Adam T. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163239
- eISBN:
- 9781400866502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163239.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter works to define an object-aware account of sovereignty, one attentive to the articulations of human bodies and assemblages (and their distinct ways of working) rather than “oriented” ...
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This chapter works to define an object-aware account of sovereignty, one attentive to the articulations of human bodies and assemblages (and their distinct ways of working) rather than “oriented” explicitly to the object. The goal is not to provide a review of contemporary theories of sovereignty but to examine what happened to the political in archaeology and to detail its recent resurgence within a range of studies that attend to the matter of sovereignty. The second portion of the chapter then examines the reciprocal problem—how political theory lost sight of things—and outlines the intellectual foundations for regrounding the polity in the machinery of sovereign reproduction. Thus, the chapter moves from a broad focus on the political—that borderless mass of relations defined by the operation of a power that aspires to map the contours of an ordered community—toward a more focused attention on sovereignty as a condition of political interactions, embedded in the relations of authority.Less
This chapter works to define an object-aware account of sovereignty, one attentive to the articulations of human bodies and assemblages (and their distinct ways of working) rather than “oriented” explicitly to the object. The goal is not to provide a review of contemporary theories of sovereignty but to examine what happened to the political in archaeology and to detail its recent resurgence within a range of studies that attend to the matter of sovereignty. The second portion of the chapter then examines the reciprocal problem—how political theory lost sight of things—and outlines the intellectual foundations for regrounding the polity in the machinery of sovereign reproduction. Thus, the chapter moves from a broad focus on the political—that borderless mass of relations defined by the operation of a power that aspires to map the contours of an ordered community—toward a more focused attention on sovereignty as a condition of political interactions, embedded in the relations of authority.
Kurt Schuler
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155358
- eISBN:
- 9780199832989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155351.003.0008
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, International
This chapter discusses the meaning, purpose, scope, and expected benefits of monetary sovereignty. Monetary sovereignty has become the focus of recent debates on dollarization, currency boards, and ...
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This chapter discusses the meaning, purpose, scope, and expected benefits of monetary sovereignty. Monetary sovereignty has become the focus of recent debates on dollarization, currency boards, and monetary unions. Concerns have been raised that replacing a national central bank with any of these monetary systems would reduce national monetary sovereignty, and by association, political sovereignty. It is argued that monetary sovereignty has been harmful for most developing countries because the rhetoric of sovereignty fails to distinguish between political, consumer and monetary sovereignty.Less
This chapter discusses the meaning, purpose, scope, and expected benefits of monetary sovereignty. Monetary sovereignty has become the focus of recent debates on dollarization, currency boards, and monetary unions. Concerns have been raised that replacing a national central bank with any of these monetary systems would reduce national monetary sovereignty, and by association, political sovereignty. It is argued that monetary sovereignty has been harmful for most developing countries because the rhetoric of sovereignty fails to distinguish between political, consumer and monetary sovereignty.
Adam T. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163239
- eISBN:
- 9781400866502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163239.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
In the Late Bronze Age, the polities in the South Caucasus developed a new assemblage directed toward transforming charismatic authority into formal sovereignty. This chapter examines the assembling ...
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In the Late Bronze Age, the polities in the South Caucasus developed a new assemblage directed toward transforming charismatic authority into formal sovereignty. This chapter examines the assembling of this political machine, which drew the civilization and war machines into an extensive apparatus of rule, one that resolved the paradox at the heart of the joint operation of both. This novel political machine did not supersede the war and civilization machines. Rather, the political machine cloaked their contradictions, allowing the relation of the one to the many to persist as a “mystery” of sovereignty. The political machine not only provided the instruments of judicial ordering and bureaucratic regulation but it also transformed the polity itself into an object of devotion, securing not simply the surrender of subjects but their active commitment to the reproduction of sovereignty.Less
In the Late Bronze Age, the polities in the South Caucasus developed a new assemblage directed toward transforming charismatic authority into formal sovereignty. This chapter examines the assembling of this political machine, which drew the civilization and war machines into an extensive apparatus of rule, one that resolved the paradox at the heart of the joint operation of both. This novel political machine did not supersede the war and civilization machines. Rather, the political machine cloaked their contradictions, allowing the relation of the one to the many to persist as a “mystery” of sovereignty. The political machine not only provided the instruments of judicial ordering and bureaucratic regulation but it also transformed the polity itself into an object of devotion, securing not simply the surrender of subjects but their active commitment to the reproduction of sovereignty.
Adam T. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163239
- eISBN:
- 9781400866502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163239.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the conditions of sovereignty. It argues that sovereignty requires the continual reproduction of (at least) three conditions: (1) establishment ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the conditions of sovereignty. It argues that sovereignty requires the continual reproduction of (at least) three conditions: (1) establishment of a coherent public defined by relations of inclusion and exclusion that are materially marked and regulated; (2) definition of a sovereign figure (whether individual or corporate), cut away from the community by instruments of social and martial violence; and (3) manufacture of an apparatus capable of formalizing governance by transforming the polity itself into an object of desire, of care, and of devotion. It then goes on to consider the concept of the political machine, the object matter of sovereignty, and the Caucasus. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the conditions of sovereignty. It argues that sovereignty requires the continual reproduction of (at least) three conditions: (1) establishment of a coherent public defined by relations of inclusion and exclusion that are materially marked and regulated; (2) definition of a sovereign figure (whether individual or corporate), cut away from the community by instruments of social and martial violence; and (3) manufacture of an apparatus capable of formalizing governance by transforming the polity itself into an object of desire, of care, and of devotion. It then goes on to consider the concept of the political machine, the object matter of sovereignty, and the Caucasus. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Adam T. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163239
- eISBN:
- 9781400866502
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163239.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This book investigates the essential role that material culture plays in the practices and maintenance of political sovereignty. Through an archaeological exploration of the Bronze Age Caucasus, the ...
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This book investigates the essential role that material culture plays in the practices and maintenance of political sovereignty. Through an archaeological exploration of the Bronze Age Caucasus, the book demonstrates that beyond assemblies of people, polities are just as importantly assemblages of things—from ballots and bullets to crowns, regalia, and licenses. The book looks at the ways that these assemblages help to forge cohesive publics, separate sovereigns from a wider social mass, and formalize governance—and it considers how these developments continue to shape politics today. The book shows that the formation of polities is as much about the process of manufacturing assemblages as it is about disciplining subjects, and that these material objects or “machines” sustain communities, orders, and institutions. The sensibilities, senses, and sentiments connecting people to things enabled political authority during the Bronze Age and fortifies political power even in the contemporary world. The book provides a detailed account of the transformation of communities in the Caucasus, from small-scale early Bronze Age villages committed to egalitarianism, to Late Bronze Age polities predicated on radical inequality, organized violence, and a centralized apparatus of rule. From Bronze Age traditions of mortuary ritual and divination to current controversies over flag pins and Predator drones, this book sheds new light on how material goods authorize and defend political order.Less
This book investigates the essential role that material culture plays in the practices and maintenance of political sovereignty. Through an archaeological exploration of the Bronze Age Caucasus, the book demonstrates that beyond assemblies of people, polities are just as importantly assemblages of things—from ballots and bullets to crowns, regalia, and licenses. The book looks at the ways that these assemblages help to forge cohesive publics, separate sovereigns from a wider social mass, and formalize governance—and it considers how these developments continue to shape politics today. The book shows that the formation of polities is as much about the process of manufacturing assemblages as it is about disciplining subjects, and that these material objects or “machines” sustain communities, orders, and institutions. The sensibilities, senses, and sentiments connecting people to things enabled political authority during the Bronze Age and fortifies political power even in the contemporary world. The book provides a detailed account of the transformation of communities in the Caucasus, from small-scale early Bronze Age villages committed to egalitarianism, to Late Bronze Age polities predicated on radical inequality, organized violence, and a centralized apparatus of rule. From Bronze Age traditions of mortuary ritual and divination to current controversies over flag pins and Predator drones, this book sheds new light on how material goods authorize and defend political order.
Adam T. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163239
- eISBN:
- 9781400866502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163239.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter examines the breakdown and redevelopment of the civilization machine during the Middle Bronze Age alongside a fearsome new assemblage that is best described as a “war machine.” The ...
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This chapter examines the breakdown and redevelopment of the civilization machine during the Middle Bronze Age alongside a fearsome new assemblage that is best described as a “war machine.” The operation of the war machine entailed not only the reproduction of political violence but also the dissection of social orders, severing a sovereign body from the bodies of subjects—those who command from those who obey. Through the conspicuous consumption of Middle Bonze Age mortuary ritual, the war machine reproduced the terms on which social order was predicated—charisma, violence, and distinction. However, built into the conjoined operations of the civilization and war machines was a contradiction. As the one (the erstwhile sovereign) pulled away from the many (the constituted public), demands upon material resources exceeded capacities. Territorial fragmentation and military stalemate—consequences of the war machine's proliferation—threatened to undermine the workings of the civilization machine, dissecting a previously expansive public into smaller and smaller segments. As a result, the central principle of charismatic authority was put at risk insofar as political power flowed from the provision of needs through conflicts successfully waged.Less
This chapter examines the breakdown and redevelopment of the civilization machine during the Middle Bronze Age alongside a fearsome new assemblage that is best described as a “war machine.” The operation of the war machine entailed not only the reproduction of political violence but also the dissection of social orders, severing a sovereign body from the bodies of subjects—those who command from those who obey. Through the conspicuous consumption of Middle Bonze Age mortuary ritual, the war machine reproduced the terms on which social order was predicated—charisma, violence, and distinction. However, built into the conjoined operations of the civilization and war machines was a contradiction. As the one (the erstwhile sovereign) pulled away from the many (the constituted public), demands upon material resources exceeded capacities. Territorial fragmentation and military stalemate—consequences of the war machine's proliferation—threatened to undermine the workings of the civilization machine, dissecting a previously expansive public into smaller and smaller segments. As a result, the central principle of charismatic authority was put at risk insofar as political power flowed from the provision of needs through conflicts successfully waged.
Miguel Vatter (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823233199
- eISBN:
- 9780823233212
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823233199.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Tocqueville suggested that the people reign in the American political world like God over the universe. This intuition anticipates the crisis in the secularization paradigm that has ...
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Tocqueville suggested that the people reign in the American political world like God over the universe. This intuition anticipates the crisis in the secularization paradigm that has brought theology back as a fundamental part of sociological and political analysis. It has become more difficult to believe that humanity's progress necessarily leads to atheism, or that it is possible to translate all that is good about religion into reasonable terms acceptable in principle by all, believers as well as nonbelievers. And yet, the spread of Enlightenment values, of an independent public sphere, and of alternative projects of modernity continues unabated and is by no means the antithesis of the renewed vigor of religious beliefs. The chapters in this book shed light on a hypothesis that helps to account for such an unexpected convergence of enlightenment and religion in our times: Religion has reentered the public sphere because it puts into question the relation between God and the concept of political sovereignty. In the first part, new perspectives are brought to bear on the tension-ridden connection between theophany and state-building from the perspective of world religions. Globalized, neo-liberal capitalism has been another crucial factor in loosening the bond between God and the state, as the chapters in the second part show. The chapters in the third part are dedicated to a critique of the premises of political theology, starting from the possibility of a prior, perhaps deeper relation between democracy and theocracy. The book concludes with three chapters dedicated to examining Tocqueville in order to think about the religion of democracy beyond the idea of civil religion.Less
Tocqueville suggested that the people reign in the American political world like God over the universe. This intuition anticipates the crisis in the secularization paradigm that has brought theology back as a fundamental part of sociological and political analysis. It has become more difficult to believe that humanity's progress necessarily leads to atheism, or that it is possible to translate all that is good about religion into reasonable terms acceptable in principle by all, believers as well as nonbelievers. And yet, the spread of Enlightenment values, of an independent public sphere, and of alternative projects of modernity continues unabated and is by no means the antithesis of the renewed vigor of religious beliefs. The chapters in this book shed light on a hypothesis that helps to account for such an unexpected convergence of enlightenment and religion in our times: Religion has reentered the public sphere because it puts into question the relation between God and the concept of political sovereignty. In the first part, new perspectives are brought to bear on the tension-ridden connection between theophany and state-building from the perspective of world religions. Globalized, neo-liberal capitalism has been another crucial factor in loosening the bond between God and the state, as the chapters in the second part show. The chapters in the third part are dedicated to a critique of the premises of political theology, starting from the possibility of a prior, perhaps deeper relation between democracy and theocracy. The book concludes with three chapters dedicated to examining Tocqueville in order to think about the religion of democracy beyond the idea of civil religion.
Adam T. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163239
- eISBN:
- 9781400866502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163239.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter examines the role of things in the reproduction of a public—the first condition of sovereignty defined in Chapter 2—during the Early Bronze Age in the South Caucasus. “A public” here ...
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This chapter examines the role of things in the reproduction of a public—the first condition of sovereignty defined in Chapter 2—during the Early Bronze Age in the South Caucasus. “A public” here means a self-recognizing community that is not maintained exclusively through face-to-face interaction. It is thus in large part an assembly of strangers who are made familiar to one another through an assemblage of publicity—forms of mass mediation and sites of encounter, such as those Benedict Anderson described as fundamental to the imagination of modern nations. The suggestion that material things are critical to the creation of a public follows closely Hannah Arendt's conception of humanity as Homo faber.Less
This chapter examines the role of things in the reproduction of a public—the first condition of sovereignty defined in Chapter 2—during the Early Bronze Age in the South Caucasus. “A public” here means a self-recognizing community that is not maintained exclusively through face-to-face interaction. It is thus in large part an assembly of strangers who are made familiar to one another through an assemblage of publicity—forms of mass mediation and sites of encounter, such as those Benedict Anderson described as fundamental to the imagination of modern nations. The suggestion that material things are critical to the creation of a public follows closely Hannah Arendt's conception of humanity as Homo faber.
David Rich Lewis
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195100471
- eISBN:
- 9780199854059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195100471.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
When Frederick Jackson Turner reimagined American history in 1893, he considered Native Americans to be of little significance. He demonstrated more interest in the process of heroic, white yeomen ...
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When Frederick Jackson Turner reimagined American history in 1893, he considered Native Americans to be of little significance. He demonstrated more interest in the process of heroic, white yeomen hewing out a corridor of civilization in an environment that all but overwhelmed them, transforming them from immigrants into Americans. This chapter suggests six broad areas of significance for Native Americans in the history of the 20th-century American West and, by extension, the history of the United States. The first four areas of significance—persistence, land, economic development, and political sovereignty—are overlapping and interdependent. The fifth and sixth areas address larger cultural issues: the persistent symbolic value of native peoples, and the contributions emerging from Native American history and literature.Less
When Frederick Jackson Turner reimagined American history in 1893, he considered Native Americans to be of little significance. He demonstrated more interest in the process of heroic, white yeomen hewing out a corridor of civilization in an environment that all but overwhelmed them, transforming them from immigrants into Americans. This chapter suggests six broad areas of significance for Native Americans in the history of the 20th-century American West and, by extension, the history of the United States. The first four areas of significance—persistence, land, economic development, and political sovereignty—are overlapping and interdependent. The fifth and sixth areas address larger cultural issues: the persistent symbolic value of native peoples, and the contributions emerging from Native American history and literature.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804763301
- eISBN:
- 9780804774659
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804763301.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter suggests parallels between perversion, the castle's structure of political exception, and an aspect of modern political sovereignty that is usually thought of as a zone of power above ...
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This chapter suggests parallels between perversion, the castle's structure of political exception, and an aspect of modern political sovereignty that is usually thought of as a zone of power above the law, which can potentially unleash annihilating violence to “solve” a crisis of membership. The question for modernity is whether this zone of exception is a mechanism gone wrong—Creon's “mistake”—or rather intrinsic to its foundations—Sade's castle. The chapter looks at these questions from the vantage point of a literary genre that emerged with the reinvention of politics on both sides of the Atlantic: the “dictator novel,” which exposes the clash between democratic (called “civilized”) and nondemocratic (“barbaric”) forces in the constitution of the newly independent American states.Less
This chapter suggests parallels between perversion, the castle's structure of political exception, and an aspect of modern political sovereignty that is usually thought of as a zone of power above the law, which can potentially unleash annihilating violence to “solve” a crisis of membership. The question for modernity is whether this zone of exception is a mechanism gone wrong—Creon's “mistake”—or rather intrinsic to its foundations—Sade's castle. The chapter looks at these questions from the vantage point of a literary genre that emerged with the reinvention of politics on both sides of the Atlantic: the “dictator novel,” which exposes the clash between democratic (called “civilized”) and nondemocratic (“barbaric”) forces in the constitution of the newly independent American states.
H. A. Hellyer
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748639472
- eISBN:
- 9780748671342
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748639472.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
Muslims are defined as Muslims in their sacred law by saying the shahādah. Without this law, the Muslim's commitment and ability to practise Islam is incomplete and unbalanced. The idea of using fiqh ...
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Muslims are defined as Muslims in their sacred law by saying the shahādah. Without this law, the Muslim's commitment and ability to practise Islam is incomplete and unbalanced. The idea of using fiqh (formulations of sacred law) to elaborate upon the position of Muslims living in the European Union (EU), or in individual European societies, may be a rather novel one in contemporary academic studies, but there appear to be several reasons for considering it, including the fact that the phenomenon of a large Muslim population in the EU is unfamiliar. This chapter focuses on Muslims as minorities in fiqh. It first examines sharī'ah and fiqh and then discusses the schools of law practised within the EU Muslim community, classical juristic discourse on Muslims without political sovereignty, and classical positions of some jurists on key issues. It also looks at hijrah as a principle, differing interpretations on the freedom of worship, the application of fiqh in non-Muslim lands, authority over Muslims living without sovereignty and the concept of wilāyat al-'ulamā, and post-medieval Muslim reformist movements.Less
Muslims are defined as Muslims in their sacred law by saying the shahādah. Without this law, the Muslim's commitment and ability to practise Islam is incomplete and unbalanced. The idea of using fiqh (formulations of sacred law) to elaborate upon the position of Muslims living in the European Union (EU), or in individual European societies, may be a rather novel one in contemporary academic studies, but there appear to be several reasons for considering it, including the fact that the phenomenon of a large Muslim population in the EU is unfamiliar. This chapter focuses on Muslims as minorities in fiqh. It first examines sharī'ah and fiqh and then discusses the schools of law practised within the EU Muslim community, classical juristic discourse on Muslims without political sovereignty, and classical positions of some jurists on key issues. It also looks at hijrah as a principle, differing interpretations on the freedom of worship, the application of fiqh in non-Muslim lands, authority over Muslims living without sovereignty and the concept of wilāyat al-'ulamā, and post-medieval Muslim reformist movements.
Joshua Barkan
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816674268
- eISBN:
- 9781452947358
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816674268.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Catastrophes such as refinery explosions, accounting scandals, and bank meltdowns might rightfully be blamed on corporations. In response, advocates have suggested reforms ranging from increased ...
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Catastrophes such as refinery explosions, accounting scandals, and bank meltdowns might rightfully be blamed on corporations. In response, advocates have suggested reforms ranging from increased government regulation to corporate codes of conduct to stop corporate abuses. This book states that these reactions, which view law as a limit on corporations, misunderstand the role of law in fostering corporate power. This book argues that corporate power should be rethought as a mode of political sovereignty. Rather than treating the economic power of corporations as a threat to the political sovereignty of states, the book shows that the two are ontologically linked. Situating analysis of U.S., British, and international corporate law alongside careful readings in political and social theory, it demonstrates that the Anglo-American corporation and modern political sovereignty are founded in and bound together through a principle of legally sanctioned immunity from law. The problems that corporate-led globalization present for governments result not from regulatory failures as much as from corporate immunity that is being exported across the globe. There is a paradox in that corporations, which are legal creations, are given such power that they undermine the sovereignty of states. The book notes that while the relationship between states and corporations may appear adversarial, it is in fact a kind of doubling in which state sovereignty and corporate power are both conjoined and in conflict. Our refusal to grapple with the peculiar nature of this doubling means that some of our best efforts to control corporations unwittingly reinvest the sovereign powers they oppose.Less
Catastrophes such as refinery explosions, accounting scandals, and bank meltdowns might rightfully be blamed on corporations. In response, advocates have suggested reforms ranging from increased government regulation to corporate codes of conduct to stop corporate abuses. This book states that these reactions, which view law as a limit on corporations, misunderstand the role of law in fostering corporate power. This book argues that corporate power should be rethought as a mode of political sovereignty. Rather than treating the economic power of corporations as a threat to the political sovereignty of states, the book shows that the two are ontologically linked. Situating analysis of U.S., British, and international corporate law alongside careful readings in political and social theory, it demonstrates that the Anglo-American corporation and modern political sovereignty are founded in and bound together through a principle of legally sanctioned immunity from law. The problems that corporate-led globalization present for governments result not from regulatory failures as much as from corporate immunity that is being exported across the globe. There is a paradox in that corporations, which are legal creations, are given such power that they undermine the sovereignty of states. The book notes that while the relationship between states and corporations may appear adversarial, it is in fact a kind of doubling in which state sovereignty and corporate power are both conjoined and in conflict. Our refusal to grapple with the peculiar nature of this doubling means that some of our best efforts to control corporations unwittingly reinvest the sovereign powers they oppose.
Erin Runions
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823257331
- eISBN:
- 9780823261529
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823257331.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Following allusions to Babylon in secular and religious discourse in the decade after 9.11, this book explores the complicated influence of the Bible on U.S. political thought. Babylon is a ...
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Following allusions to Babylon in secular and religious discourse in the decade after 9.11, this book explores the complicated influence of the Bible on U.S. political thought. Babylon is a surprisingly multivalent symbol in U.S. culture and politics. This composite biblical figure—taken from interpretive traditions about Babylon, Babel, and the Whore of Babylon—is variously used to celebrate diversity and also to condemn it, to sell sexuality and to regulate it, to worry about homogeneous tyrannical imperialism and to galvanize the “war on terror” and the war in Iraq. Babylon becomes so much a site of admiration and an object of vilification that the United States can be said to have a Babylon complex. This book shows that the Babylon complex contends with anxieties about the loss of political sovereignty in economic globalization, while encouraging the very market forces that undermine sovereignty. Shifting and contradictory allusions to Babylon reveal a theopolitically motivated biopolitics that tries to balance the drive for U.S. dominance with the countervailing moral ideals and forms of political subjectivity that further economic globalization and control the distribution of wealth. The centering and decentering impulses of Babylon and Babel give the composite figure the biblical authority to manage this tension and sustain U.S. empire. The book interrogates the interpretive moves by which the Bible gains its political authority and proposes instead other modes of reading that take the figure of Babylon as a catalyst for a detranscendentalized, queer, sublime, radically democratic polity.Less
Following allusions to Babylon in secular and religious discourse in the decade after 9.11, this book explores the complicated influence of the Bible on U.S. political thought. Babylon is a surprisingly multivalent symbol in U.S. culture and politics. This composite biblical figure—taken from interpretive traditions about Babylon, Babel, and the Whore of Babylon—is variously used to celebrate diversity and also to condemn it, to sell sexuality and to regulate it, to worry about homogeneous tyrannical imperialism and to galvanize the “war on terror” and the war in Iraq. Babylon becomes so much a site of admiration and an object of vilification that the United States can be said to have a Babylon complex. This book shows that the Babylon complex contends with anxieties about the loss of political sovereignty in economic globalization, while encouraging the very market forces that undermine sovereignty. Shifting and contradictory allusions to Babylon reveal a theopolitically motivated biopolitics that tries to balance the drive for U.S. dominance with the countervailing moral ideals and forms of political subjectivity that further economic globalization and control the distribution of wealth. The centering and decentering impulses of Babylon and Babel give the composite figure the biblical authority to manage this tension and sustain U.S. empire. The book interrogates the interpretive moves by which the Bible gains its political authority and proposes instead other modes of reading that take the figure of Babylon as a catalyst for a detranscendentalized, queer, sublime, radically democratic polity.
Kenneth Surin
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623419
- eISBN:
- 9780748652389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623419.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter proposes that in a world where transcendental guarantees no longer hold sway, we need to seek out a new basis for solidarity. It argues that Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's rejection ...
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This chapter proposes that in a world where transcendental guarantees no longer hold sway, we need to seek out a new basis for solidarity. It argues that Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's rejection of the concept of ideology clearly stems from their conviction that the Althusserian conception of ideology relies on the discredited base-superstructure distinction, and suggests that they provide a fascinating narrative when addressing the question of political sovereignty in the plateau entitled ‘Treatise on Nomadology’. The chapter also discusses Deleuze and Guattari's view on Georges Dumézil's dualism of the shaman-king and the priest-jurist.Less
This chapter proposes that in a world where transcendental guarantees no longer hold sway, we need to seek out a new basis for solidarity. It argues that Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's rejection of the concept of ideology clearly stems from their conviction that the Althusserian conception of ideology relies on the discredited base-superstructure distinction, and suggests that they provide a fascinating narrative when addressing the question of political sovereignty in the plateau entitled ‘Treatise on Nomadology’. The chapter also discusses Deleuze and Guattari's view on Georges Dumézil's dualism of the shaman-king and the priest-jurist.
Simon Rabinovitch
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804792493
- eISBN:
- 9780804793032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804792493.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
The introduction presents the book’s main themes and arguments. It highlights the problems with defining nationalism and explains the distinction between territorial sovereignty and nonterritorial ...
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The introduction presents the book’s main themes and arguments. It highlights the problems with defining nationalism and explains the distinction between territorial sovereignty and nonterritorial autonomy. In particular, the introduction emphasizes that the movement for Jewish autonomy developed in the context of changing notions of political sovereignty, decentralization, and federalism among the many national groups of Eastern Europe and should be seen as a key element of both the political campaign for Jewish individual and collective rights and the cultural mission to create an alternative to religious traditionalism.Less
The introduction presents the book’s main themes and arguments. It highlights the problems with defining nationalism and explains the distinction between territorial sovereignty and nonterritorial autonomy. In particular, the introduction emphasizes that the movement for Jewish autonomy developed in the context of changing notions of political sovereignty, decentralization, and federalism among the many national groups of Eastern Europe and should be seen as a key element of both the political campaign for Jewish individual and collective rights and the cultural mission to create an alternative to religious traditionalism.
David J. Hess
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262012645
- eISBN:
- 9780262255486
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262012645.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
The internationalization of economies and other changes that accompany globalization have brought about a paradoxical reemergence of the local. A significant but largely unstudied aspect of new ...
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The internationalization of economies and other changes that accompany globalization have brought about a paradoxical reemergence of the local. A significant but largely unstudied aspect of new local-global relationships is the growth of “localist movements,” efforts to reclaim economic and political sovereignty for metropolitan and other subnational regions. This book offers an overview of localism in the United States and assesses its potential to address pressing global problems of social justice and environmental sustainability. Since the 1990s, more than 100 local business organizations have formed in the United States, and there are growing efforts to build local ownership in the retail, food, energy, transportation, and media industries. This social science study of localism adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines theoretical reflection, empirical research, and policy analysis. The book's perspective is not that from an uncritical localist advocate; it draws on new empirical research to assess the extent to which localist policies can address sustainability and justice issues. After a theoretical discussion of sustainability, the global corporate economy, and economic development, it looks at four specific forms of localism: “buy local” campaigns; urban agriculture; local ownership of electricity and transportation; and alternative and community media. The book examines “global localism”—transnational local-to-local supply chains—and other economic policies and financial instruments that would create an alternative economic structure. Localism is not a panacea for globalization, it concludes, but a crucial ingredient in projects to build more democratic, just, and sustainable politics.Less
The internationalization of economies and other changes that accompany globalization have brought about a paradoxical reemergence of the local. A significant but largely unstudied aspect of new local-global relationships is the growth of “localist movements,” efforts to reclaim economic and political sovereignty for metropolitan and other subnational regions. This book offers an overview of localism in the United States and assesses its potential to address pressing global problems of social justice and environmental sustainability. Since the 1990s, more than 100 local business organizations have formed in the United States, and there are growing efforts to build local ownership in the retail, food, energy, transportation, and media industries. This social science study of localism adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines theoretical reflection, empirical research, and policy analysis. The book's perspective is not that from an uncritical localist advocate; it draws on new empirical research to assess the extent to which localist policies can address sustainability and justice issues. After a theoretical discussion of sustainability, the global corporate economy, and economic development, it looks at four specific forms of localism: “buy local” campaigns; urban agriculture; local ownership of electricity and transportation; and alternative and community media. The book examines “global localism”—transnational local-to-local supply chains—and other economic policies and financial instruments that would create an alternative economic structure. Localism is not a panacea for globalization, it concludes, but a crucial ingredient in projects to build more democratic, just, and sustainable politics.
Gray H. Whaley
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807833674
- eISBN:
- 9781469603971
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807898314_whaley
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
Modern western Oregon was a crucial site of imperial competition in North America during the formative decades of the United States. This book examines relations among newcomers and between newcomers ...
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Modern western Oregon was a crucial site of imperial competition in North America during the formative decades of the United States. This book examines relations among newcomers and between newcomers and Native peoples—focusing on political sovereignty, religion, trade, sexuality, and the land—from initial encounters to Oregon's statehood. It emphasizes Native perspectives, using the Chinook word Illahee (homeland) to refer to the indigenous world it examines, and argues that the process of Oregon's founding is best understood as a contest between the British Empire and a nascent American one, with Oregon's Native people and their lands at the heart of the conflict. The chapter identifies race, republicanism, liberal economics, and violence as the key ideological and practical components of American settler-colonialism. Native peoples faced capriciousness, demographic collapse, and attempted genocide, but they fought to preserve Illahee even as external forces caused the collapse of their world.Less
Modern western Oregon was a crucial site of imperial competition in North America during the formative decades of the United States. This book examines relations among newcomers and between newcomers and Native peoples—focusing on political sovereignty, religion, trade, sexuality, and the land—from initial encounters to Oregon's statehood. It emphasizes Native perspectives, using the Chinook word Illahee (homeland) to refer to the indigenous world it examines, and argues that the process of Oregon's founding is best understood as a contest between the British Empire and a nascent American one, with Oregon's Native people and their lands at the heart of the conflict. The chapter identifies race, republicanism, liberal economics, and violence as the key ideological and practical components of American settler-colonialism. Native peoples faced capriciousness, demographic collapse, and attempted genocide, but they fought to preserve Illahee even as external forces caused the collapse of their world.
