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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > Liberalism & centre democratic ideologies
Liberalism forms the dominant political ideology of the modern world, but despite its pervasive influence, this is the first book-length treatment of liberal political thought from a Christian theological perspective. Song discusses the different aspects and interpretations of liberalism with reference to the critiques of three twentieth-century theologians: the American Protestant Reinhold Niebuhr on the liberal progressivist philosophy of history; the lesser-known Canadian George Grant on the threat of technology to fundamental liberal values, as articulated in the recent work of John Rawls; and the French Thomist Jacques Maritain on the defence of political pluralism. Further to this, Song explores the implications of this political theology for the issues in fundamental constitutional theory raised by a bill of rights and judicial review of legislation, and concludes with an account of the critical but supportive stance of liberalism Christian theology should take.
The Labour Party has been using marketing longer than is commonly realised. Leading figures like Morrison, Snowden, Webb, Gaitskell, Benn and Wilson were among those who recognized the importance of imagery and symbolic communication long before the time of Kinnock, Mandelson and Blair. Politics of Marketing the Labour Party traces how the party's political campaigning has developed since its birth and how the increasing use of marketing contributed to the radical restructuring of both the organization and its policies.
England's Discontents unpacks the genealogy of British identities over the last two hundred years as they have been shaped by the main political cultures and their interactions with cultural politics. Conservatism, social liberalism, economic liberalism, social democracy and socialism in partnership and conflict, have forged different models of national belonging and identity. Wayne draws on Gramsci's work to reassess debates about Britishness and renew Gramsci's relevance to understanding our contemporary discontents. In doing so, he reveals that England's enduring attachment to economic liberalism is in danger of eroding all other political cultures, even conservatism, liberalism and the British state.
Over the past thirty years, western political philosophy has been enriched by a renewed interest in liberalism, and by the development of feminism. Although liberalism is one of the important historical roots of feminism, many contemporary feminist political philosophers reject liberal political theory. Indeed, that liberalism and feminism are incompatible has been the dominant view among feminist scholars over the past 30 years. Varieties of Feminist Liberalism is a groundbreaking collection that examines the relationship between these two rich normative traditions. The essays in this volume present versions of feminism that are explicitly liberal, or versions of liberalism that are explicitly feminist. By bringing together some of the most respected and well-known scholars in mainstream political philosophy today, Amy R. Baehr challenges the reader to reconsider the dominant view that liberalism and feminism are 'incompatible.' This long overdue volume is the first to bring together papers by feminist liberals and to aim explicitly at reconciling feminism and liberalism.
Liberal theory seeks agreement on political principles in spite of the moral, religious, and philosophical diversity of contemporary societies. Democratic Procedures and Liberal Consensus breaks new ground in developing principles from research on liberal citizen's attitudes towards rights and liberties, distributive justice, and religious beliefs. Because liberal citizens do not generally accept strong individual rights or strongly egalitarian principles of distributive justice, the principles of liberal consensus must be based on almost universal support for democratic political systems and democracy as a value. The details of central liberal principles, including those bearing on democracy itself, must be worked out by appropriate democratic procedures.
"The Politics of Hope" and "The Bitter Heritage" brings together two important books that bracket the tempestuous politics of 1960s America. In "The Politics of Hope," which historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., published in 1963 while serving as a special assistant to President Kennedy, Schlesinger defines the liberalism that characterized the Kennedy administration and the optimistic early Sixties. In lively and incisive essays, most of them written between 1956 and 1960, on topics such as the basic differences underlying liberal and conservative politics, the writing of history, and the experience of Communist countries, Schlesinger emphasizes the liberal thinker's responsibility to abide by goals rather than dogma, to learn from history, and to look to the future. Four years later, following Kennedy's assassination and the escalation of America's involvement in Vietnam, Schlesinger's tone changes. In "The Bitter Heritage," a brief but penetrating appraisal of the "war that nobody wanted," he recounts America's entry into Vietnam, the history of the war, and its policy implications. "The Bitter Heritage" concludes with an eloquent and sobering assessment of the war's threat to American democracy and a reflection on the lessons or legacies of the Vietman conflict. With a new foreword by Sean Wilentz, the James Madison Library edition of "The Politics of Hope" and "The Bitter Heritage" situates liberalism in the convulsive 1960s--and illuminates the challenges that still face liberalism today.
Liberalism under Siege: The Political Thought of the French Doctrinaries is a compelling examination of the French Doctrinaries, a largely neglected group of liberal thinkers in post-revolutionary France who were proponents of a nuanced sociological and historical approach to political theory. The first systematic interpretation of the French Doctrinaries' political writings to appear in English, Liberalism under Siege combines textual analysis and historical interpretation to explore the Doctrinaires' ideas on the French Revolution, democracy, political power, sovereignty of reason, publicity, capacity, and representative government. Aurelian Craiutu's detailed work is not only an argument for the reappraisal of the Bourbon Restoration as a golden age of political thought; it is also a passionate and persuasive addition to contemporary debates about the diversity of liberalism.
"Where do new policy ideas come from? In this important book, Kurt Weyland provides an answer that satisfies both theory and practice; his findings cross disciplinary boundaries with aplomb, insight, and superb analysis of policy decision-making."--Merilee S. Grindle, Harvard University "This is a very innovative and fruitful work that accounts better than other approaches for the crucial economic policy decisions studied by Weyland."--Guillermo O'Donnell, University of Notre Dame "This book contains a highly innovative perspective for understanding how policymaking takes place in Latin America. The use of models of bounded rationality, applied to a remarkably vast base of empirical information, provides provocative insights into how particular policies are adopted and how the real elements of rationality that intervene in such adoption are constrained by a series of cognitive factors. This work should become a source of reflection for both national policymakers and the staff of international organizations."--Juan Carlos Navarro, Inter-American Development Bank "This outstanding book will have a major impact on comparative politics, since it provides a comprehensive defense of the bounded rationality perspective and applies it carefully to explain patterns in the diffusion of pension and health reform in Latin America."--Mitchell Orenstein, Syracuse University "Well organized and well written, this book makes two broad contributions to our understanding of the diffusion of social sector policies, and more generally to the comparative politics of public policy. First, in a valuable commentary on previous research, it demonstrates convincingly that some of the theories andgeneralizations in the literature are frequently overstated. Second, and quite originally, it offers an alternative conception of the process of policy choice."--Joan M. Nelson, Princeton University
Liberalism at the Crossroads offers succinct, accessible, and well-written surveys of the ideas of the leading participants in the contemporary philosophical debate about liberalism. Christopher Wolfe brings together analyses of leading liberal thinkers from across the spectrum as well as influential critics of liberalism, including John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Robert Nozick, Michael Sandel, Richard Rorty, Joseph Raz, and William Galston. For the second edition, each chapter has been thoroughly revised, and new chapters on Susan Moller Okin, Richard Posner, and John Finnis have been added to include representatives of liberal feminism, law and economics, and natural law. The result is an invaluable overview of contemporary political theory, ideal for both students and scholars.
Over the past twenty years, the debate between neutrality and perfectionism has been at the center of political philosophy. Now Perfectionism and Neutrality: Essays in Liberal Theory brings together classic papers and new ideas on both sides of the discussion. Editors George Klosko and Steven Wall provide a substantive introduction to the history and theories of perfectionism and neutrality, expertly contextualizing the essays and making the collection accessible to everyone interested in the interaction between morals and the state.
This book is a collection of eleven essays by one of the most interesting moral philosophers currently writing. It examines challenges to liberal thought posed by the changing circumstances of the modern world such as the conflicting tendencies toward global integration, and greater ethnic and communal identification. The author considers whether liberal principles of justice can accommodate social and global interdependencies while reaffirming the importance of individual responsibility and acknowledging the significance of people's diverse personal and communal allegiances.
Piety, Politics, and Pluralism skillfully confronts the question: Is liberal democracy hostile to religion or is it compatible with the rights of believers? Prominent scholars analyze the controversy about religious freedom by examining two areas at the intersection of religion and politics in contemporary American society: the Supreme Court's 1990 decision in Oregon v. Smith and the events of the 2000 presidential campaign. Their essays remind us that in an increasingly pluralistic society, Americans must work continually to reconcile religious commitment and political obligation. Piety, Politics, and Pluralism is a groundbreaking work that will be indispensable to students of religion and politics, American politics, and constitutional law.
Why do men and women sometimes risk everything to defend their liberties? What motivates principled opposition to the abuse of power? In "Liberalism with Honor," Sharon Krause explores honor as a motive for risky and difficult forms of political action. She shows the sense of honor to be an important source of such action and a spring of individual agency more generally. Krause traces the genealogy of honor, including its ties to conscientious objection and civil disobedience, beginning in old-regime France and culminating in the American civil rights movement. She examines the dangers intrinsic to honor and the tensions between honor and modern democracy, but demonstrates that the sense of honor has supported political agency in the United States from the founders to democratic reformers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Martin Luther King, Jr. Honor continues to hold interest and importance today because it combines self-concern and personal ambition with principled higher purposes, and so challenges the disabling dichotomy between self-interest and self-sacrifice that currently pervades both political theory and American public life.
The Communitarian Movement asserts that America and other Western societies overemphasize individual rights and underemphasize collective responsibilities. In the debate between the importance of individual and community rights The New Golden Rule by Amitai Etzioni, one of the movement's founders, has emerged at the theoretical cutting edge of Commitarianism's challenge. This anthology of original essays by prominent political scientists, philosophers, and sociologists systematically advances our understanding of the movement's agenda. Using The New Golden Rule as the guidepost for organizing 'conversations, ' the essays are structured around key questions that spring from Communitarian tenets. Although Amitai Etzioni's book provides the collection's framework, contributors have criticized, modified, or augmented his positions as they saw fit.
In this new edited volume by Will Kymlicka, leading scholars of multicultural issues examine questions related to multiculturalism and citizenship. Most modern democracies contain significant minority groups whose language, religion, or ethnicity differs from those of the majority. Is it possible in such societies to accommodate these forms of diversity without weakening the bonds of common citizenship? In this volume, distinguished scholars explore this question by looking at concrete issues where the demands of citizenship and diversity often clash.
In this unique volume, some of today's most eminent political philosophers examine the thought of John Rawls, focusing in particular on his most recent work. These original essays explore diverse issues, including the problem of pluralism, the relationship between constitutive commitment and liberal institutions, just treatment of dissident minorities, the constitutional implications of liberalism, international relations, and the structure of international law. The first comprehensive study of Rawls's recent work, The Idea of Political Liberalism will be indispensable for political philosophers and theorists interested in contemporary political thought.
Highlighting the social tensions that confront the liberal tradition, Pierre Manent draws a portrait of what we, citizens of modern liberal democracies, have become. For Manent, a discussion of liberalism encompasses the foundations of modern society, its secularism, its individualism, and its conception of rights. The frequent incapacity of the morally neutral, democratic state to further social causes, he argues, derives from the liberal stance that political life does not serve a higher purpose. Through quick-moving, highly synthetic essays, he explores the development of liberal thinking in terms of a single theme: the decline of theological politics. The author traces the liberal stance to Machiavelli, who, in seeking to divorce everyday life from the pervasive influence of the Catholic church, separated politics from all notions of a cosmological order. What followed, as Manent demonstrates in his analyses of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Guizot, and Constant, was the evolving concept of an individual with no goals outside the confines of the self and a state with no purpose but to prevent individuals from dominating one another. Weighing both the positive and negative effects of such a political arrangement, Manent raises important questions about the fundamental political issues of the day, among them the possibility of individual rights being reconciled with the necessary demands of political organization, and the desirability of a government system neutral about religion but not about public morals.
Based on in-depth research in Poland and Slovakia, DomesticatingNeo-Liberalism addresses how we understand the processes ofneo-liberalization in post-socialist cities. * Builds upon a vast amount of new research data * Examines how households try to sustain their livelihoods atparticularly dramatic and difficult times of urbantransformation * Provides a major contribution to how we theorize thegeographies of neo-liberalism * Offers a conclusion which informs discussions of social policywithin European Union enlargement
Demonstrating that "liberal Islam" is not a contradiction in terms, this anthology presents the translated work of 33 Muslims concerned with the separation of church and state, democracy, the condition of women, the rights of minorities, freedom of thought, and the future of human progress.
Richard Hiskes explores the connection between technological risk and basic concepts of liberal political theory and practice. Arguing that modern risks are emergent and therefore not reducible to individual actors or events, he demonstrates how risks challenge the most basic concepts of liberal theory and politics, including the ideas of consent, authority, rights, and responsibility. He claims that a communitarian conception of politics is best suited to the creation of policy on issues of technological risk, because of the collective nature of the risks in question.
In Our Only Star and Compass: Locke and the Struggle for Political Rationality, Peter C. Myers reexamines the role of Locke in liberal political philosophy. Myers considers Locke's philosophy in relation both to contemporary liberalism and to the great works of classical and modern political philosophy. With an emphasis on the human capacity for rational self-government, Myers clarifies Locke's insights into the status of reason in political life, arguing that Locke presents reason as a way of life that offers humans fulfillment, and moral and political moderation.
A prodigiously brilliant thinker who sharply challenged the beliefs of his age, the political and social radical John Stuart Mill was the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century. Regarded as one of the sacred texts of liberalism, his great work On Liberty argues lucidly that any democracy risks becoming a 'tyranny of opinion' in which minority views are suppressed if they do not conform with those of the majority. Written in the same period as On Liberty, shortly after the death of Mill's beloved wife and fellow-thinker Harriet, The Subjection of Women stresses the importance of equality for the sexes. Together, the works provide a fascinating testimony to the hopes and anxieties of mid-Victorian England, and offer a compelling consideration of what it truly means to be free.
Neoliberalism - the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action - has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so. Its spread has depended upon a reconstitution of state powers such that privatization, finance, and market processes are emphasized. State interventions in the economy are minimized, while the obligations of the state to provide for the welfare of its citizens are diminished. David Harvey, author of 'The New Imperialism' and 'The Condition of Postmodernity', here tells the political-economic story of where neoliberalization came from and how it proliferated on the world stage. While Thatcher and Reagan are often cited as primary authors of this neoliberal turn, Harvey shows how a complex of forces, from Chile to China and from New York City to Mexico City, have also played their part. In addition he explores the continuities and contrasts between neoliberalism of the Clinton sort and the recent turn towards neoconservative imperialism of George W. Bush. Finally, through critical engagement with this history, Harvey constructs a framework not only for analyzing the political and economic dangers that now surround us, but also for assessing the prospects for the more socially just alternatives being advocated by many oppositional movements.
The New Deal established the contours and character of modern American democracy. It created an anchor and a reference point for American liberal politics through the struggles for racial, gender, and economic equality in the five decades that followed it. Indeed, the ways that liberalism has changed in meaning since the New Deal provide a critical prism through which to understand twentieth-century politics. From the consensus liberalism of the war years to the strident liberalism of the sixties to the besieged liberalism of the eighties and through the more recent national debates about welfare reform and Social Security privatization, the prominent historians gathered here explore the convoluted history of the complex legacy of the New Deal and its continuing effect on the present. In its scope and variety of subjects, this book reflects the protean quality of American liberalism. Alan Brinkley focuses on the range of choices New Dealers faced. Alonzo Hamby traces the Democratic Party's evolving effort to incorporate New Deal traditions in the Cold War era. Richard Fried offers a fresh look at the impact of McCarthyism. Richard Polenberg situates Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, in a tradition of liberal thought. And Melvin Urosfsky shows how the Roosevelt Court set the legal dimensions within which the debate about the meaning of liberalism would be conducted for decades. Other subjects include the effect of the Holocaust on relations between American Jews and African Americans; the limiting effects of racial and gender attitudes on the potential for meaningful reform; and the lasting repercussions of the tumultuous 1960s. Provocative, illuminating and sure to raise questions for future study, "The Achievement of American Liberalism" testifies to a vibrant and vital field of inquiry.
The 1980s in Latin America saw the implementation of a sweeping programme of economic reforms, either imposed as a condition for securing new loans or to embrace the neoliberal doctrine of structural adjustment, the ideology of a newly formed transnational capitalist class. However, the structural adjustment programme also generated widespread resistance, especially from within the popular sector of civil society. This book analyses both the politics of the adjustment process and the political dynamics of this resistance in Latin America. |
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