II: Political Thinkers and Ideas/Penseurs et Idées Politiques
| Date | 01 October 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002083451206200502 |
| Published date | 01 October 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Abstracts |
590
II
POLITICAL THINKERS AND IDEAS
PENSEURS ET IDÉES POLITIQUES
62.5939 ARNEIL, Barbar a — Liberal colonialism, domestic colo-
nies and citizenship. History of Political Thought 33(3),
Autumn 2012 : 491-523.
A growing body of literature argues that the two major theorie s of liber al
citizenship (those of J. Locke and J.S. Mill) were deeply enmeshed with
both colonizat ion (the processes by which the imperial state takes ov er
the land and/or sovereignty of another c ountry) and colonialism (the
theoretical framework by which c olonization is justified). This article
builds upon this literature but asks whether the existence of hundreds of
domestic c olonies within (as opposed to outside) the borders of Britain
and British sett ler-states for citizens (as opposed to foreigners) at the
turn of the 20th c. challenges the scope and definition of “colonialism” in
previous literature. Liberal colonialism seeks to tr ansform those deemed
to be “idle”, “irrational” and/or custom bound, both at home and abroad,
into “indust rious and ratio nal” citizens. [R, abr.]
62.5940 BERTRAM, C hristopher — Rousseau's legacy in two
conceptions of the general will: democratic and t ran-
scendent. Review of Politics 74(3), Summer 2012 : 403-419.
This paper explores the contrast between two conceptions of the general
will to be found in Rousseau's wor k, especially in the Social Contract.
The first of these identifies the general will with the decisions of the
sovereign people as they legislate together; the second conceives of the
general will as a transcendent fact about the society which may or may
not be reflected in actua l legislative decisions. Though t hese conceptions
may be capable of reconciliatio n in Rousseau's own work, the tension
remains and is reflected both in Rousseau's own ambivalence towards
democracy and in the diff erent ways his thought has been received an d
adapted in philosophy and po litics. [R] [See Abstr. 62.5969]
62.5941 CALHOUN, Laurie — Human rights or just war? Peace
Review 24(2), Apr.-June 2012 : 163-170.
The just war tradition dates back to ancient and medieval times, but its
principal concepts — including "legitimate authority", "proportionality",
and "noncombatant immunity" — have survived in the protocols of
modern military institutions. The early expositors of just war theor y,
including Saint Augustine and Sa int Thomas Aquinas, held that l eaders
became "legitimate authorities" through the grace of God and were
guided by divine wisdom in c arrying out His will, includ ing when and
where to wage war. According to th is conservative worldview, people
were to heed their leaders' calls to war prec isely because they were
acting under the aeg is of God, and that was what made it permissible for
Christian soldiers to kill. [R]
62.5942 CEBRIÁN ZAZURCA, Enrique — La filosofía de Jürgen
Habermas como fundamento de la democracia delibera-
tiva (Jürgen Habermas' philosophy as foundation of de-
liberative democrac y). Derechos y Libertades 27, June
2012 : 141-175.
Usually, analyses of political deliberation do not place it in its historical
and theoretical fr ame. This essay seek s to correct that, r elating delibera-
tive approaches to Harbermas. [R, abr.]
62.5943 COOPER, Laurence D. — Nearer my true self t o thee:
Rousseau's new spirituality — and ou rs. Review of Politics
74(3), Summer 2012 : 465-488.
This article presents a reading of the Confessions as a spiritual drama.
Rousseau tells the story of a man (himself) who, like the rest of civilized
humanity, fell away from natural g oodness as he was socialized. Yet
unlike the rest of us, Rousseau managed to make at l east a partial return
to nature. In fact, the Confessions gives us two stories of return: one by
the man whose life is recounted and one by the narrator who is doing the
recounting. These are of course the same man presented in two aspects.
Yet the two stories share a common core: in each case the return oc curs
by means of a journey by the s elf t o the self. [R, abr.] [See Abstr.
62.5969]
62.5944 CUTTICA, Cesare — Reputation versus context in the
interpretation of Sir Robert Filmer's Patri archa. History of
Political Though t 33(2), Summer 2012 : 231-257.
This article sets out a novel analysis of Sir Robert Filmer's (1588-1653)
well-known but often misread Patriarch a (1620s-30s), claiming that a
preoccupation w ith Locke's criticism of Fi lmer has had distorting effects
on modern historiography and has prevented an appropriate contextual
approach t o the work. The article pr esents the treatise as the powerful
articulation of the patriar chalist paradigm deployed to attack the emerg-
ing languag e of county patriotism a nd the theor y of papal deposing
power formulated by Jesuit thinkers. [Then] it plac es Patriarcha in the
context of the late 1620s' parliamentary debates from whic h emerged the
Petition of Right (1628) illuminating the reasons why Filmer made use of
the notion of the king as pater pat riae. Finally, the article reshapes the
role of patriarchalism in the history of early modern European political
thought. [R, abr.]
62.5945 DAVIS, Michael — The music of reason in Rousseau's
Essay on the O rigin of Languages. Review of Politics
74(3), Summer 2012 : 389-402.
The argument of Rousseau's Essay on the Or igin of Language s is
intimately con nected with tha t of his Discourse on the Origin and the
Foundations of Inequality among Men. The origin of political society is
inseparable from langu age, wh ich is ins eparable from reason. That so
much of the Essay is concerned with music leads us to wonder what
music ha s to do wi th reason, politics, and la nguage. These two books
share what is a regular feature of Rousseau's manner of writing —
presenting what seem to be logical foundations as temporal origins. In
emphasizing the pr iority of melody to har mony in music, the Essay
articulates the necessarily melodic, and hence temporal, c haracter of
thinking, the key to understanding both why Rous seau must write as he
does and what it means for language to be musical. [R , abr.] [See Abstr.
62.5969]
62.5946 DEMELEMESTRE, G aëlle — Le concept lefortien du
pouvoir comme lieu vide. Paradoxes de la société
démocratique moderne (Claude Lefort's concept of
power as an empty place. Paradoxes of the modern de-
mocratic society). Raisons politiques 46, May 2012 : 175-
193. [Résumé en français]
In his introduction t o the French translation of Gordon Wood’s The
Creation of The American Rep ublic, 1776-1787, C laude Lefort s tresses
the proximity of the analysis made therein w ith his own reading of mod-
ern democratic phenomena. Far from seeing in modern democracy a
simple change of the government, Claude Lefort describes it as inventing
a new form of s ociety in which power cannot be e mbodied in a defined
point. But in so doing, in an opposite way to the classic monar chic
government, the reference to the law and to the common good are also
detached from it. The modern democratic society thus inaugurat es a
polity lift w here power, legis lative competence and the capacity of defin-
ing the gene ral interest no longer rely o n a precise and determine d
origin. Repeating the strong arguments that le d the Americans to choos e
a federal Constitution, I seek to show, through Claude Lefort’s analysis,
how modernity has made of power an empty place. [R]
62.5947 DISSELKAMP, Annette ; SOBEL, Richard — L'ambivalence
politique du "social" dans les sociétés capitalistes : Ar-
endt avec Castel (The political ambivalence of the "so-
cial" in capitalist societies: Arendt with Castel). Raisons
politiques 46, May 2012 : 195-215. [Rés umé en français]
This article sets out to examine the limits of Hannah Arendt's notion of
the "social"; through a comparison with Robert Castel's historical socio l-
ogy of wage labor . The intent is not to criticize Arendt's "politic al purism",
which creates an institutional vacuum and stigmatizes the "social" in
general, downgrading the latter to an apolitical deployment of the domes-
tic order within the publ ic space. In order to build a political theory rele-
vant for capitalist-democratic societies, the ne ed is for an idea of ins titu-
tional and collective resources as a prerequisite for the functioning of a
real democracy with majority rule. Castel's historical analysis, founded on
the concept of "social property", offers such a frame. [R]
62.5948 ELLIS, Catherin e — "The new Messiah of my life": An-
thony Crosland's reading of Lucien Laurat's Marxism and
Democracy (1940). Journal of Political Ideologies 17(2),
June 2012 : 189-205.
This article explores Crosland's rejection of Marxism in the early 1940s
through his reading of L. Laurat's Marxism and Democr acy (1940). In
correspondence with his friend Ph. Williams, Crosland co mmented in
unusual depth on Laurat's book. Using this correspondence alongside
other contemporary writing, this artic le argues that Laurat' s ideas helped
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