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Horizontal Accountability: Concepts and Conflicts

Charles D. Kenney

in Democratic Accountability in Latin America

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 ... More

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

Liberal traditions

Rachel S. Turner

in Neo-Liberal Ideology: History, Concepts and Policies

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 ... More

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

The Sources of the Story of Puṇḍalīk

Ramchandra Chintaman Dhere

in Rise of a Folk God: Vitthal of Pandharpur

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 ... More

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

The Meaning of Race: The Liberal Paradigm in Prewar German Anthropology

in Anthropology at War: World War I and the Science of Race in Germany

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 ... More

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

 Coming of Age in the Great War: 1914–1919

William Taussig Scott and Martin X. Moleski

in Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher

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 ... More

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

Our Authority over Our Own Happiness

Fred Feldman

in What Is This Thing Called Happiness?

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 ... More

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

Moral Particularism, Thomism and Traditions

ROBERT P. GEORGE

in In Defense of Natural 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 ... More

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

Legacies of Loss in American Politics

Jeffrey K. Tulis and Nicole Mellow

in Legacies of Losing in 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 ... More

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

Capitalism in the Classical and High Liberal Traditions

Samuel Freeman

in Liberalism and Distributive Justice

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 ... More

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

The Liberal Argument

Arvind Sharma

in Are Human Rights Western?: A Contribution to the Dialogue of Civilizations

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 ... More

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

Anthropology in the Aftermath: Rassenkunde, Racial Hygiene, and the End of the Liberal Tradition

in Anthropology at War: World War I and the Science of Race in Germany

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 ... More

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

Publicity and Pain

in Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition

For several years, the liberal tradition has been attacked in fairly predictable patterns, almost all of them having to do with its conception of the self. The critiques are largely of three types. ... More

For several years, the liberal tradition has been attacked in fairly predictable patterns, almost all of them having to do with its conception of the self. The critiques are largely of three types. One of the most persistent is that liberalism is spiritually enervating. Another long-standing critique is that liberalism has an atomistic sense of social relations. The third chief historical attack on liberalism targets its social exclusion, its failure to adequately account for power. Recent multicultural critics have found liberalism to be racist and sexist. Self-abstraction, diverse thinkers argue, is not a universally available option, but is culturally coded to harmonize with the historic experience of white propertied males. All three of these critiques place the liberal vision of self-transcendence front and center.Less

Reviving Liberal Internationalism

Tony Smith

in Why Wilson Matters: The Origin of American Liberal Internationalism and Its Crisis Today

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 ... More

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

Reconstructing Liberal Individualism

Sharon R. Krause

in Freedom Beyond Sovereignty: Reconstructing Liberal Individualism

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 ... More

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

“Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State

Sabina Donati (ed.)

in A Political History of National Citizenship and Identity in Italy, 1861-1950

“Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State