that animated this reformer-statesman. Beyond his role as an abolitionist, the book argues for the importance of understanding Douglass as a political thinker who provides deep insights into the immense challenge of achieving and maintaining the liberal promise of freedom. Douglass shows us that the language of rights must be coupled with a robust understanding of social responsibility in order for liberal ideals to be realized. Truly an original American thinker, this book highlights Douglass's rightful place among the great thinkers in the American liberal tradition.Less
Frederick Douglass, one of the most prominent figures in African-American and United States history, was born a slave, but escaped to the North and became a well-known anti-slavery activist, orator, and author. This book provides an important and original argument about the ideas that animated this reformer-statesman. Beyond his role as an abolitionist, the book argues for the importance of understanding Douglass as a political thinker who provides deep insights into the immense challenge of achieving and maintaining the liberal promise of freedom. Douglass shows us that the language of rights must be coupled with a robust understanding of social responsibility in order for liberal ideals to be realized. Truly an original American thinker, this book highlights Douglass's rightful place among the great thinkers in the American liberal tradition.
Anthony Carty
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748622559
- eISBN:
- 9780748652525
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748622559.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter is an optimistic review of possible philosophical overcomings of the Western liberal tradition, through Paul Ricoeur's phenomenological, humanist response to Hobbes and Hegel, from an ...
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This chapter is an optimistic review of possible philosophical overcomings of the Western liberal tradition, through Paul Ricoeur's phenomenological, humanist response to Hobbes and Hegel, from an order of fear to one of respect. Phenomenological analysis takes one through the cultural imperialism that Steiner can trace by means of his theories of translation. These techniques of minute analysis can be applied through the theory of ‘the Other’ developed in the Orientalism debate onto a deconstruction of all fundamentalist discourses through a phenomenological philosophy of tact and distance, a true pluralism that can ground a genuinely liberal world society. All of this can and has to be applied to conflicts characterised as easily discernible phenomena of broken, immature relationships. For Ricoeur, the final foundation for any legal order rests in the maturity of persons and communities in relation.Less
This chapter is an optimistic review of possible philosophical overcomings of the Western liberal tradition, through Paul Ricoeur's phenomenological, humanist response to Hobbes and Hegel, from an order of fear to one of respect. Phenomenological analysis takes one through the cultural imperialism that Steiner can trace by means of his theories of translation. These techniques of minute analysis can be applied through the theory of ‘the Other’ developed in the Orientalism debate onto a deconstruction of all fundamentalist discourses through a phenomenological philosophy of tact and distance, a true pluralism that can ground a genuinely liberal world society. All of this can and has to be applied to conflicts characterised as easily discernible phenomena of broken, immature relationships. For Ricoeur, the final foundation for any legal order rests in the maturity of persons and communities in relation.
Sabina Donati (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804784511
- eISBN:
- 9780804787338
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784511.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
“Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State
“Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State
