Explores the relationship between sexuality and politics in Britain's recent political past. Includes four case studies to illustrate the arguments made. Important contribution to the understandings of sexuality, identity and inequalities, as well as of crisis and neoliberalism.

1. The concept of social harm is gaining in ground in Criminology as an alternative way of reconceptualizing crime within a wider context. This book offers a major intervention in taking stock of the field and suggesting ways forward. 2. This book would certainly be used as supplementary reading across a number of courses in criminological and social theory, as well as upper level courses on social problems and advanced criminological theory. 3. This book is multi-disciplinary, moving beyond criminology to consider liberal political economic theory and moral philosophy.

This book, first published in 1987, aims to characterise and identify the intellectual heritage of the proponents of the libertarian tradition. To set this within a theoretical framework, these ideas will be examined by using the pragmatic and conceptual formulations of freedom and authority, two notions which are central to any understanding of political philosophy in the nineteenth and twentieth century. This title will be of interest to students of history, philosophy and politics.

The origins, consequences and limitations of an ideology that has quickly become highly influential around the world. For much of their history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. It is no surprise then that many who passionately believe in social justice have come to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity if they are to resist injustice. But over the past decades, a healthy appreciation for the culture and heritage of minorities has transformed into an obsession with group identity in all its forms. A new ideology - which Yascha Mounk terms the 'identity synthesis' - seeks to put each citizen's matrix of identities at the heart of social, cultural and political life. This, he argues, is The Identity Trap. Mounk traces the intellectual origin of these ideas. He tells the story of how they were able to win tremendous power over the past decade. And he makes a nuanced case why their application to areas from education to public policy is proving to be deeply counterproductive. In his passionate plea for universalism and humanism, he argues that the proponents of identitarian ideas will, though they may be full of good intentions, make it harder to achieve progress towards genuine equality.

First published in 1921, Gilbert Murray's treatise considers a largely euro-centric foreign policy during the inter-war period. Believing passionately in the prospect of a Liberal England and the hope promised by the League of Nations, with Britain at its centre, Murray argues that a secure future can only be obtained through 'equal law, good government and good faith'. Concentrating on a number of country-based studies, the main focus is on how to avoid the causes of international war; Murray supports the International Financial Commission's recommendation that this could be partly achieved through disarmament and freedom of trade. This is a fascinating title that will be of particular value to history students researching the inter-war period and the League of Nations.

First published in 1985, The Subject of Tragedy takes the drama of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as the starting point for an analysis of the differential identities of man and woman. Catherine Belsey charts, in a range of fictional and non-fictional texts, the production in the Renaissance of a meaning for subjectivity that is identifiably modern. The subject of liberal humanism - self-determining, free origin of language, choice and action - is highlighted as the product of a specific period in which man was the subject to which woman was related.

Obligations: New Trajectories in Law provides a critical analysis of the role of obligations in contemporary legal and social practices. As rights have become the preeminent feature of modern political and legal discourse, the work of obligations has been overshadowed. Questioning and correcting this dominant image of our time, this book brings obligations back into view in a way that fits better with the realities of contemporary social life. Following a historical account of the changing place and priorities of obligations in modernity, the book analyses how obligations and practices of obedience are core to understanding how law sustains conditions of inequality. But it also explores the enduring role obligations play in furthering individual and collective well-being, highlighting their significance in practices that prioritize human and environmental needs, common goods, and solidarity. In doing so, it also offers an alternative and cogent assessment of the force, and the potential, of obligations in contemporary societies. This original jurisprudential contribution will appeal to an academic and student readership in law, politics, and the social sciences.

In this timely book, leading scholars of neoliberalism, together with emerging researchers from a range of intellectual traditions, reflect upon the nature of neoliberalism in light of the recent and ongoing global financial crisis. What emerges is an enlightening picture of the diversity of neoliberalism. The complex relationships between theory and practice are highlighted as the contributors recognize the need to move beyond the commonplace notion that neoliberalism is simply a system of free markets. Topical chapters examine the implications of the current crisis for neoliberalism, the likelihood of alternatives and how these might arise. Presenting a range of different theoretical approaches to understanding neoliberalism, this book will appeal to academics in the fields of political economy, political science, public policy, human geography, international studies, sociology and regulation studies. Graduate and senior undergraduate students in these fields will also find much to interest them. Contributors: N. Brenner, D. Cahill, L. Chester, M. Dean, G. Dumenil, B. Dunn, L. Edwards, J.E. King, M. Konings, D. Levy, J. Mikler, J. Paton, J. Peck, B. Spies-Butcher, F. Stilwell, N. Theodore, E. Thurbon

This book explores the relationship between different versions of liberalism and toleration by focusing on their shared theoretical and political challenges. Toleration is among the most pivotal and the most contested liberal values and virtues. Debates about the conceptual scope, justification, and political role of toleration are closely aligned with historical and contemporary philosophical controversies on the foundations of liberalism. The essays in this volume focus on the specific connection between toleration and liberalism. The essays in Part I reconstruct some of the major historical controversies surrounding toleration and liberalism. Part II centers on general conceptual and justificatory questions concerning toleration as a central category for the definition of liberal political theory. Part III is devoted to the theoretical analysis of applied issues and cases of conflicts of toleration in liberal states and societies. Toleration and the Challenges to Liberalism will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in social and political philosophy, ethics, and political theory.

Caring for Liberalism brings together chapters that explore how liberal political theory, in its many guises, might be modified or transformed to take the fact of dependency on board. In addressing the place of care in liberalism, this collection advances the idea that care ethics can help respond to legitimate criticisms from feminists who argue that liberalism ignores issues of race, class, and ethnicity. The chapters do not simply add care to existing liberal political frameworks; rather, they explore how integrating dependency might leave core components of the traditional liberal philosophical apparatus intact, while transforming other aspects of it. Additionally, the contributors address the design of social and political institutions through which care is given and received, with special attention paid to non-Western care practices. This book will appeal to scholars working on liberalism in philosophy, political science, law, and public policy, and it is a must-read for feminist political philosophers.

First published in 1921, Gilbert Murray's treatise considers a largely euro-centric foreign policy during the inter-war period. Believing passionately in the prospect of a Liberal England and the hope promised by the League of Nations, with Britain at its centre, Murray argues that a secure future can only be obtained through 'equal law, good government and good faith'. Concentrating on a number of country-based studies, the main focus is on how to avoid the causes of international war; Murray supports the International Financial Commission's recommendation that this could be partly achieved through disarmament and freedom of trade. This is a fascinating title that will be of particular value to history students researching the inter-war period and the League of Nations.

Illiberalism and authoritarianism have become major threats to democracy across the world. In response to this development, research on the causes and processes of democratic declines has blossomed. Much less scholarly attention has been devoted to the issue of democratic resilience. Why are some democracies more resilient than others to the current trend of autocratization? What role do institutions, actors and structural factors play in this regard? What options do democratic actors have to address illiberal and authoritarian challenges? This book addresses all these questions. The present introduction sets the stage by developing a new concept of democratic resilience as the ability of a democratic system, its institutions, political actors, and citizens to prevent or react to external and internal challenges, stresses, and assaults. The book posits three potential reactions of democratic regimes: to withstand without changes, to adapt through internal changes, and to recover without losing the democratic character of its regime and its constitutive core institutions, organizations, and processes. The more democracies are resilient on all four levels of the political system (political community, institutions, actors, citizens) the less vulnerable they turn out to be in the present and future. This edited volume will be of great value to students, academics, and researchers interested in politics, political regimes and theories, democracy and democratization, autocracy and autocratization, polarization, social democracy, and comparative government. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Democratization.

First published in 1917, Democracy After the War considers the challenges faced in the development of liberal democracy. Hobson emphasises the power of reactionary forces and their ability to hold back progress, reiterating his view that the crux of the problem lies in the inequalities in income and wealth which led to imperialism. Through analysing the economic foundations of imperialist conflicts, Hobson comes to the conclusion that the success of democracy rests on the recognised importance of personal liberty.

This work examines ideas about the role of law and legal reform in the creation of market economies, focusing on the process of post communist transition in Russia. Processes of transition in Russia were guided by a set of very specific neoliberal ideas about the nature of markets and capitalism, about the role of law and the primacy of the economic over the legal and political. These ideas however have come under fire as a result of the Russian experience of transition and the serious problems encountered by reforms. This led to a revision of the original neoliberal ideas, not least concerning the role of law and its relationship to the economic and the political. The result has been the emergence of a much more complex body of ideas about the role law plays in economic transformation. This book aims to close a gap in the literature on post communist transition by offering a theoretical interpretation of Russia's experience which makes transition reform models comparable to development reform models. Focusing on the role of law and the relationship of economic priorities to law reform, this work offers a critical evaluation of currently dominant theories of economic and legal reform put to use in varied transition and development scenarios. In looking at the ideas which directed and animated reform in Russia, an enquiry is thus made into the wider relationship between democracy, regulation and the market in contemporary capitalism. Neoliberalism and the Law in Post Communist Transition will equip scholars and students of development studies, law, political economy and international economics with a critical guide to transition focused on the often neglected legal aspect of the reforms.

Modern psychological and political theory meet head-on in this powerful re-evaluation of America's contradictory and sometimes dangerous addiction to individualism. Best-selling author Gaylin and co-author Jennings investigate the contentious intersections of interdependence and autonomy, rights and public responsibility. They examine the painful abrasion occurring between America's tradition of personal freedom and privacy, as it rubs against the still valuable if almost vanishing ideals of sacrifice and social order.

Our current culture of autonomy -- championed by both liberals on the left and libertarians on the right -- is based on the idea of rationality as the motivation for human conduct. But, as the authors remind us, people are not simply rational creatures -- appeals to emotions are always far more effective than logical argument in changing our behavior.

This timely edition includes a new preface; updated examples and illustrations throughout; and new coverage of contemporary social critics and their work since the publication of the first edition. Two essential new chapters, one on the movement to forgo life-sustaining treatment and the other on physician-assisted suicide, particularly clarify the authors' arguments. Drawing on these and numerous other illustrations -- with significant emphasis on the state of American health care -- Gaylin and Jennings demonstrate that society has not just the right but the "duty" to occasionally invoke fear, shame, and guilt in order to motivate humane behavior.

As cases of AIDS are once again on the upswing, as the dangerously mentally ill are allowed to wander free and untreated, as starvation and poverty still hold too many in its grip in the richest nation on the planet, this controversial book, considerably revised and expanded, is needed more than ever. If we are to indeed preserve and nurture a genuinely free -- and liberal -- society, the authors suggest that these "coercions" may be essential for the health and the maturity of a nation where we all too often avert our eyes, not seeing that our neighbor is in pain or trouble and needs our help.

Can, and should, liberalism make itself hospitable to a politics which does justice to climate change? To what extent are the values, methods, and assumptions of liberalism adaptable to the challenges raised? Liberal thinking - broadly construed - may dominate the Academy and the political landscape. Are the environmental priorities that are thrown into relief by climate change a threat to it, or are they an opportunity for it to show its worth? This book explores fresh arguments by leading scholars, both of whom are sceptical of liberalism's capacity to meet these challenges, and sympathetic to the project of developing liberal values so as to create a liberal approach that can deliver climate change justice. The chapters appeal to new insights and considerations reveal the complexity of the issues at stake in the real world of climate change politics. They make the political theory of climate change justice available to decision-makers whose practice will determine whether we achieve it. This book was previously published as a special issue of Critical Review of International Social and Political Economy.

First published in 1911, this pioneering and ambitious work provides a history of the evolution of republican thought and practice in Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the twentieth century.

Based a series of lectures delivered by the author at Lowell Institute in 1910, this is a comprehensive treatment of the subject which moves deftly from the political thought of the middle ages through to the rise of Protestantism, the wave of revolution across Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, concluding with an analysis of the republican cause and the permanence of the Republican idea in the consciousness of Europe.

Comprising essays by Michael W. Doyle, Liberal Peace examines the special significance of liberalism for international relations.

The volume begins by outlining the two legacies of liberalism in international relations - how and why liberal states have maintained peace among themselves while at the same time being prone to making war against non-liberal states. Exploring policy implications, the author focuses on the strategic value of the inter-liberal democratic community and how it can be protected, preserved, and enlarged, and whether liberals can go beyond a separate peace to a more integrated global democracy. Finally, the volume considers when force should and should not be used to promote national security and human security across borders, and argues against President George W. Bush 's policy of "transformative" interventions. The concluding essay engages with scholarly critics of the liberal democratic peace.

This book will be of great interest to students of international relations, foreign policy, political philosophy, and security studies.

A Democracy That Works argues that rather than corporate donations, Republican gerrymandering and media manipulation, the conservative ascendancy reflects the reconstruction of the rules that govern work that has disempowered workers. Using six historical case studies from the emergence of the New Deal, and its later overtaking by the conservative neoliberal agenda, to today's intersectional social justice movements, Stephen Amberg deploys situated institutional analysis to show how real actors created the rules that empowered liberal democracy for 50 years and then how Democrats and Republicans undermined democracy by changing those rules, thereby organizing working-class people out of American politics. He draws on multidisciplinary studies to argue that when employees are organized to participate at work, they are also organized to participate in politics to press for accountable government. In doing so, the book opens up analytical space to understand the unprecedented threat to liberal democracy in the U.S. A Democracy That Works is a fresh account of the crisis of democracy that illuminates how historical choices about the role of workers in the polity shaped America's liberal democracy during the 20th century. It will appeal to scholars of American politics and American political development, labor and social movements, democracy and comparative politics.

Liberalisms, a work first published in 1989, provides a coherent and comprehensive analytical guide to liberal thinking over the past century and considers the dominance of liberal thought in Anglo-American political philosophy over the past 20 years. John Gray assesses the work of all the major liberal political philosophers including J. S. Mill, Herbert Spencer, Karl Popper, F. A Hayek, John Rawls and Robert Nozick, and explores their mutual connections and differences.

Adam Smith (1723-1790) is widely regarded as one of the great thinkers of the Enlightenment period. Best-known for his founding work of economics, The Wealth of Nations, Smith engaged equally with the nature of morality in his Theory of Moral Sentiments. He also gave lectures on literature and jurisprudence, and wrote papers on art and science. In this outstanding philosophical introduction Samuel Fleischacker argues that Smith is a superb example of the broadly curious thinkers who flourished in the Enlightenment-for whom morality, politics, law, and economics were just a few of the many fascinating subjects that could be illuminated by naturalistic modes of investigation. After a helpful overview of his life and work, Fleischacker examines the full range of Smith's thought, on such subjects as: epistemology, philosophy of science, and aesthetics the nature of sympathy moral approval and moral judgement virtue religion justice and jurisprudence governmental policy economic principles liberalism. Including chapter summaries, suggestions for further reading, and a glossary, Adam Smith is essential reading for those studying ethics, political philosophy, the history of philosophy, and the Enlightenment, as well as those reading Smith in related disciplines such as economics, law, and religion.

Capitalism and Inequality rejects the popular view that attributes the recent surge in inequality to a failure of market institutions. Bringing together new and original research from established scholars, it analyzes the inequality inherent in a free market from an economic and historical perspective. In the process, the question of whether the recent increase in inequality is the result of crony capitalism and government intervention is explored in depth. The book features sections on theoretical perspectives on inequality, the political economy of inequality, and the measurement of inequality. Chapters explore several key questions such as the difference between the effects of market-driven inequality and the inequality caused by government intervention; how the inequality created by regulation affects those who are less well-off; and whether the economic growth that accompanies market-driven inequality always benefits an elite minority while leaving the vast majority behind. The main policy conclusions that emerge from this analysis depart from those that are currently popular. The authors in this book argue that increasing the role of markets and reducing the extent of regulation is the best way to lower inequality while ensuring greater material well-being for all sections of society. This key text makes an invaluable contribution to the literature on inequality and markets and is essential reading for students, scholars, and policymakers.

Updated for Obama's last year in office, the liberal syndicated radio and television host Bill Press reflects on how the Obama administration has failed and disillusioned the American left. The bestselling liberal syndicated radio and television host Bill Press turns a critical eye on Barack Obama and assesses why his performance as president on issues liberals care deeply about has failed the American left. Press argues efficiently that Obama may have drawn the wrong lessons from the enthusiastic crowds that swarmed around him on the campaign trail in 2008--instead of seeing the potential and desire for a stronger progressivism, Obama tried to rise above and unite the parties. The tragedy of the Obama presidency is that, by trying to be the first "post-partisan" president, he ended up being one of the weakest. On issues as far ranging as gun safety to health care to foreign policy, Obama has let voters down by simply not doing enough or taking the wrong actions. As Press describes it, liberals began the Obama presidency with high hopes, and they now near its end with deep disappointment and a sense of buyer's remorse.

This book argues that principles are only a limited guide to dissent in unique, contingent circumstances. There are times when we need to accommodate the dreadfulness of loss for opponents, even when the cause for which they fight is unjust. We may also have to come to terms with the irreversibility of historic injustice and reconcile.

This book examines China's process of democratic transition, and the role of state and society in this process.