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Politics in Wired Nations: Selected Writings of Ithiel De Sola Pool
by Ithiel de Sola PoolIthiel de Sola Pool was a pioneering social scientist, a distinguished scholar of the political process, and one of the most original thinkers in the development of the social sciences. Passionately engaged in politics, he continued his role of leadership throughout his life, building the MIT Political Science Department into an outstanding group. He organized international teams of social scientists and collaborated widely to develop the understanding of social change. He was a frequent adviser to governments as consultant and in-house critic, and a successful advocate of limits on government regulation. Politics in Wired Nations presents his writings on the social and political impact of different communication systems and new telecommunications technology.Included in this volume is the first study of trends in a global information society, and the first study of social networks and the "small world" phenomenon that creates new relationships and routes of informal influence and political power, both domestic and international. Pool's essays on the politics of foreign trade, the influence of American businessmen on Congress, and changeable "unnatural" institutions of the modern world (e.g., bureaucracies, mega-cities, and nation-states) are herein contained. Pool describes a nonviolent revolution in freedom and political control that is possible as the world changes from the era of one-way mass communications--targeted to national audiences--to a new era of abundant, high-capacity, low-cost, interactive, and user-controlled communications on a global scale. He discusses policy choices for freedom, the battlegrounds ahead, and the risks of government involvement in the regulation of new telecommunication technologies.
Politics, Intellectuals, and Faith: Essays
by Matthew FeldmanThis wide-ranging collection of academic essays examines the various undertakings by modern intellectuals and ideologues in the process of propaganda and political debate. Matthew Feldman calls attention to the substantial role played in post-Great War Europe and the US by religions—both familiar monotheisms like Christianity and secular ‘political faiths’—over the last century of upheaval and revolutionary change. While the first part considers Ezra Pound as a case study in fascist ʼconversion’ in Mussolini’s Italy, leading to extensive propaganda, the second half examines other fascist ideologues like Martin Heidegger to fascist murderer Anders Behring Breivik, before turning to other leading ideologies in modern Europe and the US, communism and liberalism, covering key figures from Thomas Merton and Albert Camus to the Russian Constructionists and Samuel Beckett, with especial focus on the subjects of modern warfare, political terrorism, and genocide, ranging from Stalinist gulags to the war in Iraq. With thought-provoking discussion of the interplay between belief and modern politics as understood by familiar intellectual voices, this volume will be of interest to scholars and general readers alike.
Politics, Law and Morality: Essays By V. S. Soloviev
by Vladimir Soloviev Vladimir WozniukConsidered one of Russia's greatest philosophers, Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900) was also a theologian, historian, poet, and social and political critic. His works have emerged to enjoy renewed attention in post-Soviet Russia, and his concerns echo in contemporary discussions of politics, law, and morality. In this collection of Soloviev's essays -- many translated into English for the first time -- the philosopher explores an array of social issues, from the death penalty to nationalism to women's rights. Soloviev reacts against the tradition of European rationalist thought and seeks to synthesize religious philosophy, science, and ethics in the context of a universal Christianity. In these writings he reveals the centrality of human rights in his Christian world-view, not only as an abstract theory but also as an inspiration in everyday life. In a substantive introduction and copious annotations to the essays, Vladimir Wozniuk points out distinctive and often overlooked features of Soloviev's works while,illuminating his place within both the Russian and Western intellectual traditions.
Politics, Managerialism, and University Governance: Lessons from Hong Kong under China’s Rule since 1997 (Governance and Citizenship in Asia)
by Wing-Wah LawThis book explores the interplay between politics, managerialism, and higher education, and the complex linkages between politics and public universities in Hong Kong. Since the mid-20th century, literature on the state, market, and higher education has focused on the state’s shifting role from the direct administration to the supervision of higher education, and its increased use of market and managerial principles and techniques to regulate public universities. However, very few studies have addressed the political influences on university governance produced by changing state-university-market relationships, the chancellorship of public universities, or students’ and academics’ civic engagement with regard to sensitive political issues. The book examines both the positive and problematic outcomes of using market principles and managerialism to reform public higher education; questions the longstanding tradition of university chancellorship; explores the issue of external members holding the majority on university governing boards; probes into the dilemma of either relying on the system or a good chancellor and external members to preserve universities’ autonomy and academic freedom; and assesses the cost of students’ and academics’ civic engagement with regard to politically sensitive issues.
Politics, Metaphysics, and Death: Essays On Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer
by Andrew NorrisThe Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben is having an increasingly significant impact on Anglo-American political theory. His most prominent intervention to date is the powerful reassessment of sovereignty and the politics of life and death laid out in his multivolume Homo Sacer project. Agamben argues that in both the modern world and the ancient, politics inevitably involves a sovereign decision that bans some individuals from the political and human communities. For Agamben, the Nazi concentration camps--in which some inmates are reduced to a form of living death--are not a political aberration but instead the place where this essential political decision about life most clearly reveals itself. Engaging specifically with Homo Sacer, the essays in this collection draw out and contend with the wide-ranging implications of Agamben's radical and controversial interpretation of modern political life. The contributors analyze Agamben's thought from the perspectives of political theory, philosophy, jurisprudence, and the history of law. They consider his work not only in relation to that of his major interlocutors--Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, and Martin Heidegger--but also in relation to the thought of Plato, Pindar, Heraclitus, Descartes, Kafka, Bataille, and Derrida. The essayists' approaches are varied, as are their ultimate evaluations of the cogency and accuracy of Agamben's arguments. This volume also includes an original essay by Agamben in which he considers the relation of Benjamin's "Critique of Violence" to Schmitt's Political Theology. Politics, Metaphysics, and Death is a necessary, multifaceted exposition and evaluation of the thought of one of today's most important political theorists. Contributors: Giorgio Agamben, Andrew Benjamin, Peter Fitzpatrick, Anselm Haverkamp, Paul Hegarty, Andreas Kalyvas, Rainer Maria Kiesow , Catherine Mills, Andrew Norris, Adam Thurschwell, Erik Vogt, Thomas Carl Wall
Politics, Money, and Persuasion: Democracy and Opinion in Plato's Republic (Studies in Continental Thought)
by John RussonIn Politics, Money, and Persuasion, distinguished philosopher John Russon offers a new framework for interpreting Plato's The Republic. For Russon, Plato's work is about the distinctive nature of what it is to be a human being and, correspondingly, what is distinctive about the nature of human society. Russon focuses on the realities of our everyday experience to come to profoundly insightful assessments of our human realities: the nature of the city, the nature of knowledge, and the nature of human psychology. Russon's argument concentrates on the ambivalence of logos, which includes reflections on politics and philosophy and their place in human life, how humans have shaped the environment, our interactions with money, the economy, and the pursuit of the good in social and political systems. Politics, Money, and Persuasion offers a deeply personal but also practical kind of philosophical reading of Plato's classic text. It emphasizes the tight connection between the life of city and the life of the soul, demonstrating both the crucial role that human cognitive excellence and psychological health play in political and social life.
The Politics of a Disillusioned Europe: East Central Europe After the Fall of Communism
by André LiebichMoving from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the present day, this book traces the trajectory of the six East Central European former satellites of the Soviet Union (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria) that have joined the European Union. It seeks in particular to explain these countries’ disenchantment with the “return to Europe” in spite of their significant advances. The book proceeds country by country and then devotes chapters to some contemporary issues, such as minorities, migration, and the relations of these “new” members with the European Union as a whole. The book eschews theory and is intended for a general audience, including students at all levels in political science and history classes devoted to the EU and to contemporary Europe, and to an academic and practitioner audience interested in world affairs and the evolution of the European Union. The book strives to fill a persistent knowledge gap in the English-speaking world concerning East Central Europe, and to offer fresh insights about the region in the context of contemporary geopolitics.
The Politics of Agency: Toward a Pragmatic Approach to Philosophical Anthropology (Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Philosophy)
by J. Jeremy WisnewskiDebates about individualism and holism, reductionism and phenomenology, and naturalism and humanism all turn on how we answer the basic questions about the nature of human agency. This book argues that the traditional emphasis on the accuracy of a given theory of human agency has systematically obscured the normative dimension in these theories and that recognizing this normative dimension allows us to see that a pragmatic approach to theories of agency, either in social science or moral philosophy, is more appropriate. As well as offering a vigorous presentation of the pragmatic-therapeutic account of agency Wisnewski also engages critically with three rival accounts from Nietzsche, Foucault and Rorty.
The Politics of American Foreign Policy: How Ideology Divides Liberals and Conservatives over Foreign Affairs
by Peter Hays GriesIn this provocative book, Peter Gries directly challenges the widely held view that partisan elites on Capitol Hill are out of touch with a moderate American public. Dissecting a new national survey, Gries shows how ideology powerfully divides Main Street over both domestic and foreign policy and reveals how and why, with the exception of attitudes toward Israel, liberals consistently feel warmer toward foreign countries and international organizations, and desire friendlier policies toward them, than conservatives do. And because most Congressional districts have become hyper-partisan, many politicians today cater not to the "median voter" in their districts, but to the primary voters who elect them. The perverse incentives of the U.S. electoral system, therefore, are empowering the ideological extremes, contributing to elite partisanship over American foreign policy. The Politics of American Foreign Policy weaves seamlessly together in-depth examinations of the psychological roots and foreign policy consequences of the liberal-conservative divide, the cultural, socio-racial, economic, and political dimensions of American ideology, and the moral values and foreign policy orientations that divide Democrats and Republicans. Within this context, the book explores in detail why American liberals and conservatives disagree over US policy relating to Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, and international organizations such as the UN.
The Politics Of Animal Experimentation
by Dan LyonsThe reality of animal experimentation and its regulation in Britain have been hidden behind a curtain of secrecy since its emergence as a political controversy in the 1870s. Public debate and political science alike have been severely hampered by a profound lack of reliable information about the practice. In this remarkable study, Dan Lyons advances and applies policy network analysis to investigate the evolution of British animal research policy-making.
The Politics of Annihilation: A Genealogy of Genocide
by Benjamin MeichesHow did a powerful concept in international justice evolve into an inequitable response to mass suffering?For a term coined just seventy-five years ago, genocide has become a remarkably potent idea. But has it transformed from a truly novel vision for international justice into a conservative, even inaccessible term? The Politics of Annihilation traces how the concept of genocide came to acquire such significance on the global political stage. In doing so, it reveals how the concept has been politically contested and refashioned over time. It explores how these shifts implicitly impact what forms of mass violence are considered genocide and what forms are not. Benjamin Meiches argues that the limited conception of genocide, often rigidly understood as mass killing rooted in ethno-religious identity, has created legal and political institutions that do not adequately respond to the diversity of mass violence. In his insistence on the concept’s complexity, he does not undermine the need for clear condemnations of such violence. But neither does he allow genocide to become a static or timeless notion. Meiches argues that the discourse on genocide has implicitly excluded many forms of violence from popular attention including cases ranging from contemporary Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the legacies of colonial politics in Haiti, Canada, and elsewhere, to the effects of climate change on small island nations. By mapping the multiplicity of forces that entangle the concept in larger assemblages of power, The Politics of Annihilation gives us a new understanding of how the language of genocide impacts contemporary political life, especially as a means of protesting the social conditions that produce mass violence.
Politics of Anti-Racism Education: In Search of Strategies for Transformative Learning
by George J. Sefa Dei Mairi McdermottThis collection of essays invites readers to think through critical questions concerning anti-racism education, such as: How does anti-racism education centre race as an analytic and simultaneously work with multiple sites of oppression, without reifying hierarchies of difference? How can anti-racism education be engaged to speak to historical questions of power and privilege, within conventional schooling practices? How do we recognize anti-racism education in its many iterations? In this book the authors explore the knowledge that constitutes anti-racism education and the ways in which knowledge constitutive of anti-racism education becomes embodied through particular pedagogues. The authors are anti-racism educators with experiences in diverse settings: the chapters cover various fields and socio-historic geographies, address contemporary educational issues, and are situated within personal-political, historical and philosophical conversations. Anti-racism education is a discursive stance and steeped in politics that shape and are shaped by everyday conversations, theories, and practices. The essays in this collection work through many of the possibilities and limitations of engaging in counter-hegemonic education for transformative learning. Readers will discover lived experiences, theory, practice and critical reflexivity.
The Politics of Aristotle
by Aristotle Peter L. Phillips SimpsonA touchstone in Western debates about society and government, the Politics is Aristotle's classic work on the nature of political community. Here, he discusses the merits and defects of various regimes or ways of organizing political community - democracy in particular - and in the process examines such subjects as slavery, economics, the family, citizenship, justice, and revolution.
Politics of Autonomy and Sustainability in Myanmar
by Walaiporn Tantikanangkul Ashley PritchardThis book focuses on the tensions between and conflict resolution processes concerning minority ethnic groups in Myanmar's rural areas and the State. It covers topics such as relations and communication between the central government, the Kokang Chinese community and the Kachin State; the impact of cyclone Nargis on remote settlements in the Ayeyarwady Delta; the impact of depletion of mangrove forests and Yangon's fuel needs on a Karen minority group; and the collapse of a community forestry project in a Pa-O village in Shan State. Written by young scholars from Myanmar, some of whom belong to minority groups, the book provides firsthand reporting and scholarship that, for the past sixty years, have not been available. Offering in-depth, unique insights into minority change issues in the interior and at the periphery of Myanmar, as seen from local perspectives, it offers a valuable resource for academics, students and researchers in the fields of sustainable development, social and political studies, and development communication in Asia.
The Politics of Autonomy in Latin America
by Ana Cecilia DinersteinThe author contests older concepts of autonomy as either revolutionary or ineffective vis-à-vis the state. Looking at four prominent Latin American movements, she defines autonomy as 'the art of organising hope': a tool for indigenous and non-indigenous movements to prefigure alternative realities at a time when utopia can be no longer objected.
The Politics Of Beauty: A Study Of Kant's Critique Of Taste (Elements in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant)
by Susan Meld ShellThis Element examines the entirety of Kant's Critique of Taste (in Part One of the Critique of Judgment) with particular emphasis on its political and moral aims. Kant's critical treatment of aesthetic judgment is both an extended theoretical response to influential predecessors and contemporaries, including Rousseau and Herder, and a practical intervention in its own right meant to nudge history forward at a time of civilizational crisis. Attention to these themes helps resolve a number of puzzles, both textual and philosophic, including the normative force and meaning of judgments of taste, and the relation between natural and artful beauty.
The Politics of Being: The Political Thought of Martin Heidegger
by Richard WolinMartin Heidegger's ties to Nazism have tarnished his stature as one of the towering figures of twentieth-century philosophy. The publication of the Black Notebooks in 2014, which revealed the full extent of Heidegger's anti-Semitism and enduring sympathy for National Socialism, only inflamed the controversy. Richard Wolin's The Politics of Being: The Political Thought of Martin Heidegger has played a seminal role in the international debate over the consequences of Heidegger's Nazism. In this edition, the author provides a new preface addressing the effect of the Black Notebooks on our understanding of the relationship between politics and philosophy in Heidegger's work. Building on his pathbreaking interpretation of the philosopher's political thought, Wolin demonstrates that philosophy and politics cannot be disentangled in Heidegger's oeuvre. Völkisch ideological themes suffuse even his most sublime philosophical treatises. Therefore, despite Heidegger's profundity as a thinker, his critique of civilization is saturated with disturbing anti-democratic and anti-Semitic leitmotifs and claims.
Politics of Benjamin’s Kafka: Philosophy As Renegade
by Brendan MoranThis book provides a critical assessment of Benjamin’s writings on Franz Kafka and of Benjamin’s related writings. Eliciting from Benjamin’s writings a conception of philosophy that is political in its dissociation from – its becoming renegade in relation to, its philosophic shame about – established laws, norms, and forms, the book compares Benjamin’s writings with relevant works by Agamben, Heidegger, Levinas, and others. In relating Benjamin’s writings on Kafka to Benjamin’s writings on politics, the study delineates a philosophic impetus in literature and argues that this impetus has potential political consequences. Finally, the book is critical of Benjamin’s messianism insofar as it is oriented by the anticipated elimination of exceptions and distractions. Exceptions and distractions are, the book argues, precisely what literature, like other arts, brings to the fore. Hence the philosophic, and the political, importance of literature.
The Politics of Bioethics (Routledge Studies in Science, Technology and Society)
by Alan PetersenRecent rapid advances in the biosciences have led to considerable debate about the social, ethical, and legal implications of research and its applications. The mapping of the human genome, advances in cloning techniques, the harvesting of embryonic stem cells for research, increasing use of genetic testing in healthcare, and the development of large-scale genetic databases have not only generated high expectations about new diagnostics and treatments but also considerable widespread fear about their consequences. This book offers a critical appraisal of bioethics and its implications as it pertains to the fields of health and medicine and public health, with a particular emphasis on recent technological innovations as they provide a noteworthy exemplar of the power of bioethics in shaping policies, practices and notions of societal benefits. Whereas other books have tended to examine ethical dilemmas and challenges of applying ethical principles, often in relation to a limited array of issues, this book investigates the socio-political implications of bioethics discourse and practices in relation to a range of controversial (or potentially controversial) developments. Providing a benchmark for future debate and scholarly work, this volume will be of interest to policymakers, clinicians, scholars, and others who are looking for new ways of making sense and evaluating recent developments in the field of bioethics.
The Politics of Bureaucracy: An Introduction to Comparative Public Administration
by B. Guy PetersWritten by a leading authority in the field, this comprehensive exploration of the political and policy-making roles of public bureaucracies is now available in a fully revised sixth edition, offering extensive, well documented comparative analysis of the effects of politics on bureaucracy. New to the 6th edition: More international case studies on North America, Western and Eastern European and Asian countries. Discussion of how governments have been developing strategies to enhance co-ordination and coherence across their programmes. Analysis of the use of performance management in public administration. More tables, case studies and internet links. Extensive revision and updating to take into account the wealth of new literature that has emerged in recent years, including a discussion of E-Governance and analysis of 'new public management'. Drawing on evidence from a wide variety of political systems, The Politics of Bureaucracy continues to be essential reading for all students of government, policy analysis, and politics and international relations.
The Politics of Bureaucracy: An Introduction to Comparative Public Administration
by B. Guy PetersWritten by B. Guy Peters, a leading authority in the field, this comprehensive exploration of the political and policy making roles of public bureaucracies is now available in a fully revised seventh edition, offering extensive, well-documented comparative analysis of the effects of politics on bureaucracy. Updates to this edition include: All new coverage of public administration in Latin America and Africa, with special attention paid to the impact of New Public Management and other ideas for reform; An examination of the European Union and its effects on public policy and public administration in member countries, as well as an exploration of the EU as a particular type of bureaucracy; A renewed emphasis on coordination and the role of central agencies; A thorough assessment of 'internationalization' of bureaucracies and concerns with the role of international pressures on domestic governments and organizations in the public sector; Coverage of the wide-ranging impacts of the 2008 economic slowdown on public bureaucracies and public policies, and the varied success of governmental responses to the crisis. Drawing on evidence from a wide variety of political systems, The Politics of Bureaucracy, Seventh Edition, continues to be essential reading for all students of government, policy analysis, politics, and international relations.
The Politics of Compassion
by Mervyn Frost Michael UreThis book provides a critical overview of the role of the emotions in politics. Compassion is a politically charged virtue, and yet we know surprisingly little about the uses (and abuses) of compassion in political environments. Covering sociology, political theory and psychology, and with contributions from Martha Nussbaum and Andrew Linklater amongst others, the book gives a succinct overview of the main theories of political compassion and the emotions in politics. It covers key concepts such as humanitarianism, political emotion and agency in relation to compassion as a political virtue. The Politics of Compassion is a fascinating resource for students and scholars of political theory, international relations, political sociology and psychology.
The Politics of Corruption in Dictatorships
by Yadav, Vineeta and Mukherjee, Bumba Vineeta Yadav Bumba MukherjeeThe Politics of Corruption in Dictatorships studies how institutional and social factors influence corruption in dictatorships. Dictatorships are often synonymous with high levels of corruption, yet Vineeta Yadav and Bumba Mukherjee argue otherwise. The authors ask why corruption has declined in some but not other authoritarian regimes. What are the main political factors that drive some autocrats to curb corruption? The book explores the role that business mobilization can play in reducing corruption under some conditions in dictatorships. It investigates how political competition for an elected legislature affects the incentives of dictators to engage in corruption. The study relies on case studies from Jordan, Malaysia, and Uganda. The book is accessible to a wide audience without requiring sophisticated statistical training.
Politics of Culture and the Spirit of Critique: Dialogues (New Directions in Critical Theory #27)
by Alfredo Gomez-Muller Gabriel RockhillThis book of tightly woven dialogues engages prominent thinkers in a discussion about the role of culture-broadly construed-in contemporary society and politics. Faced with the conceptual inflation of the notion of 'culture,' which now imposes itself as an indispensable issue in contemporary moral and political debates, these dynamic exchanges seek to rethink culture and critique beyond the schematic models that have often predominated, such as the opposition between "mainstream multiculturalism" and the "clash of civilizations." Prefaced by an introduction relating current cultural debates to the critical theory tradition, this book examines the politics of culture and the spirit of critique from three different vantage points. To begin, Gabriel Rockhill and Alfredo Gomez-Muller provide a stage-setting dialogue, followed by discussions with two major representatives of contemporary critical theory: Seyla Benhabib and Nancy Fraser. Working at the horizons of this tradition, Judith Butler, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Cornel West then provide important critical perspectives on cultural politics. The book's concluding section engages with Michael Sandel and Will Kymlicka, who work out of the Rawlsian tradition yet are uniquely concerned with the issue of culture, broadly understood. The epilogue, an interview with Axel Honneth, returns to the core issue of critical theory in cultural politics. Ranging from recent developments and progressive interventions in critical theory to dialogues that incorporate its insights into larger discussions of social and political philosophy, this book sharpens old critical tools while developing new strategies for rethinking the role of 'culture' in contemporary society.
The Politics of Decolonial Investigations (On Decoloniality)
by Walter D. MignoloIn The Politics of Decolonial Investigations Walter D. Mignolo provides a sweeping examination of how coloniality has operated around the world in its myriad forms from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first. Decolonial border thinking allows Mignolo to outline how the combination of the self-fashioned narratives of Western civilization and the hegemony of Eurocentric thought served to eradicate all knowledges in non-European languages and praxes of living and being. Mignolo also traces the geopolitical origins of racialized and gendered classifications, modernity, globalization, and cosmopolitanism, placing them all within the framework of coloniality. Drawing on the work of theorists and decolonial practitioners from the Global South and the Global East, Mignolo shows how coloniality has provoked the emergence of decolonial politics initiated by delinking from all forms of Western knowledge and subjectivities. The urgent task, Mignolo stresses, is the epistemic reconstitution of categories of thought and praxes of living destituted in the very process of building Western civilization and the idea of modernity. The overcoming of the long-lasting hegemony of the West and its distorted legacies is already underway in all areas of human existence. Mignolo underscores the relevance of the politics of decolonial investigations, in and outside the academy, to liberate ourselves from canonized knowledge, ways of knowing, and praxes of living.