Roger D. Spegele
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199265206
- eISBN:
- 9780191601866
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199265208.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Part Two of the book begins with a discussion of realist and English School of International Relations approaches to writing international history, in which the author argues that the appreciation of ...
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Part Two of the book begins with a discussion of realist and English School of International Relations approaches to writing international history, in which the author argues that the appreciation of history that underpinned early English School thinking was reminiscent of that which also framed ‘traditional classical’ realist approaches to the subject. The author refutes D. C. Copeland's (2003) structuralist critique of the English School and argues that the School's early thinkers may provide a teleological account of agent‐led historical change that could enable traditional realists to regain ground lost to the structuralists in the past few decades. Focusing on the conceptions of history of two distinguished members of the English School, E. H. Carr and Herbert Butterfield (although their views are in some respects diametrically opposed), he argues that both implicitly accepted different renditions of a teleological view of history. He advances a case for treating human actions as directed to the agent's – both individual and collective – goals and purposes, an idea that scientific empiricism would be obliged to reject but which may unite the English School and traditional political realism. In addition, he suggests that the mix of English School and political realism provided by Carr and Butterfield offers an understanding of history that can challenge dominant neorealist and neoliberal accounts in two principal ways: first, in that it offers an account of history that focuses on the intentional actions of actors, and second, because it provides a convincing method for identifying the causes of historical change by focusing on the reasons for change.Less
Part Two of the book begins with a discussion of realist and English School of International Relations approaches to writing international history, in which the author argues that the appreciation of history that underpinned early English School thinking was reminiscent of that which also framed ‘traditional classical’ realist approaches to the subject. The author refutes D. C. Copeland's (2003) structuralist critique of the English School and argues that the School's early thinkers may provide a teleological account of agent‐led historical change that could enable traditional realists to regain ground lost to the structuralists in the past few decades. Focusing on the conceptions of history of two distinguished members of the English School, E. H. Carr and Herbert Butterfield (although their views are in some respects diametrically opposed), he argues that both implicitly accepted different renditions of a teleological view of history. He advances a case for treating human actions as directed to the agent's – both individual and collective – goals and purposes, an idea that scientific empiricism would be obliged to reject but which may unite the English School and traditional political realism. In addition, he suggests that the mix of English School and political realism provided by Carr and Butterfield offers an understanding of history that can challenge dominant neorealist and neoliberal accounts in two principal ways: first, in that it offers an account of history that focuses on the intentional actions of actors, and second, because it provides a convincing method for identifying the causes of historical change by focusing on the reasons for change.
Steve Vanderheiden
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195334609
- eISBN:
- 9780199868759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195334609.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
This chapter examines the idea of cosmopolitan justice, or the application of egalitarian principles to relations between nations. Three primary challenges to this application are considered: the ...
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This chapter examines the idea of cosmopolitan justice, or the application of egalitarian principles to relations between nations. Three primary challenges to this application are considered: the doctrine of state sovereignty in international law and political theory, which holds that the internal affairs of states ought to be the exclusive prerogative of national governments; the theory of political realism, which denies the existence of valid normative ideals within international relations, maintaining instead that the advancement of national interests are the only defensible aims in policy such as that affecting climate; and the anti-cosmopolitanism of Rawls and some of his allies, maintaining that principles of justice can only apply within some societies, denying that the aggregate global effects of anthropogenic climate change raise any distinctive problems for justice itself. The case for cosmopolitan justice (by Beitz and others) is examined, paying particular attention to its application to problems of global climate.Less
This chapter examines the idea of cosmopolitan justice, or the application of egalitarian principles to relations between nations. Three primary challenges to this application are considered: the doctrine of state sovereignty in international law and political theory, which holds that the internal affairs of states ought to be the exclusive prerogative of national governments; the theory of political realism, which denies the existence of valid normative ideals within international relations, maintaining instead that the advancement of national interests are the only defensible aims in policy such as that affecting climate; and the anti-cosmopolitanism of Rawls and some of his allies, maintaining that principles of justice can only apply within some societies, denying that the aggregate global effects of anthropogenic climate change raise any distinctive problems for justice itself. The case for cosmopolitan justice (by Beitz and others) is examined, paying particular attention to its application to problems of global climate.
Steven C. Roach (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199546732
- eISBN:
- 9780191720406
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546732.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics, International Relations and Politics
Since entering into force in July 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has emerged as one of the most intriguing models of global governance. This book investigates the challenges facing the ...
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Since entering into force in July 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has emerged as one of the most intriguing models of global governance. This book investigates the challenges facing the ICC, including the dynamics of politicized justice, US opposition, an evolving and flexible institutional design, the juridification of political evil, negative and positive global responsibility, the apparent conflict between peace and justice, and the cosmopolitanization of law. It argues that realpolitik has tested the ICC's capacity in a mostly positive manner, and that the ambivalence between realpolitik and justice constitutes a novel predicament for extending global governance. The arguments of each chapter are framed by an approach designed to assess the nuanced relationship between realpolitik and global justice. The approach — which interweaves four International Relations approaches, rationalism, constructivism, communicative action theory, and moral cosmopolitanism — is guided by the metaphor of the switch levers of train tracks, in which the Prosecutor and Judges serve as the pivotal agents switching the (crisscrossing) tracks of realpolitik and cosmopolitanism. With this visual aid, this book shows just how the ICC has become one of the most fascinating points of intersection between law, politics, and ethics.Less
Since entering into force in July 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has emerged as one of the most intriguing models of global governance. This book investigates the challenges facing the ICC, including the dynamics of politicized justice, US opposition, an evolving and flexible institutional design, the juridification of political evil, negative and positive global responsibility, the apparent conflict between peace and justice, and the cosmopolitanization of law. It argues that realpolitik has tested the ICC's capacity in a mostly positive manner, and that the ambivalence between realpolitik and justice constitutes a novel predicament for extending global governance. The arguments of each chapter are framed by an approach designed to assess the nuanced relationship between realpolitik and global justice. The approach — which interweaves four International Relations approaches, rationalism, constructivism, communicative action theory, and moral cosmopolitanism — is guided by the metaphor of the switch levers of train tracks, in which the Prosecutor and Judges serve as the pivotal agents switching the (crisscrossing) tracks of realpolitik and cosmopolitanism. With this visual aid, this book shows just how the ICC has become one of the most fascinating points of intersection between law, politics, and ethics.
Rebekah L. Miles
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195144161
- eISBN:
- 9780199834495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195144163.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This final chapter points toward an alternative position that critically retrieves the realisms of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sharon Welch, and Reinhold Niebuhr, and finds a middle way between the ...
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This final chapter points toward an alternative position that critically retrieves the realisms of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sharon Welch, and Reinhold Niebuhr, and finds a middle way between the idealistic realism about moral grounding found in Ruether and some early feminists, and the radically relative political realism of Welch and some other postmodern feminists. This alternative joins an appeal to human self‐transcendence and divine transcendence with an affirmation of human boundedness and divine presence. At the same time, it takes seriously, Ruether's turn to creation and Welch's turn to community. In this alternative model – a feminist Christian realism – the author hopes to maintain both substantive grounding for moral claims and critical judgment of them.Less
This final chapter points toward an alternative position that critically retrieves the realisms of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sharon Welch, and Reinhold Niebuhr, and finds a middle way between the idealistic realism about moral grounding found in Ruether and some early feminists, and the radically relative political realism of Welch and some other postmodern feminists. This alternative joins an appeal to human self‐transcendence and divine transcendence with an affirmation of human boundedness and divine presence. At the same time, it takes seriously, Ruether's turn to creation and Welch's turn to community. In this alternative model – a feminist Christian realism – the author hopes to maintain both substantive grounding for moral claims and critical judgment of them.
Rebekah L. Miles
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195144161
- eISBN:
- 9780199834495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195144163.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
An examination is made of Sharon Welch's political realist position. Welch, in contrast to Ruether, locates moral norms and the divine in particular human communities, and all moral claims are ...
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An examination is made of Sharon Welch's political realist position. Welch, in contrast to Ruether, locates moral norms and the divine in particular human communities, and all moral claims are radically relative to those particular contexts. Appeals to an experience or reality that transcends our interactions in communities are illusory justifications of our own relative positions, since only within community interaction can we transcend ourselves as we see the limitations of our understandings through the criticism of others. Welch is a political realist in the sense that she is suspicious of the power interests hidden behind truth claims, and she is cynical in her skepticism of any substantive grounding for moral claims. It is shown that each of these proposals undercuts a crucial aspect of feminist moral judgment and, thus, does not lessen, but rather unintentionally supports, further domination.Less
An examination is made of Sharon Welch's political realist position. Welch, in contrast to Ruether, locates moral norms and the divine in particular human communities, and all moral claims are radically relative to those particular contexts. Appeals to an experience or reality that transcends our interactions in communities are illusory justifications of our own relative positions, since only within community interaction can we transcend ourselves as we see the limitations of our understandings through the criticism of others. Welch is a political realist in the sense that she is suspicious of the power interests hidden behind truth claims, and she is cynical in her skepticism of any substantive grounding for moral claims. It is shown that each of these proposals undercuts a crucial aspect of feminist moral judgment and, thus, does not lessen, but rather unintentionally supports, further domination.
Robert O. Keohane
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199970087
- eISBN:
- 9780199333295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199970087.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Stephen D. Krasner is conventionally regarded as a realist student of international political economy. But he is equally an institutional theorist, who has made major contributions to our ...
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Stephen D. Krasner is conventionally regarded as a realist student of international political economy. But he is equally an institutional theorist, who has made major contributions to our understanding of international regimes and sovereignty as well as of the difference between control and authority in world politics. Krasner also shares much common ground with constructivists, because of his emphasis on the role of ideas and identity and his discussion of the role of social norms, as applied, or violated, by agents. His distinguished work on sovereignty emphasizes these themes. The chapter concludes by suggesting that Steve Krasner’s insightful perspective on world politics could be usefully focused on the important but under-theorized concept of persuasion. Progress in understanding persuasion is more likely to be made by combining concepts—as Krasner has done in such a distinguished fashion throughout his career—than by using only one perspective, realist, institutionalist, or constructivist. Indeed, Krasner’s work is a refutation of the view that these three approaches to world politics are mutually exclusive.Less
Stephen D. Krasner is conventionally regarded as a realist student of international political economy. But he is equally an institutional theorist, who has made major contributions to our understanding of international regimes and sovereignty as well as of the difference between control and authority in world politics. Krasner also shares much common ground with constructivists, because of his emphasis on the role of ideas and identity and his discussion of the role of social norms, as applied, or violated, by agents. His distinguished work on sovereignty emphasizes these themes. The chapter concludes by suggesting that Steve Krasner’s insightful perspective on world politics could be usefully focused on the important but under-theorized concept of persuasion. Progress in understanding persuasion is more likely to be made by combining concepts—as Krasner has done in such a distinguished fashion throughout his career—than by using only one perspective, realist, institutionalist, or constructivist. Indeed, Krasner’s work is a refutation of the view that these three approaches to world politics are mutually exclusive.
Martha Finnemore and Judith Goldstein
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199970087
- eISBN:
- 9780199333295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199970087.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
No theory gives state power a more central place than realism. Indeed, the term “power politics” is often synonymous with realism and realpolitik foreign policy, but making the concept of power ...
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No theory gives state power a more central place than realism. Indeed, the term “power politics” is often synonymous with realism and realpolitik foreign policy, but making the concept of power tractable has been a challenge even for realists. No scholar better exemplifies the intellectual challenges of making realism a robust social scientific theory than Stephen Krasner. Throughout his career he has wrestled with realism’s promises and limitations. He reinvigorated concepts of relative state power in his analysis of foreign policy and international institutions in the 1970s and 1980s, but in the 1990s came to question realism’s assumptions about unitary states and the fundamentals of state sovereignty. At the turn of the century, he was abandoning his neorealist colleagues and pointing out fundamental contradictions between realism’s ontology of fully sovereign autonomous states and realism’s assumption of anarchy in which states can further their interests by altering the domestic authority structures of other states. Yet, since leaving government, Krasner has returned to his realist roots, exploring new roles for state power. Krasner’s intellectual journey highlights not only the tensions in realist thinking but also the enduring utility and importance of a power-politics approach.Less
No theory gives state power a more central place than realism. Indeed, the term “power politics” is often synonymous with realism and realpolitik foreign policy, but making the concept of power tractable has been a challenge even for realists. No scholar better exemplifies the intellectual challenges of making realism a robust social scientific theory than Stephen Krasner. Throughout his career he has wrestled with realism’s promises and limitations. He reinvigorated concepts of relative state power in his analysis of foreign policy and international institutions in the 1970s and 1980s, but in the 1990s came to question realism’s assumptions about unitary states and the fundamentals of state sovereignty. At the turn of the century, he was abandoning his neorealist colleagues and pointing out fundamental contradictions between realism’s ontology of fully sovereign autonomous states and realism’s assumption of anarchy in which states can further their interests by altering the domestic authority structures of other states. Yet, since leaving government, Krasner has returned to his realist roots, exploring new roles for state power. Krasner’s intellectual journey highlights not only the tensions in realist thinking but also the enduring utility and importance of a power-politics approach.
Zhidong Hao
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622091009
- eISBN:
- 9789882207691
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622091009.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Political History
This chapter discusses the difficulties encountered in crossing cultural boundaries and in overcoming prejudices and discriminatory attitudes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. It next examines the ...
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This chapter discusses the difficulties encountered in crossing cultural boundaries and in overcoming prejudices and discriminatory attitudes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. It next examines the difficulty of writing off political realism, which views conflict as inevitable and insoluble short of violence. The latter part of the chapter presents an analysis of a number of concepts that would counter-argue for the possibility of a hybrid of federation and confederation.Less
This chapter discusses the difficulties encountered in crossing cultural boundaries and in overcoming prejudices and discriminatory attitudes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. It next examines the difficulty of writing off political realism, which views conflict as inevitable and insoluble short of violence. The latter part of the chapter presents an analysis of a number of concepts that would counter-argue for the possibility of a hybrid of federation and confederation.
John Tolan, Gilles Veinstein, and Henry Laurens
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691147055
- eISBN:
- 9781400844753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691147055.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History
This chapter demonstrates that ideological antagonism regularly yielded to political realism or commercial pragmatism, which, of course, did not eliminate the antagonism but at least bracketed it. It ...
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This chapter demonstrates that ideological antagonism regularly yielded to political realism or commercial pragmatism, which, of course, did not eliminate the antagonism but at least bracketed it. It argues that breaches existed in the wall of hostility, and that centuries of coexistence could not be reduced to an uninterrupted succession of violent acts and confrontations. Other temperaments, such as a taste for exoticism, intellectual curiosity, or philosophical speculation could more effectively break down the ideological barrier, but they undermined it only to a very limited degree during the period under consideration. Moreover, their consequences on the dominant ideology were uneven in their gravity. The ideology thus remained in the background but was never far off.Less
This chapter demonstrates that ideological antagonism regularly yielded to political realism or commercial pragmatism, which, of course, did not eliminate the antagonism but at least bracketed it. It argues that breaches existed in the wall of hostility, and that centuries of coexistence could not be reduced to an uninterrupted succession of violent acts and confrontations. Other temperaments, such as a taste for exoticism, intellectual curiosity, or philosophical speculation could more effectively break down the ideological barrier, but they undermined it only to a very limited degree during the period under consideration. Moreover, their consequences on the dominant ideology were uneven in their gravity. The ideology thus remained in the background but was never far off.
Kate Schick
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780748639847
- eISBN:
- 9780748676675
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748639847.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Dissatisfaction with the perceived failure of liberal and postmodern responses to trauma and difference has prompted a turn to more radical alternatives: political realism and messianic utopianism, ...
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Dissatisfaction with the perceived failure of liberal and postmodern responses to trauma and difference has prompted a turn to more radical alternatives: political realism and messianic utopianism, which are the focus of this chapter. Political realism (Schmitt, Morgenthau) doggedly accepts the tragic inescapability of self-interest and conflict, promulgating a politics of the possible; messianic utopianism (Benjamin, Derrida, Žižek) supplements the tragedy of the present with an otherworldly hope, promulgating a politics of the impossible. This chapter argues that Rose's speculative philosophy sits between tragedy and utopia. She maintains that there is a danger that the work of the political is bypassed in both categories: both in tragic resignation, which eschews transformation and fosters conservative self-preservation or solipsistic withdrawal; and in utopian hope, which bypasses the present in hubris-filled attempts to ‘mend’ the brokenness of modernity. Instead, a speculative perspective asserts that we stay with the anxiety of living in a broken, fragile world, working through the existential and historical traumas this inevitably entails.Less
Dissatisfaction with the perceived failure of liberal and postmodern responses to trauma and difference has prompted a turn to more radical alternatives: political realism and messianic utopianism, which are the focus of this chapter. Political realism (Schmitt, Morgenthau) doggedly accepts the tragic inescapability of self-interest and conflict, promulgating a politics of the possible; messianic utopianism (Benjamin, Derrida, Žižek) supplements the tragedy of the present with an otherworldly hope, promulgating a politics of the impossible. This chapter argues that Rose's speculative philosophy sits between tragedy and utopia. She maintains that there is a danger that the work of the political is bypassed in both categories: both in tragic resignation, which eschews transformation and fosters conservative self-preservation or solipsistic withdrawal; and in utopian hope, which bypasses the present in hubris-filled attempts to ‘mend’ the brokenness of modernity. Instead, a speculative perspective asserts that we stay with the anxiety of living in a broken, fragile world, working through the existential and historical traumas this inevitably entails.
Joshua L. Cherniss
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199673261
- eISBN:
- 9780191751714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199673261.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Political History
This chapter argues that a concern with the ethics of political action was central to Berlin’s thought; and that his well-known and deep-rooted opposition to ‘utopianism’ and naïve idealism was but ...
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This chapter argues that a concern with the ethics of political action was central to Berlin’s thought; and that his well-known and deep-rooted opposition to ‘utopianism’ and naïve idealism was but one side of his own political outlook, which was also shaped by opposition to an amoral embrace of power politics often labelled ‘realism’. It reconstructs Berlin’s critiques of Hegel and Marx, and his polemics with his contemporary E. H. Carr, to reveal the centrality to his work of an opposition to both ‘realism’ and utopianism—and his intimation of affinities and links between these seemingly opposed tendencies. It also argues that Berlin exemplified a larger trend in liberal thinking, which sought to divest liberalism of an optimistic faith in progress and rationality, and embrace an attitude of scepticism rather than dogmatism, while retaining a commitment to a liberal moral impulse of respect for individual dignity and freedom.Less
This chapter argues that a concern with the ethics of political action was central to Berlin’s thought; and that his well-known and deep-rooted opposition to ‘utopianism’ and naïve idealism was but one side of his own political outlook, which was also shaped by opposition to an amoral embrace of power politics often labelled ‘realism’. It reconstructs Berlin’s critiques of Hegel and Marx, and his polemics with his contemporary E. H. Carr, to reveal the centrality to his work of an opposition to both ‘realism’ and utopianism—and his intimation of affinities and links between these seemingly opposed tendencies. It also argues that Berlin exemplified a larger trend in liberal thinking, which sought to divest liberalism of an optimistic faith in progress and rationality, and embrace an attitude of scepticism rather than dogmatism, while retaining a commitment to a liberal moral impulse of respect for individual dignity and freedom.
Kathleen R. Arnold
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190262280
- eISBN:
- 9780190262303
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190262280.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
Calling attention to domestic abuse as a political problem, this book seeks to challenge Enlightenment notions of intimacy that profoundly mistake the nature of control and abuse. In turn, the ...
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Calling attention to domestic abuse as a political problem, this book seeks to challenge Enlightenment notions of intimacy that profoundly mistake the nature of control and abuse. In turn, the anti-Enlightenment aspects of intimacy are rooted in tensions and contradictions of American society, which often assume that communication and egalitarian practices (such as mediation) preclude destructive tendencies and hostility. A revised notion of political realism allows understanding of hierarchical, unsympathetic, and even violent aspects of modern, enlightened politics as normal if not undesirable. Indeed, this book explores how Enlightenment ideals continue to deny or obscure hierarchy, coercive control, and violence even while they make these dynamics possible. Specifically, even as intimate partnerships are less formal today, they are often viewed as being rooted in equality, mutuality, and consent. Accordingly, abuse is often interpreted as symmetrical and dominant policy solutions encourage communication and education, alongside law-and-order solutions like dual arrest. In contrast, abusers operate according to assumptions that their targets are unequal, inferior, and deserve to be controlled and assaulted. Communication with a target or in a batterer intervention program can help the abuser to deploy these tools against the target. Two of the most significant gender-based asylum cases help to crystallize these issues, recasting self-defense as political expression and the belief that one partner should not control and assault the other as “feminism.” In this context, communicative solutions discursively make a situation equal that is not; therapy, shelters, and lawyers often reinforce these inequalities.Less
Calling attention to domestic abuse as a political problem, this book seeks to challenge Enlightenment notions of intimacy that profoundly mistake the nature of control and abuse. In turn, the anti-Enlightenment aspects of intimacy are rooted in tensions and contradictions of American society, which often assume that communication and egalitarian practices (such as mediation) preclude destructive tendencies and hostility. A revised notion of political realism allows understanding of hierarchical, unsympathetic, and even violent aspects of modern, enlightened politics as normal if not undesirable. Indeed, this book explores how Enlightenment ideals continue to deny or obscure hierarchy, coercive control, and violence even while they make these dynamics possible. Specifically, even as intimate partnerships are less formal today, they are often viewed as being rooted in equality, mutuality, and consent. Accordingly, abuse is often interpreted as symmetrical and dominant policy solutions encourage communication and education, alongside law-and-order solutions like dual arrest. In contrast, abusers operate according to assumptions that their targets are unequal, inferior, and deserve to be controlled and assaulted. Communication with a target or in a batterer intervention program can help the abuser to deploy these tools against the target. Two of the most significant gender-based asylum cases help to crystallize these issues, recasting self-defense as political expression and the belief that one partner should not control and assault the other as “feminism.” In this context, communicative solutions discursively make a situation equal that is not; therapy, shelters, and lawyers often reinforce these inequalities.
Nick Pearce
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781529200980
- eISBN:
- 9781529200973
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529200980.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This chapter examines two types of realist challenge to ideas for democratic renewal. The realist political scientists stress the role of irrational, group-based behaviour amongst the electorate, and ...
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This chapter examines two types of realist challenge to ideas for democratic renewal. The realist political scientists stress the role of irrational, group-based behaviour amongst the electorate, and the capture of democratic processes by powerful and wealthy elites. They see little scope of civic participation reversing the hollowing out of representative democracy and mainstream political parties. On the other hand, realist political theorists focus on practical advice and political action, rather than ideal theory; and are concerned with rhetoric and persuasion, as much as public reason. It is argued that the second type of realist challenge can help us better understand how to advance state-citizen cooperation through practical initiatives such as citizens assemblies, participation in local government, digital democracy, the opening up of political parties; and how these can be supported by applying realist theorists’ insights to the reforming of political institutions, harnessing passion in social activism, and the development of citizenship education.Less
This chapter examines two types of realist challenge to ideas for democratic renewal. The realist political scientists stress the role of irrational, group-based behaviour amongst the electorate, and the capture of democratic processes by powerful and wealthy elites. They see little scope of civic participation reversing the hollowing out of representative democracy and mainstream political parties. On the other hand, realist political theorists focus on practical advice and political action, rather than ideal theory; and are concerned with rhetoric and persuasion, as much as public reason. It is argued that the second type of realist challenge can help us better understand how to advance state-citizen cooperation through practical initiatives such as citizens assemblies, participation in local government, digital democracy, the opening up of political parties; and how these can be supported by applying realist theorists’ insights to the reforming of political institutions, harnessing passion in social activism, and the development of citizenship education.
Patricia Owens
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199596737
- eISBN:
- 9780191803543
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199596737.003.0027
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, International Relations and Politics
This chapter examines a form of political realism whose intellectual standing improved under the administration of George W. Bush. Specifically, a strand of the authoritarian German jurist, Carl ...
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This chapter examines a form of political realism whose intellectual standing improved under the administration of George W. Bush. Specifically, a strand of the authoritarian German jurist, Carl Schmitt’s version of political ‘decisionism’, which is said to correlate with the Bush administration’s claims about executive authority and state sovereignty. The chapter first sets out what many have described as the ‘decisionist’ basis of the Bush administration’s legal revisionism and its interpretation of the normative order more generally. It then discusses German-American political theorist Hannah Arendt’s rejection of both Schmitt’s ‘decisionism’ and liberal constitutional rationalism in favour of a different understanding of law.Less
This chapter examines a form of political realism whose intellectual standing improved under the administration of George W. Bush. Specifically, a strand of the authoritarian German jurist, Carl Schmitt’s version of political ‘decisionism’, which is said to correlate with the Bush administration’s claims about executive authority and state sovereignty. The chapter first sets out what many have described as the ‘decisionist’ basis of the Bush administration’s legal revisionism and its interpretation of the normative order more generally. It then discusses German-American political theorist Hannah Arendt’s rejection of both Schmitt’s ‘decisionism’ and liberal constitutional rationalism in favour of a different understanding of law.
Douglas I. Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190679934
- eISBN:
- 9780190679965
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190679934.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, Democratization
This chapter investigates Michel de Montaigne’s treatment of the emergent discourse of reason of state. It shows that Montaigne neither affirms nor rejects reason of state; instead, he argues both ...
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This chapter investigates Michel de Montaigne’s treatment of the emergent discourse of reason of state. It shows that Montaigne neither affirms nor rejects reason of state; instead, he argues both for and against it without resolution. His purpose is to highlight the danger of following elite justifications for violence, given either in terms of political necessity or with moral reasons. Montaigne seeks to call into being a public with the capacity to resist elites’ stimulation of popular demand for intolerant policy and their promises to supply it. In doing so, Montaigne develops an original early theory of public opinion and its role in tolerance conflicts. The chapter engages with Bernard Williams’s conception of tolerance in terms of “political realism.”Less
This chapter investigates Michel de Montaigne’s treatment of the emergent discourse of reason of state. It shows that Montaigne neither affirms nor rejects reason of state; instead, he argues both for and against it without resolution. His purpose is to highlight the danger of following elite justifications for violence, given either in terms of political necessity or with moral reasons. Montaigne seeks to call into being a public with the capacity to resist elites’ stimulation of popular demand for intolerant policy and their promises to supply it. In doing so, Montaigne develops an original early theory of public opinion and its role in tolerance conflicts. The chapter engages with Bernard Williams’s conception of tolerance in terms of “political realism.”
Bidyut Chakrabarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199951215
- eISBN:
- 9780199346004
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199951215.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, Comparative Politics
The aim of this book is to understand the complex evolution of the socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King and also their confluence in the specific context of India and America respectively. Based ...
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The aim of this book is to understand the complex evolution of the socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King and also their confluence in the specific context of India and America respectively. Based on a threadbare analysis of socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King, the book argues that the moral politics of redemptive love and non-violence that they consistently pursued represents an appealing vision for the present century. Their commitment to non-violence and their desire for social justice shine forth in the darkness of an age of nuclear weapons and genocide. They thus remain a major source of inspiration to each generation of thinkers and activists in the political tradition of non-violence that bear their names. In four long chapters, the argument - defending the ideological compatibility between Gandhi and King given their commitment to non-violence - is forcefully made on the basis of a critical scrutiny of their socio-political ideas, which they had articulated in various texts that they had left for the posterity. Not only is the book a critical statement on ‘the confluence of thought’, it has also probed into whether non-violent civil disobedience is a viable strategy in an era of the growing consolidation of the social Darwinism at the behest of neo-liberal political competition.Less
The aim of this book is to understand the complex evolution of the socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King and also their confluence in the specific context of India and America respectively. Based on a threadbare analysis of socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King, the book argues that the moral politics of redemptive love and non-violence that they consistently pursued represents an appealing vision for the present century. Their commitment to non-violence and their desire for social justice shine forth in the darkness of an age of nuclear weapons and genocide. They thus remain a major source of inspiration to each generation of thinkers and activists in the political tradition of non-violence that bear their names. In four long chapters, the argument - defending the ideological compatibility between Gandhi and King given their commitment to non-violence - is forcefully made on the basis of a critical scrutiny of their socio-political ideas, which they had articulated in various texts that they had left for the posterity. Not only is the book a critical statement on ‘the confluence of thought’, it has also probed into whether non-violent civil disobedience is a viable strategy in an era of the growing consolidation of the social Darwinism at the behest of neo-liberal political competition.
Shmuel Nili
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198859635
- eISBN:
- 9780191891984
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198859635.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Conventional philosophical wisdom holds that no agent can invoke its own moral integrity—no agent can invoke fidelity to its deepest ethical commitments—as an independent moral consideration. This is ...
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Conventional philosophical wisdom holds that no agent can invoke its own moral integrity—no agent can invoke fidelity to its deepest ethical commitments—as an independent moral consideration. This is because moral integrity simply consists in doing what is, all-things-considered, the right thing. Shmuel Nili argues that this conventional wisdom is mistaken with regard to individual agents, but is especially misguided with regard to liberal democracies as collective agents. Even more than individual persons, liberal democracies as collective agents often face integrity considerations of independent moral force, affecting the moral status of actual political decisions. After defending this philosophical thesis, Nili illustrates its practical value in thinking through a wide range of practical policy problems. These problems range from “dirty” national security policies, through the moral status of political honors celebrating political figures of questionable integrity, to the “clean hands” dilemmas of political operatives who enable media demagogues to scapegoat vulnerable ethnic and racial minorities. Accessibly written, and combining detailed philosophical analysis with numerous vivid real-world examples, Integrity: Personal and Political will appeal to moral, legal, and political philosophers, to political scientists, and to scholars of political communication.Less
Conventional philosophical wisdom holds that no agent can invoke its own moral integrity—no agent can invoke fidelity to its deepest ethical commitments—as an independent moral consideration. This is because moral integrity simply consists in doing what is, all-things-considered, the right thing. Shmuel Nili argues that this conventional wisdom is mistaken with regard to individual agents, but is especially misguided with regard to liberal democracies as collective agents. Even more than individual persons, liberal democracies as collective agents often face integrity considerations of independent moral force, affecting the moral status of actual political decisions. After defending this philosophical thesis, Nili illustrates its practical value in thinking through a wide range of practical policy problems. These problems range from “dirty” national security policies, through the moral status of political honors celebrating political figures of questionable integrity, to the “clean hands” dilemmas of political operatives who enable media demagogues to scapegoat vulnerable ethnic and racial minorities. Accessibly written, and combining detailed philosophical analysis with numerous vivid real-world examples, Integrity: Personal and Political will appeal to moral, legal, and political philosophers, to political scientists, and to scholars of political communication.
Enzo Rossi
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198794394
- eISBN:
- 9780191835896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198794394.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Cécile Laborde has argued that the freedom we think of as ‘freedom of religion’ should be understood as a bundle of separate and relatively independent freedoms. This chapter criticizes that approach ...
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Cécile Laborde has argued that the freedom we think of as ‘freedom of religion’ should be understood as a bundle of separate and relatively independent freedoms. This chapter criticizes that approach by pointing out that it is insufficiently sensitive to facts about the sorts of entities that liberal states are. It argues that states have good reasons to mould phenomena such as religion into easily governable monoliths. If this is a problem from the normative point of view, it is not due to descriptively inadequate accounts of religion, but a problem with a lack of realism about the sort of institutions states are. The chapter’s conclusion is a three-way disjunction: either one must reckon with liberal states’ historically determined limitations in the management of changing social phenomena, or one should direct one’s frustration at the marriage of liberalism and the state, or the very existence of states is normatively problematic.Less
Cécile Laborde has argued that the freedom we think of as ‘freedom of religion’ should be understood as a bundle of separate and relatively independent freedoms. This chapter criticizes that approach by pointing out that it is insufficiently sensitive to facts about the sorts of entities that liberal states are. It argues that states have good reasons to mould phenomena such as religion into easily governable monoliths. If this is a problem from the normative point of view, it is not due to descriptively inadequate accounts of religion, but a problem with a lack of realism about the sort of institutions states are. The chapter’s conclusion is a three-way disjunction: either one must reckon with liberal states’ historically determined limitations in the management of changing social phenomena, or one should direct one’s frustration at the marriage of liberalism and the state, or the very existence of states is normatively problematic.
Peter Uwe Hohendahl
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781501726545
- eISBN:
- 9781501730665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501726545.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The last chapter discusses the present state of Schmitt research and the relevance of his work for political and legal theory. The chapter traces the changes of Schmitt’s reception in the West from ...
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The last chapter discusses the present state of Schmitt research and the relevance of his work for political and legal theory. The chapter traces the changes of Schmitt’s reception in the West from the 1990s until the present, giving a critical account especially of the normalization of Schmitt’s late work after 2000 in the context of a new geopolitical approach to a globalized political order. The discussion closes on a sceptical note.Less
The last chapter discusses the present state of Schmitt research and the relevance of his work for political and legal theory. The chapter traces the changes of Schmitt’s reception in the West from the 1990s until the present, giving a critical account especially of the normalization of Schmitt’s late work after 2000 in the context of a new geopolitical approach to a globalized political order. The discussion closes on a sceptical note.
Dimitrios Kyritsis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199672257
- eISBN:
- 9780191751295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199672257.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter sets out the main tenets of moralized constitutional theory, which supplies the methodology of the book. According to moralized constitutional theory the purpose of constitutional law is ...
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This chapter sets out the main tenets of moralized constitutional theory, which supplies the methodology of the book. According to moralized constitutional theory the purpose of constitutional law is to buttress the legitimacy of a political regime by furnishing standing assurances that government power will be used properly. Although moralized constitutional theory maintains that contentious constitutional law issues are ultimately determined by principles of political morality, it is compatible with both legal positivism and anti-positivism. Moreover, it does not ignore either the history of different legal systems or considerations of political exigency to which constitutions are also sensitive. But it insists that the overarching reason history and political exigency matter is a moral one. Nor does moralized constitutional theory block reform. It is only meant to answer the pressing moral question under what conditions state coercion is warranted here and now.Less
This chapter sets out the main tenets of moralized constitutional theory, which supplies the methodology of the book. According to moralized constitutional theory the purpose of constitutional law is to buttress the legitimacy of a political regime by furnishing standing assurances that government power will be used properly. Although moralized constitutional theory maintains that contentious constitutional law issues are ultimately determined by principles of political morality, it is compatible with both legal positivism and anti-positivism. Moreover, it does not ignore either the history of different legal systems or considerations of political exigency to which constitutions are also sensitive. But it insists that the overarching reason history and political exigency matter is a moral one. Nor does moralized constitutional theory block reform. It is only meant to answer the pressing moral question under what conditions state coercion is warranted here and now.