Radical Democracy: Hegemony, Reason, Time and Space

1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Natter
Keyword(s):  
Radical Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Point Of Departure

Taking her present essay as my point of departure, I elaborate key aspects of Chantal Mouffe's theorization of radical and plural democracy. In particular, I stress the importance of rearticulating hegemony, reason, and time and space for a theory of politics and the political commensurate with radical democracy.

scholarly journals Servant leadership: An urgent style for the current political leadership in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mookgo S. Kgatle
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Servant Leadership ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Current State ◽  
Theological Foundation ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Point Of Departure

The aspects of the political leadership in South Africa discussed in this article include, among others, abuse of power, corruption and lack of public accountability. In response to these aspects, the article demonstrates that servant leadership is an urgent style for the current state of political leadership in South Africa. The article discusses key aspects of the current political leadership in South Africa as a point of departure. The article also discusses the theological foundation and key principles of servant leadership in order to apply them to the current state of political leadership in South AfricaIntradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Servant leadership principles as outlined from a theological point of view are applied to the aspects of political leadership in South Africa.

scholarly journals On Truth and Emancipation

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Hjort Bundgaard
Keyword(s):  
First Principles ◽  
Radical Democracy ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ernesto Laclau ◽  
Chantal Mouffe ◽  
The Status ◽  
Point Of Departure

This article has two main currents. First, it argues that an affinity or similarity can be identified between the philosophy of Gianni Vattimo (the so-called “Weak Thinking”) and the “Discourse Theory” of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The two theorizations are engaged with related problems, but have conceptualized them differently; they share central insights, but understand them with different vocabularies. The article furthermore illuminates in what this affinity consists in, and it discusses the differences and similarities between the two theoretical positions. The second current of the article takes the ‘postmodern’ philosophical problems of anti-foundationalism and nihilism as its point of departure. It raises the questions of: 1) how it is possible at the same time to take the critique of universality and objectivity seriously and still believe in the value of ethics and science; and, 2) how we are to understand emancipation if there is no necessary relationship between truth and freedom. The article investigates the status, meaning and interconnection of the categories of truth, knowledge, ethics, politics and emancipation in the light of the absence of metaphysical first principles. The article concludes that: A) faith can constitute a “weak foundation” of knowledge and ethics; and, B) nihilism can be combined with the political and ethical ambitions of universal human emancipation and radical democracy.

Materialities of Political Commitment?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Fearn
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives

Eschewing historicist certainties, this chapter reassesses the political salience of Alcaeus’ lyric poetry by investigating his literary contribution to sympotic culture. Placing Alcaeus’ politically engaged voices within recent theoretical perspectives on deixis, ecphrasis, and the distinctiveness of lyric as a literary mode, the chapter argues that Alcaeus makes a systematic issue of the question of the accessibility of the contexts gestured towards, and in so doing opens up as an alluring prospect the idea of political engagement through literature. The literary and cultural significance of proverbial statements in Alcaeus is also discussed. Alcaeus’ lyric claims are felt across time and space via their special foregrounding of both material culture and political engagement, through performance and reception.

scholarly journals THE PROTECTION OF THE RICH AGAINST THE POOR: THE POLITICS OF ADAM SMITH’S POLITICAL ECONOMY

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-158
Author(s):  
James A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
General Attitude ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Natural Forms ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Point Of Departure

AbstractMy point of departure in this essay is Smith’s definition of government. “Civil government,” he writes, “so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.” First I unpack Smith’s definition of government as the protection of the rich against the poor. I argue that, on Smith’s view, this is always part of what government is for. I then turn to the question of what, according to Smith, our governors can do to protect the wealth of the rich from the resentment of the poor. I consider, and reject, the idea that Smith might conceive of education as a means of alleviating the resentment of the poor at their poverty. I then describe how, in his lectures on jurisprudence, Smith refines and develops Hume’s taxonomy of the opinions upon which all government rests. The sense of allegiance to government, according to Smith, is shaped by instinctive deference to natural forms of authority as well as by rational, Whiggish considerations of utility. I argue that it is the principle of authority that provides the feelings of loyalty upon which government chiefly rests. It follows, I suggest, that to the extent that Smith looked to government to protect the property of the rich against the poor, and thereby to maintain the peace and stability of society at large, he cannot have sought to lessen the hold on ordinary people of natural sentiments of deference. In addition, I consider the implications of Smith’s theory of government for the question of his general attitude toward poverty. I argue against the view that Smith has recognizably “liberal,” progressive views of how the poor should be treated. Instead, I locate Smith in the political culture of the Whiggism of his day.

Towards the Socratic Mission: Imitatio Socratis

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-222
Author(s):  
Mathias G. Parding
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Climate ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Political Associations ◽  
The One ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
The Church

Abstract It is known that Kierkegaard’s relation to politics was problematic and marked by a somewhat reactionary stance. The nature of this problematic relation, however, will be shown to lie in the tension between his double skepticism of the order of establishment [det Bestående] on the one hand, and the political associations of his age on the other. In this tension he is immersed, trembling between Scylla and Charybdis. On the one hand Kierkegaard is hesitant to support the progressive political movements of the time due to his skepticism about the principle of association in the socio-psychological climate of leveling and envy. On the other hand, his dubious support of the order of the establishment, in particular the Church and Bishop Mynster, becomes increasingly problematic. The importance of 1848 is crucial in this regard since this year marks the decisive turn in Kierkegaard’s authorship. Using the letters to Kolderup-Rosenvinge in the wake of the cataclysmic events of 1848 as my point of departure, I wish to elucidate the pathway towards what Kierkegaard himself understands as his Socratic mission.

scholarly journals Constituent power and civil disobedience: Beyond the nation-state?

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E Scheuerman
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
Radical Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Constituent Power ◽  
Constitutional Politics ◽  
Proper Interpretation

Radical democratic political theorists have used the concept of constituent power to sketch ambitious models of radical democracy, while many legal scholars deploy it to make sense of the political and legal dynamics of constitutional politics. Its growing popularity notwithstanding, I argue that the concept tends to impede a proper interpretation of civil disobedience, conceived as nonviolent, politically motivated lawbreaking evincing basic respect for law. Contemporary theorists who employ it cannot distinguish between civil disobedience and other related, yet ultimately different, modes of political illegality (e.g. conscientious objection, resistance, revolution). The essay also examines Jürgen Habermas’ recent contributions to a theory of mixed or dualistic (postnational) constituent power, conceding that Habermas avoids many theoretical and political ills plaguing competing radical democratic theoretical retrievals. Nonetheless, Habermas’ attempt to salvage the idea of constituent power as part of his reformist agenda for the European Union not only breaks with his earlier understandable skepticism about the idea but also risks trimming the admirably ambitious sails of his radical democratic interpretation of civil disobedience.

scholarly journals Die dans van die Christen: Die genealogie van tyd en ruimte in ’n postmoderne samelewing

2002 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Buitendag
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Condition ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Jean Baudrillard ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Point Of Departure

The Christian dance: The genealogy of time and space in a postmodern societyThe point of departure of this article is the thesis that the understanding of reality is based on the concepts of time and space. In order to communicate the quintessence of postmodernism the concepts of time and space need to be deconstructed. After a brief intermezzo with physics, the article emphasises that the perspectival dimension is not fixed but in flux. Dancing, which expresses movement, is an apt metaphor for conveying the multifaceted character of postmodernism. The Genesis 1 account of creation is read from this perspective and inversely, society is looked at from this Biblical viewpoint in terms of the relationships between God, man and nature. The article concludes with an insight from Jean Baudrillard that simulations are not imitations of reality, but a widespread cultural condition and not an “event” restricted to particular technology.

The Intimacy of Belonging: Literacy and the Experience of Sunjata in Mali

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 103-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Local People ◽  
Historical Imagination ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Extensive Field ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

Literacy is a personally acquired skill, and the way it is taught to a person changes how that person thinks. Thanks to David Henige historians of Africa are much more aware of how literacy influences memory and historical imagination, and particularly how literacy systems introduce linear concepts of time and space. This essay will deal with these two aspects in relation to Africa's most famous epic: Sunjata. This epic has gained a major literary status worldwide—text editions are taught as part of undergraduate courses at universities all over the world—but there has been little extensive field research into the epic. The present essay focuses on an even less studied aspect of Sunjata, namely how Sunjata is experienced by local people.Central to my argument is an idea put forward by Peter Geschiere, who links the upheaval of autochthony claims in Africa (and beyond) to issues of citizenship and processes of exclusion. He analyzes these as the product of feelings of “belonging.” Geschiere argues that issues of belonging should be studied at a local level if we are to understand how individuals experience autochthony. Analytically, Geschiere proposes shifting away from ”identity” by drawing from Birgit Meyer's work ideas on the aesthetics of religious experience and emotion; Meyer's ideas are useful to explain “how some (religious) images can convince, while other do not.”

scholarly journals Mecanismos de representación y control social en dos sociedades coloniales: Filipinas y Vietnam en perspectiva comparadaPolitical representation and social control mechanisms in two colonial societies: the Spanish Philippines and French Indochina in comparative perspective

2017 ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
Juan Antonio Inarejos Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Local Power ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Siglo Xix ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Selection Of

RESUMENEn este artículo se plantea un análisis comparativo de los mecanismos de representación política y control social implantados en dos sociedades coloniales: las Filipinas españolas y la Indochina francesa. Este tema forma parte de una investigación más amplia centrada en la selección de las élites locales filipinas durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX y los proyectos de reforma de los sistemas de representación local vietnamita bajo dominio colonial francés. Se trazan en clave comparativa las principales similitudes y diferencias con los mecanismos de representación y control social desplegados en ambos escenarios, aspectos claves a la hora de comprender las razones que determinaron el final de ambas experiencias coloniales en el sudeste asiático.PALABRAS CLAVE: Filipinas, Indochina, colonialismo, elecciones locales, podermunicipal.ABSTRACTThis study presents a comparative analysis of the political representation and socialcontrol implemented in two colonial societies: the Spanish Philippines and French Indochina. This topic is part of a broader study focused on the selection of the native elite in the Spanish Philippines in the nineteenth century and on the projects to reform local representation in French Indochina. The main similarities and differences in the representation and social control mechanisms in both scenarios are described as they are key aspects when it comes to understanding the end of these two colonial experiences in South East Asia. This diverse tool kit included the political use of productive resources, individual conduct reports, the development of clientelist networks, the manipulation of religious beliefs, abuse and repression.KEY WORDS: Philippines, Indochina, colonialism, municipal elections, local power.

scholarly journals Mapping the history of codification

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 485-508
Author(s):  
Jean Louis Halpérin
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
New States ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Civil Codes ◽  
Point Of Departure

Bentham has defended the idea of a general codification as a “map of the law” that could allow the comparison between the laws of different nations. This essay aims to use this relationship about the ideas of codifying the law and mapping the laws to think about the possibility of mapping the history of codification, taking as its point of departure the writing specialized codes - not only the civil codes. Mapping can be a means to deal with the relationships between the countries adopting a code, the opportunity to consider the relationships between the codes and the creation of new States, the national processes of unification, the adoption, the political and social revolutions and ruptures. Also, it will try to make correspondences between these phenomena in order to construct tables that could be represented through future maps.

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