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Clausewitz's Puzzle: The Political Theory of War

Andreas Herberg-Rothe

This book argues that Clausewitz developed a wide-ranging political theory of war by reflecting not only on the success, but also on the limitations and the failure of Napoleon's method of waging ... More

This book argues that Clausewitz developed a wide-ranging political theory of war by reflecting not only on the success, but also on the limitations and the failure of Napoleon's method of waging war. Successes, failures, and defeats of Napoleon forced Clausewitz to reflect on questions that went beyond purely military matters and led him to develop a political theory of war. Analyses of three paradigmatic campaigns — which are symbolized by Jena, Moscow, and Waterloo — are placed at the center of understanding surrounding Clausewitz's On War and it's inherent problems, like the relation of absolute and real war, theory and practice, the primacy of politics, the enigma of the first chapter, and the dialectics of attack and defense. Clausewitz's analysis of these war campaigns are the cornerstones of On War and redounded to the ‘wondrous trinity’, which is the basis for a general theory of war and which is quite different from the so-called trinitarian war.Less

The Future of the Welfare State: Crisis Myths and Crisis Realities

Francis G. Castles

This book uses data from 21 OECD countries for the period 1980 to 1998 to test a variety of hypotheses suggesting that contemporary welfare states are in crisis and to establish the factors shaping ... More

This book uses data from 21 OECD countries for the period 1980 to 1998 to test a variety of hypotheses suggesting that contemporary welfare states are in crisis and to establish the factors shaping the trajectory of welfare state development during these years. It assesses the validity of arguments that globalization leads to a ‘race to the bottom’ in social spending and that population ageing poses a threat to public budgets. It finds both of these arguments wanting and, instead, suggests that contemporary welfare states have been converging to a steady state over recent decades. The book also examines the extent to which welfare states across the OECD have been restructured in recent years and whether there are signs of the emergence of a distinctive European ‘social model’. Again, it finds that accounts of substantial welfare state restructuring and of the Europeanization of the welfare state are much exaggerated. Finally, the book identifies a potential threat to the viability of existing societies in a trend to declining fertility throughout the advanced world, but argues that the welfare state in the form of family-friendly policy is actually our best protection against this trend.Less

Women's Liberation and the Sublime: Feminism, Postmodernism, Environment

Bonnie Mann

In the 1980s, this book contends, an uncritical affirmation of anti-essentialism turned this important feminist critique into a disciplinary dogmatism that constrained and homogenized feminist ... More

In the 1980s, this book contends, an uncritical affirmation of anti-essentialism turned this important feminist critique into a disciplinary dogmatism that constrained and homogenized feminist thinking. Feminist work in the academy became forgetful of both women and nature, and began to exchange an engaged politics for the intensity of sublime experience in its postmodern form. This book works between the modern and postmodern notions of the sublime to show that the gendered politics and effacement of nature, central to the modern sublime, especially in Kant's account, are at the heart of the postmodern sublime as well. It turns to Lyotard's postmodern sublime to argue that this sublime is hard at work in feminist poststructuralism, especially the early texts of Judith Butler. The melting away of the extra-discursively real in these accounts tends to make feminist thinking incapable of meaningfully articulating our relations to the natural world and to one another. Yet these very relations are necessarily tied to powerful aesthetic experiences of beauty and sublimity.Less

The Environment Between Theory and Practice

Avner de-Shalit

When constructing environmental policies in democratic regimes, there is a need for a theory that can be used not only by academics but also by politicians and activists. So why has the major part of ... More

When constructing environmental policies in democratic regimes, there is a need for a theory that can be used not only by academics but also by politicians and activists. So why has the major part of environmental ethics failed to penetrate environmental policy and serve as its rationale? Obviously, there is a gap between the questions that environmental philosophers discuss and the issues that motivate environmental activists. Avner de‐Shalit attempts to bridge this gap by combining tools of political philosophy with questions of environmental ethics and environmental politics. He defends a radical position in relation to both environmental protection and social policies, in order to put forward a political theory, which is not only philosophically sound, but also relevant to the practice of environmental activism. The author argues that several directions in environmental ethics can be at odds with the contemporary political debates surrounding environmental politics. He then goes on to examine the environmental scope of liberalism, communitarianism, participatory democracy, and socialism, and concludes that while elements of liberalism and communitarianism may support environmental protection, it is participatory democracy and a modified version of socialism that are crucial for protecting the environment.Less

The Constitution of Equality: Democratic Authority and Its Limits

Thomas Christiano

What is the ethical basis of democracy? And what reasons do we have to go along with democratic decisions even when we disagree with them? And when do we have reason to say that we may justly ignore ... More

What is the ethical basis of democracy? And what reasons do we have to go along with democratic decisions even when we disagree with them? And when do we have reason to say that we may justly ignore democratic decisions? These questions must be answered if we are to have answers to some of the most important questions facing our global community, which include whether there is a human right to democracy and whether we must attempt to spread democracy throughout the globe. This book provides a philosophical account of the moral foundations of democracy and of liberalism. It shows how democracy and basic liberal rights are grounded in the principle of public equality, which tells us that in the establishment of law and policy we must treat persons as equals in ways that they can see as being treated as equals. The principle of public equality is shown to be the fundamental principle of social justice. This account enables us to understand the nature and roles of adversarial politics and public deliberation in political life. It gives an account of the grounds of the authority of democracy. It also shows when the authority of democracy runs out. It shows how the violations of democratic and liberal rights are beyond the legitimate authority of democracy and how the creation of persistent minorities in a democratic society, and the failure to ensure a basic minimum for all persons, weaken the legitimate authority of democracy.Less

The Problems of Communitarian Politics: Unity and Conflict

Elizabeth Frazer

Offers a detailed critical analysis of the ideal of ‘community’ in politics. Traces elements of the idea of community in a number of social, philosophical, and political contexts over the last ... More

Offers a detailed critical analysis of the ideal of ‘community’ in politics. Traces elements of the idea of community in a number of social, philosophical, and political contexts over the last century, exploring how these have been and continue to be articulated in recent political and public policy debates. ‘Community’ is invoked as a justification for reorganization of state institutions, as the source of care and support for individuals, and as an entity that is valuable in its own right and must therefore be sustained and defended. In community development, community action, community care and community politics, the tensions and contradictions within the concept are invariably felt. Community is both inclusive and exclusive, both organized and unstructured, both hierarchical and egalitarian. The book argues that analysis of the concept ‘community’ reveals the role of ideas and ideals in shaping political action, the barriers to the realization of community in practical contexts, and ultimately the untenability of the ideal itself.Less

Feminism, the Family, and the Politics of the Closet: Lesbian and Gay Displacement

Cheshire Calhoun

This book is about placing sexual orientation politics within feminist theorizing. It is also about defining the central political issues confronting lesbian and gay men. It brings the study of ... More

This book is about placing sexual orientation politics within feminist theorizing. It is also about defining the central political issues confronting lesbian and gay men. It brings the study of lesbians from the margins of feminist theory to the centre by critiquing the analytic frameworks employed within feminist theory that render invisible the difference of lesbians from heterosexual women. The basic features of lesbian and gay subordination are also addressed by exploring the differences between heterosexual dominance and gender and race relations. Throughout the book, the aim is to re‐centre lesbian and gay politics away from concern with sexual regulations and towards concern with the displacement of gays and lesbians from the public sphere of visible citizenship and from the private sphere of romance, marriage, and family.Less

Party Politics in New Democracies

Paul Webb and Stephen White (eds)

The sister volume to a book called Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies, this book offers a systematic and rigorous analysis of parties in some of the world's major new democracies. ... More

The sister volume to a book called Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies, this book offers a systematic and rigorous analysis of parties in some of the world's major new democracies. Drawing on a wealth of expertise and data, the book assesses the popular legitimacy, organizational development and functional performance of political parties in Latin America and postcommunist Eastern Europe. It demonstrates the generational differences between parties in the old and new democracies, and reveals contrasts among the latter. Parties are shown to be at their most feeble in those recently transitional democracies characterized by personalistic, candidate-centred forms of politics, but in other new democracies — especially those with parliamentary systems — parties are more stable and institutionalized, enabling them to facilitate a meaningful degree of popular choice and control. Wherever party politics is weakly institutionalized, political inequality tends to be greater, commitment to pluralism less certain, clientelism and corruption more pronounced, and populist demagoguery a greater temptation. Without party, democracy's hold is more tenuous.Less

Western European Liberation Theology: The First Wave (1924-1959)

Gerd-Rainer Horn

This book studies the development of a distinct, progressive variant of Catholicism in 20th century Western Europe. This Left Catholicism served to lay the basis for the subsequent events and ... More

This book studies the development of a distinct, progressive variant of Catholicism in 20th century Western Europe. This Left Catholicism served to lay the basis for the subsequent events and evolutions associated with Vatican II. Initially emerging within the boundaries of Catholic Action, fuelled by the growing power and self‐confidence of the Catholic laity, a series of challenges to received wisdom and an array of novel experiments were launched in various corners of Western Europe. The moment of liberation from Nazi occupation and world war in 1944/45 turned out to be the highpoint of the promising paradigm shifts at the center of this book. Concentrating on interrelated developments in theology, Catholic politics and apostolic social action, most concrete examples are drawn from Italian, French, and Belgian national contexts. This book highlights organisations (e.g. the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne), social movements (e.g. the worker priests) and intellectual trends (e.g. la nouvelle théologie), at the same time that it demonstrates the pivotal contributions of key individuals, such as the theologians Jacques Maritain and Emmanuel Mounier — or millenarian activist priests, such as Don Zeno Saltini or Don Primo Mazzolari, operating in the epicentre of radical post‐liberation Italy, the Emilia‐Romagna. Based on research in more than twenty archives between Leuven and Rome, this study suggests that first‐wave Western European Left Catholicism served as an inspiration — and constituted a prototype — for subsequent Third World Liberation Theology.Less

The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America

David Domke and Kevin Coe

Religion has always been a part of American politics, but something profound has changed in recent decades. This book demonstrates that, beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan as president in ... More

Religion has always been a part of American politics, but something profound has changed in recent decades. This book demonstrates that, beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980, US politicians have employed religion as a partisan weapon, using it in a no-holds-barred calculus designed to attract voters, identify enemies, and solidify power. The book reveals this political approach by identifying four crucial religious signals used by leading Republicans and Democrats, from Reagan to Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to the front-running candidates for the 2008 presidential election. In their emphasis on God and faith in public addresses, commemorations of tragedies and requests for divine blessing for the nation, the issue agendas pursued, and even the audiences addressed and the nature of Christmas celebrations, today's political leaders use religion for partisan gain in a manner distinct from those who came before. These signals become apparent through analysis of thousands of public communications by American politicians over the past seventy-five years, the tracking of public sentiment on several topics during the same period, and the perspectives of interest groups and political strategists. The result of these developments is an environment in the United States in which religion and politics have become almost inseparably intertwined — an outcome which benefits savvy politicians but endangers the vitality of church, state, and the entire American experiment in democracy. Less

Evangelical vs. Liberal: The Clash of Christian Cultures in the Pacific Northwest

James K. Wellman

The book is the first in-depth ethnographic study of churched religion in the Pacific Northwest. It describes and explains how Protestant churches survive and thrive in the most unchurched region of ... More

The book is the first in-depth ethnographic study of churched religion in the Pacific Northwest. It describes and explains how Protestant churches survive and thrive in the most unchurched region of the country. The study is based on nearly 450 interviews from thirty-four vital liberal and evangelical Protestant churches in the Pacific Northwest. These two sets of congregations embody separate moral worldviews and the study shows how these moral worldviews conflict, compete, and, on rare occasions, find common ground in five areas: ideology; religious beliefs; organizational and ritual life; mission (both local and international), and finally, how each relates to the politics of the region and nation. Evangelicals have dominated the public discourse on American religious life and politics over the last decade; it has become popular to accuse them of advocating an American theocracy. There was no evidence for this claim in the data from this study. Evangelicals do want influence — focusing intense energy on a political culture to nurture families — but they express the same intense distrust of the government that was found among liberals. Moreover, the study found relative disinterest on the part of liberals in influencing the public square. There was little consensus among liberals in protesting the Iraq War. Nonetheless, liberals were committed to a “moral culture” like evangelicals, though with distinctively different values — embracing a culture of inclusiveness and hospitality for homosexuals, the homeless, and the hungry.Less

Words and Stones: The Politics of Language and Identity in Israel

Daniel Lefkowitz

Social and ethnic identity are nowhere more enmeshed with language than in Israel. This book explores the politics of identity in Israel through an analysis of the social life of language. By ... More

Social and ethnic identity are nowhere more enmeshed with language than in Israel. This book explores the politics of identity in Israel through an analysis of the social life of language. By examining the social choices Israelis make when they speak, and the social meanings such choices produce, the book reveals how Israeli identities are negotiated through language. It studies three major languages and their role in the social lives of Israelis: Hebrew, the dominant language, Arabic, and English. It reveals their complex interrelationship by showing how the language a speaker chooses to use is as important as the language they choose not to use — in the same way that a claim to an Israeli identity is simultaneously a claim against other, opposing identities. The result is an analysis of how the identity of “Israeliness” is linguistically negotiated in the three-way struggle among Ashkenazi (Jewish), Mizrahi (Jewish), and Palestinian (Arab) Israelis. This book's ethnography of language — use is both thoroughly anthropological and thoroughly linguistic — provides an examination of the role of language in Israeli society.Less

The International Politics of EU-China Relations

Liu Fei

David Kerr (ed.)

The European Union and China have emerged as new international actors. They have an increasingly diverse relationship covering the economy, politics, technology, culture and education; but beyond ... More

The European Union and China have emerged as new international actors. They have an increasingly diverse relationship covering the economy, politics, technology, culture and education; but beyond these two-way linkages EU–China development is also changing the international political environment. One noted US scholar, David Shambaugh, has pointed to a ‘Strategic Triangle’ between the US, the EU, and China. Several other major actors such as Japan, India and Russia are also interested in the ‘EU factor’ in their relations with China; or the ‘China factor’ in their EU relations. This volume presents contributions from scholars from Europe and China, which debate the nature, problems and potential of the emerging strategic relationship between the EU and China. Several papers develop theoretical approaches to regionalism and inter-regionalism. This book provides an overview of EU–China relations and the wider international context, and it will be of interest to anyone interested in international relations.Less

The Representative Claim

Michael Saward

In an era of disaffection from traditional political institutions and the rise of transnational politics, the need to rethink political representation – who speaks for whom and with what authority – ... More

In an era of disaffection from traditional political institutions and the rise of transnational politics, the need to rethink political representation – who speaks for whom and with what authority – has taken on a new and practical urgency. This book offers and defends an innovative approach to the topic, built around the straightforward but versatile idea of the ‘representative claim’. Representation is defined broadly as a dynamic process of claim‐making, and not solely an institutional fact deriving from election. The book shows how the idea of the representative claim provides critical purchase where conventional approaches reach their analytical limits. The elaboration of the representative claim is conducted against the background of a systematic critique of prominent existing theories. The crucial aesthetic, cultural and performative sides of representation are developed as part of its political dimension, and the key concepts are put to work in examinations of cases of non‐elective representation, political parties, and the representation of women and ‘nature’. Concluding with a detailed account of what can make representative claims democratically legitimate, the book shows how our ideas of democracy are disrupted and revised when we embrace the notion of representation as the making and reception of claims.Less

Political Power and Women’s Representation in Latin America

Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer

The number of women elected to Latin American legislatures has grown significantly over the past 30 years. Yet, wide variation persists across countries within the region. These patterns generate ... More

The number of women elected to Latin American legislatures has grown significantly over the past 30 years. Yet, wide variation persists across countries within the region. These patterns generate politically relevant and theoretically challenging questions about the causes and consequences of women’s representation in Latin America. Why have the numbers of women in office increased in some countries and why does it vary across others? What does having women in office mean for how representatives legislate? And, what consequences does the election of women have for representative democracy, more generally? This book answers these questions by articulating a comprehensive theory of women’s representation and testing this theory empirically in Latin America. It first examines explanations for the varying gender representativeness of Latin American legislatures. Then, it focuses on how a legislator’s gender affects four types of substantive representation, specifically legislators’ political preferences, policymaking behavior, leadership posts and committee assignments, and home-style activities. Finally, it examines how women’s representation affects citizen views of representative democracy in the region. Ultimately, this book communicates the complex and often incomplete nature of women’s political representation in Latin America.Less

The Scottish National Party: Transition to Power

James Mitchell, Lynn Bennie, and Rob Johns

This book is a study of the Scottish National Party (SNP) immediately after it came to power in May 2007, based on a survey of the entire membership and elite interviews with over eighty senior party ... More

This book is a study of the Scottish National Party (SNP) immediately after it came to power in May 2007, based on a survey of the entire membership and elite interviews with over eighty senior party figures. Discussion is located within the appropriate literatures and comparisons drawn with other British parties. The image of the SNP as a youthful party, with a decentralized social movement-type organization, is challenged. The party is much older and much more male than had previously been thought and appears more like other conventional parties than its past image suggested. Its increased membership in recent years hold few clues as to how to re-engage youth as even these recent joiners are predominantly older people, often former members returning to the party. The study questions the value of the civic–ethnic dichotomy in understanding nationalism with SNP members, acknowledging different ways – ethnic and civic – of defining who belongs to the Scottish nation. The picture that emerges is of a reasonably coherent left of centre party that accepts the pragmatism of its leadership. While independence remains the key motivation for joining and being active, a sizeable minority see the party as a means of furthering Scottish interests.Less