Political Theory recent issues

Awakening to Race: Ralph Ellison and Democratic Individuality

Turner, J. — 2008-09-08

Ralph Ellison offers crucial insight into the meaning of conscientious citizenship in American democracy. In doing so, he follows his nineteenth-century Transcendentalist forebears—Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman—who have become key figures in contemporary efforts to theorize liberal democratic character. At the center of Emersonian ethics is the idea of "awakening." "Awakening" is the Emersonians' name for honest and courageous confrontation with reality. Ellison broadens the Emersonians' vision by insisting that one cannot be "well awake" in America without confronting the ways historical white supremacy shapes one's identity and chances in life. Political theorists who draw inspiration from the Emersonians in theorizing democratic individuality need to pay attention to Ellison—for he demonstrates that one cannot achieve democratic individuality without awakening to race.

The Color of Memory: Reading Race with Ralph Ellison

Booth, W. J. — 2008-09-08

In this article, I am concerned with the relationship between the visibility of race as color, the memory of injustice, and American identity. The visibility of color would seem to make it a daily reminder of race and its history, and in this way to be intimately a part of American memory and identity. Yet the tie between memory and color is anything but certain or transparent. Rather, as I shall argue, it is a latticework composed of things remembered, forgotten, glossed, or idealized, and the traces they leave in our world, traces that keep that past from falling into the oblivion of forgetfulness. Finally, color, memory, and identity together belong to the struggle over racial justice in this country, a battle in part to recognize the past, of which color is the visible reminder, and to fashion an American identity that does not seek to render it invisible. Ralph Ellison's writings on memory and race, and particularly his defining work, the Invisible Man, map these issues and some of the ways of approaching them. The present essay is an exploration of those issues, conducted through an engagement with his work.

Thinking Authority Democratically: Prophetic Practices, White Supremacy, and Democratic Politics

Shulman, G. — 2008-09-08

This essay explores Hebrew prophecy and its modern reworkings to develop an account of authority in democratic politics that contrasts with prevailing genres of political theory. At first, we use William Blake to reveal the poetic and democratic dimensions in the biblical prophecy typically associated with absolute truth and law as command. By using the examples of Frederick Douglass and James Baldwin, we then argue that critics of white supremacy draw on the genre of biblical prophecy to address dimensions of political life obscured by liberal language. Partly, they use prophecy to name the willful blindness of whites, to provoke acknowledgment of what whites know but disavow—their domination of others. Partly, prophetic speech-acts show how commitment, judgment, and aggression are needful in democratic politics. In these ways, critics of white supremacy demonstrate genuine authority as a democratic practice.

Discourses of Danger: Locating Emma Goldman

Ferguson, K. E. — 2008-09-08

Government, media, and medical accounts of Emma Goldman converged to create her public presence in the U.S. as a "dangerous individual." The prevailing discourses constituted Goldman as violent, utilizing her alleged menace to distract attention from far more egregious violence against labor by state and corporate forces. Goldman responded by denying, confronting, and redirecting the alarmed gaze toward greater risks left underarticulated in hegemonic accounts. Goldman's bold confrontations with authorities constituted a kind of anarchist parrhesia, fearless speech, a relentless truth-telling practice that risked her own security in pursuit of her "beautiful ideal." The labor of remembering America's history of class violence hones our attention to the complex discursive processes by which some historical facts come to count in prevailing narratives, while others fade into obscurity.

Review Essay: National Love in Violent Times: Postcolonial Melancholia, by Paul Gilroy. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. 192 pp. $70.00 (cloth); $19.95 (paper) The Truth about Patriotism, by Steven Johnston. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. 296 pp. $79.95 (cloth); $22.95 (paper)

Anker, E. — 2008-09-08

Locke, Natural Law, and New World Slavery

Farr, J. — 2008-07-25

This essay systematically reformulates an earlier argument about Locke and new world slavery, adding attention to Indians, natural law, and Locke's reception. Locke followed Grotian natural law in constructing a just-war theory of slavery. Unlike Grotius, though, he severely restricted the theory, making it inapplicable to America. It only fit resistance to "absolute power" in Stuart England. Locke was nonetheless an agent of British colonialism who issued instructions governing slavery. Yet they do not inform his theory—or vice versa. This creates hermeneutical problems and raises charges of racism. If Locke deserves the epithet "racist," it is not for his having a racial doctrine justifying slavery. None of this makes for a flattering portrait. Locke's reputation as the champion of liberty would not survive the contradictions in which new world slavery ensnared him. Evidence for this may be found in Locke's reception, including by Southern apologists for slavery.

John Locke, Christian Liberty, and the Predicament of Liberal Toleration

De Roover, J., Balagangadhara, S.N. — 2008-07-25

Recently, scholars have disputed whether Locke's political theory should be read as the groundwork of secular liberalism or as a Protestant political theology. Focusing on Locke's mature theory of toleration, the article raises a central question: What if these two readings are compatible? That is, what would be the consequences if Locke's political philosophy has theological foundations, but has also given shape to secular liberalism? Examining Locke's theory in the Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), the article argues that this is indeed the case. The liberal model of toleration is a secularization of the theology of Christian liberty and its division of society into a temporal political kingdom and the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Therefore, when liberal toleration travels beyond the boundaries of the Christian West or when western societies become multicultural, it threatens to lose its intelligibility.

Judging Necessity: Democracy and Extra-legalism

Feldman, L. C. — 2008-07-25

This article probes the relationship among constitutionalism, extra-legal prerogative power, and citizen judgment. While much has been written about the nature of Lockean prerogative, and while his theory serves as a direct inspiration for contemporary "normative extra-legalists," key participants in the debate over emergency powers, less attention has been paid to how the people judge prerogative. Attention to this issue is useful because an examination of the process of political judgment of extra-legalism in Locke leads to a complication of the current extra-legalist vision of democratic mechanisms of accountability. The author argues that the extra-legal approach is right to consider the role of democratic publics in potentially constraining the exercise of emergency powers but wrong to formulate that role as one extra-constitutional power checking another extra-constitutional power. The author situates both prerogative power and citizen judgment of it at the threshold of the constitutional order.

Rethinking Human Rights, Democracy, and Sovereignty in the Age of Globalization

Cohen, J. L. — 2008-07-25

The traditional conception construes human rights as moral rights all people have due to some basic feature or interests deemed intrinsically valuable. This comported well with the revival of the discourse of human rights in the wake of atrocities committed during WWII. It served as a useful referent for local struggles against foreign rule and domestic dictatorship in the 1980s. Since 1989, human rights discourse acquired a new function: the justification of sanctions, military invasions, and transformative occupation administrations by outsiders, framed as enforcement of international law against violators. The traditional conception doesn't fit this new function, hence the efforts to counter-pose a "political" to the "traditional" approach. This essay analyzes two recent versions of the political conception, and argues for a third. The thesis is that sovereign equality and human rights are normative principles of our dualist international system and both are needed to construct a more just version of that system.

Sovereignty and the UFO

Wendt, A., Duvall, R. — 2008-07-25

Modern sovereignty is anthropocentric, constituted and organized by reference to human beings alone. Although a metaphysical assumption, anthropocentrism is of immense practical import, enabling modern states to command loyalty and resources from their subjects in pursuit of political projects. It has limits, however, which are brought clearly into view by the authoritative taboo on taking UFOs seriously. UFOs have never been systematically investigated by science or the state, because it is assumed to be known that none are extraterrestrial. Yet in fact this is not known, which makes the UFO taboo puzzling given the ET possibility. Drawing on the work of Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, the puzzle is explained by the functional imperatives of anthropocentric sovereignty, which cannot decide a UFO exception to anthropocentrism while preserving the ability to make such a decision. The UFO can be "known" only by not asking what it is.

Review Essay: Cambridge's Enlightenment

Hanley, R. P. — 2008-07-25

Review Essay: Issues in Democratic Theory: Reflexive Democracy: Political Equality and the Welfare State, by Kevin Olson. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006. 261 pp. $35.00 (cloth). Radical Democracy: Politics between Abundance and Lack, edited by Lars Tonder and Lasse Thomassen. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2005. 288 pp. $74.95 (cloth)

Erikkson, L. — 2008-07-25

Book in Review: Bounding Power: Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village, by Daniel H. Deudney. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. 384 pp. $35.00 (cloth)

Brown, C. — 2008-07-25

Toward a Theoretical Outline of the Subject: The Centrality of Adorno and Lacan for Feminist Political Theorizing

Leeb, C. — 2008-05-15

This essay draws on Adorno's concept of the non-identical in conjunction with Lacan's concept of the Real to propose a "theoretical outline of the subject" as central for feminist political theorizing. A theoretical outline of the subject recognizes the limits of theorizing, the moment where meaning fails and we are confronted with the impossibility to fully grasp the subject. At the same time, it insists on the importance of a coherent (if not whole) subject through which to effect transformations in the sociopolitical sphere. Since the non-identical is more grounded in the material world than the Real, and the Real allows us more than the non-identical to grasp the anxieties and desires that lead to totalizing theories, it is a complementary Adornian-Lacanian theoretical framework that holds a central promise for feminist political theorizing.

Ethics and Subjectivity: Practices of Self-Governance in the Late Lectures of Michel Foucault

Luxon, N. — 2008-05-15

Contemporary accounts of individual self-formation struggle to articulate a mode of subjectivity not determined by relations of power. In response to this dilemma, Foucault's late lectures on the ancient ethical practices of "fearless speech" (parrhesia) offer a model of ethical self-governance that educates individuals to ethical and political engagement. Rooted in the psychological capacities of curiosity and resolve, such self-governance equips individuals with a "disposition to steadiness" that orients individuals in the face of uncertainty. The practices of parrhesia accomplish this task without fabricating a distinction between internal soul and external body; by creating not a "body of knowledge" but a "body of practices"; and without reference to an external order such as nature, custom, tradition, or religion. The result is an "expressive subject" defined through expressive practices sustained by a simultaneous relationship to herself and to others. Individuals develop themselves not through their ability to "dare to know" but as those who "dare to act."

Voting the General Will: Rousseau on Decision Rules

Schwartzberg, M. — 2008-05-15

Scholars exploring the logic of Rousseau's voting rules have typically turned to the connection between Rousseau and the Marquis de Condorcet. Though Condorcet could not have had a direct influence on Rousseau's arguments about the choice of decision rules in Social Contract, the possibility of a connection has encouraged the view that Rousseau's selection of voting rules was based on epistemic reasons. By turning to alternative sources of influence on Rousseau—the work of Hugo Grotius and particularly that of Samuel Pufendorf—a moral, and not purely epistemic, logic of rules governing collective decision making emerges. For Rousseau, as for Pufendorf, the proper choice of voting rule can elicit the appropriate attitude of an individual with respect to the decision of the whole, and can support the morally significant activity of acknowledging error upon discovering that one has voted against the general will.

Harriet Martineau on the Theory and Practice of Democracy in America

Vetter, L. P. — 2008-05-15

The early development of American democracy was fraught with tensions arising from the need to balance unity and plurality in an increasingly diverse society. Tocqueville's Democracy in America is widely praised for its insight into these tensions and the solutions it proposes to them. Yet Tocqueville's portrayal of American culture has come under critical scrutiny for, among other things, its inability to offer a path to genuine reform when it comes to slavery and the inequality of women. By expanding on Adam Smith's moral theory of sympathy, Harriet Martineau's account of nascent American democracy in Society in America offers a more constructive view of America's ability to reconcile the needs of unity and plurality and of its capacity for democratic reform, especially regarding slavery and the inequality of women. Martineau's analysis offers valuable lessons about the ability of democratic majorities to correct moral injustices.

Review Essays: Critique from the Margins: Adorno and the Politics of Withdrawal: Adorno: A Political Biography by Lorez Jager, translated by Stewart Spencer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004. 249 pp. $35.00 (cloth). Adorno in America by David Jenemann. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. 280 pp. $66.00 (cloth); $22.95 (paper). Adorno: A Biography by Stefan Muller-Doohm, translated by Rodney Livingstone. Malden, MA: Polity, 2005. 667 pp. $75.00 (cloth)

Mariotti, S. — 2008-05-15

Review Essays: Tocqueville: Life and Legacy: Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life by Hugh Brogan. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007. 736pp. $35.00 (cloth). Tocqueville's Road Map: Methodology, Liberalism, Revolution, and Despotism by Roger Boesche. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. 217pp. $70.00 (cloth)

Villa, D. — 2008-05-15

Books in Review: Speaking Against Number: Heidegger, Language, and the Politics of Calculation, by Stuart Elden. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. 172 pp. $75.00 (cloth)

Babich, B. E. — 2008-05-15

Books in Review: The Politics and Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott by Stuart Isaacs. London: Routledge, 2006. 216 pp. $120.00 (cloth)

Botwinick, A. — 2008-05-15

Books in Review: A Secular Age, by Charles Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. 896 pp. $39.95 (cloth)

Shakman Hurd, E. — 2008-05-15

Adam Smith's Critique of International Trading Companies: Theorizing "Globalization" in the Age of Enlightenment

Muthu, S. — 2008-03-12

The interpretive strategy of this article is to identify the joint stock company as an independent unit of analysis in Adam Smith's theory of international political economy. Such companies, in Smith's view, had corrupted and captured many European and non-European governments and undermined their societies' ability to engage in peaceful transnational affairs and equitable self-rule. In contrast with Smith's well-known concerns about the rise of commerce in modern Europe in his four-stage account of social development— which were outweighed, in his view, by the many material benefits and personal liberties brought about by the eclipse of feudalism—his narrative of globalization offers a trenchantly critical appraisal of commercial practices that ultimately undermine many of the gains that the initial rise of modern commerce once made possible. Even in his rare moments of optimism about the future of global relations, Smith remained deeply ambivalent about globalization.

Theorists and Actors: Zhang Shizhao on "Self-Awareness" as Political Action

Jenco, L. K. — 2008-03-12

This paper draws on the thought of the early twentieth century Chinese intellectual Zhang Shizhao to re-examine the foundations of effective political action. Writing during the critical historical juncture that spanned the fall of China's last imperial dynasty and the establishment of a republican government, Zhang reflects upon the possibilities for political action in contexts where the communities that might underwrite its meaning are no longer—or not yet—accessible. These reflections culminate in Zhang's vision of self-rule as an individualized process of "self-awareness." I sketch out the model of political action his account implies to explain how he can render such individualized activity politically relevant. Contrasting with accounts of democratic action like Hanna Pitkin's that privilege "action in concert," Zhang's self-awareness reorients the focus of political activity toward disparate—though cumulative—efforts to render shared problems incrementally and personally tractable.

The Idea of Public Reason and the Reason of State: Schmitt and Rawls on the Political

Vatter, M. — 2008-03-12

Rawls and Schmitt are often discussed in the literature as if their conceptions of the political had nothing in common, or even referred to entirely different phenomena. In this essay, I show how these conceptions share a common space of reasons, traceable back to the idea of public reason and its development since the Middle Ages. By analysing the idea of public reason in Rawls and in Schmitt, as well as its relation to their theories of political representation, I show in what way Schmitt's concept of the political cannot be divorced from an idea of justice, while, conversely, Rawls' conception of justice cannot be divorced from a theory of the political. In that way this paper thematizes the internal relation that each theory establishes between justice and power, deliberation and decision, and consensus and disagreement.

Religious Rhetoric and the Ethics of Public Discourse: The Case of George W. Bush

Smith, R. M. — 2008-03-12

Political theorists have argued for and against the propriety of a civic ethics of "public reason" that would set normative bounds on the expression of religious views in the public discourse of government officials and, to a lesser degree, citizens. This essay explores whether critics of ethical restraints on religious discourse have grounds to criticize the religious rhetoric of President George W. Bush. Quantitative and qualitative studies show that Bush has used a distinctive "prophetic" mode of religious expression more often than any modern predecessor. This sort of religious discourse is argued to be ethically dubious from the standpoints of most public reason advocates and most of their critics. Even as it champions democracy and adherence to the plans of divine providence, it discourages and de-legitimates democratic dissent and fails to provide the religious guidance it promises.

Review Essay: What Foucault Saw at the Revolution: On the Use and Abuse of Theology for Politics

Honig, B. — 2008-03-12

Review Essay: Traversing Patagonia: New Writings on Postcolonial International Relations

Bleiker, R. — 2008-03-12

Review Essay: Utopia: A Critical Archaism or an Ideological Anachronism?

Vazquez-Arroyo, A. Y. — 2008-03-12

Book in Review: Musical Democracy, by Nancy Love. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006. 168 pp. $50.00 (cloth); $16.95 (paper)

Spence, L. — 2008-03-12

Book in Review: William James: Politics in the Pluriverse, by Kennan Ferguson. Lanham, MD: Rowman &Littlefield, 2007. 196 pp. $24.95 (paper); $70.00 (cloth)

Kaufman-Osborn, T. V. — 2008-03-12

Book in Review: In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. 189 pp. $25.00 (cloth)

Marres, N. — 2008-03-12