II
| DOI | 10.1177/00208345110610050601 |
| Date | 01 October 2011 |
| Published date | 01 October 2011 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
590
II
POLITICAL THINKERS AND IDEAS
PENSEURS ET IDÉES POLITIQUES
61.6015 ABIZADEH, Arash — Hobbes on the causes of war: a
disagreement theory. Am erican Politica l Science R eview
105(2), May 2011 : 298-315.
Hobbesian war primarily arises because we are fragile, fearful, impres-
sionable, and psy chologically prickly c reatures susceptible t o ideological
manipulation, wh ose anger can become irrat ionally inflamed by even
trivial slights to our glory . The primary source of war, according to Hob-
bes, is disagreement, because we read into it the most inflammator y
signs of contempt. Both cause and remedy are therefore primarily ideo-
logical: The Leviathan’s pr imary fu nction is to settle the mean ing of the
most controversial words implicated in social life , minimize public dis-
agreement, neutralize glory, magnify the fear of death, and root o ut
subversive doctrines. Managing interstate conflict, in turn, requires not
only coerciv e power, but also the soft power required to sh ape charac-
ters and defuse the effects of s tatus competition. [R, abr.]
61.6016 AHMAD, Irfa n — Democracy and Islam. Philosophy and
Social Criticis m 37(4), May 2011 : 459-470.
The dominant debate on Islam a nd democracy continues to operate in
the realm of normativity. This article engages with key literature showing
limits o f such a line of inquiry. Through the case stu dy of Ind ia's Islamist
organization, J amaat-e-Islami, I shift the debate fr om textual normat ivity
to demotic praxis. I demonstrate h ow Islam and democracy work in
practice, and offer a fresh perspective to enhance our understandings of
both Islam a nd democracy. A key proposition of this article is that rather
than discussing the cliché if Is lam is compatible with democracy, or Islam
should be democratized, we study the “hows” of de-democratization in
Muslim societies. [R] [See Abstr. 61.5634]
61.6017 ARNOLD, N. Scott — Are modern American liberals
socialists or social democrats? Social Philosophy and Pol-
icy 28(2), Summer 2011 : 262-282.
This paper answers the title question, "Yes", on both counts. The paper
first argues that modern liberals are socialists, and then that they ar e
also soc ial democrats. The main idea behind the first argument is that
the state has effectively taken control of the incidents of ownershi p
through its taxation, spend ing, and regulatory policies. The main idea
behind the second argument is that the institutio ns of soc ial democracy
are replicated by the institutions favored by modern American liberalism.
Specifically, t he takeover of the American health-care system, Social
Security, em ployers' mandator y contributions to unemplo yment insur-
ance, and workers' compensation insurance replicate the institutions of
social democracy. [R]
61.6018 AROWOSEGBE, J eremiah Oluwasegun — State recon-
struction in post-conflict Africa: the relevance of A ke's
political thought. Economic and Polit ical Weekly 46(19), 7-
13 May 2011 : 60-67.
Studies on post-conflict reconstruction in Africa have glossed over the
need for state-transformation as a prerequisite for sustainab le peace-
building in post-conflict societies. [I] fill this crevasse using the relevance
of C. Ake's political th ought for state reconstruction in post-conflict Africa.
Drawing on Sierra Leone, Ake's works on the state are discussed against
the backdrop of externally-driven state reconstruction projects hinged on
hegemonic discourses of nation-building on post-conflict situations. [R]
61.6019 AZIZ, Sadaf — Makin g a sov ereign state [in Pakistan]:
Javed Ghamidi and "enlig htened moderation". Modern
Asian Studies 45( 3), May 2011 : 597-630.
This paper takes a critical look at a recent attempt by the Pakistani state
to manage religious thought and practice, under the broad banner of
“Enlightened Moderation”. One of the key Is lamic thinkers associated in
popular imagination with this pr oject is J.A. Gham idi. In contextualizing
the work an d role of Ghamidi, it is tempting to wor k backwards from his
opinions on Islamic truth to situate him as a reformer whose inter ventions
are primarily oriented to the task of reconciling Islam to conditions of
liberal m odernity. Ag ainst such a tendency I argue t hat such a n exercise
of classificatio n and categ orization needs to be under taken with greater
care as against a critique of the imperialist typology of “good ” and “bad”
Islams, a project of de lineating authentic from inauthentic Islams has
also more recently been activ ated. [R] [See Abstr. 61.6201]
61.6020 BAEHR, Pet er — Marxism and Isl amism: in tellectual
conformity in Aron’s time and our own. Journal of Classi-
cal Sociology 11(2), May 2011 : 173-190.
I [examine] R. Aron's concer n with the impact of regimes and local
cultures on political discussion. Of special interest to him were state-
sponsored ideology and self-induced group think ( the “opium of the
intellectua ls”). After briefly describing Aron's views of both of these
phenomena within the context of official a nd unofficial Marx ism, I exam-
ine two modalit ies of communicativ e inhibit ion that have emerged since
his death. Both turn on the emergence of Islamis m as a major modern
political ideology ; both entail impediments to free speec h: the vilification
of polit ical disagreement as “phobic” and, relatedly, the political use of
law (“ lawfare”) to halt debate on mat ters s ensitive to Islamists . [R, abr.]
[See Abstr. 61.6024]
61.6021 BOSTEELS, Bruno — Po litics, infrapo litics, and the impo-
litical: notes on the though t of Roberto Esposito and Al-
berto Moreiras. CR: The New Centennial Review 10(2),
2011 : 205-238.
Language allows us to rethink the conc epts of "politics " or "the political"
by adding a prefix. R. Esposito and A. Moreir as coined the terms "impoli-
tical" and "infrapolitics"; AHIN these neolog isms have retroactiv ely
affected the category of politics as deployed in modern political phi loso-
phy. Concepts affected by these neologisms include: J. R ancière's
"archipolitics ", "parapolitics", and "metapolitics", S. Zizek's "ultrapolitics",
as well as A. Badiou's radically different und erstanding of "metapo litics".
Infrapolitics and the impolitical propose a distancing from political th eol-
ogy and the immanentism of the subject in the biopolitical administratio n
of social identities. Infrapolitics and the impolitical are f orms of grand
politics because they absorb the radicality of the historico-political break
into the real m of philosophy and political thought. [See Abstr. 61.6040]
61.6022 BOZZO-REY, Malik — La transparence chez Jeremy
Bentham : de l'invisibilité d'un concept à sa publicité
(Transparency in Jeremy Bentham: from the invisibility
of a concept to its publicity). Tocqueville Review 32(1),
2011 : 89-112.
Foucault and Habermas studies the concepts of transparency and of
public opinion , drawing o n Bentham's writings on the Panopticon ad on
public as semblies, respectively. The author shows how their interpreta-
tions of both concept s in the light of Bentham's works are wanting and
how a better understandings of Bentham's theories as a whole as well as
of materi al published lately allows for an adequate theory of the public
sphere thanks to Bentham's Public Opinion Tribunal. [R] [See Abst r.
61.6028]
61.6023 BRAGYOVA, András — Kant and the constitut ional re-
view. Kantian principles of the neo-constitutionalist con-
stitutionalism. Acta jur idica hungarica 52(2) , June 2011 : 97-
114.
The paper distills the fundamental principles of cons titutional law as
implemented in modern constitutional review from the writings of Kant. It
examines the idea of the constitut ion as a social c ontract and its rel ation
to popular sovereignty. Second, the principles of "republican constitution"
— liberty, equality and independence (autonomy) — follow. These
principles condense the es sence of what we now call fundament al
constitutional rights. Third, the transcendental maxim of legislation, the
publicity, is analyzed; the princip le of the publ icity of legislation is funda-
mental for modern constitut ionalism (or neo-constitutionalism). Constitu-
tional c ourts are organs of the "public use of reason" so importa nt for
Kant and revived recently by J. Rawls . The last section discuss es the
relationship of morality and constitutional government. [R, abr.]
61.6024 BREINER, Peter — Raymond Aron’s en gagement with
Weber: recovery or retreat? Journal of Classical Sociology
11(2), May 2011 : 99-121.
I trace Aron's stylized dynamic political read ing of Weber's historical
sociology, political sociology, and sociologically informed political ethics,
a reading in which Weber's interpret ive notion of meaningful action and
his notion of counterfactual judgment in providing explanation become
central to Weber's political sociology. For Aron, Weber's historical sociol-
ogy in g eneral and his political sociology in particular serve to provide a
model for how sociology can clarify for political actor s the ex istential
political choices t hey may face in making decisions. But I als o argue that
when Aron subsequently turns to a criticism of Weber in the name of
cleansing his theory of political extremity, he undermines all the dynamic
elements in Weber 's political sociology so central to his original interpre-
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