Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > Liberalism & centre democratic ideologies
Neoliberalism: The Key Concepts provides a critical guide to a vocabulary that has become globally dominant over the past forty years. The language of neoliberalism both constructs and expresses a particular vision of economics, politics, and everyday life. Some find this vision to be appealing, but many others find the contents and implications of neoliberalism to be alarming. Despite the popularity of these concepts, they often remain confusing, the product of contested histories, meanings, and practices. In an accessible way, this interdisciplinary resource explores and dissects key terms such as: Capitalism Choice Competition Entrepreneurship Finance Flexibility Freedom Governance Market Reform Stakeholder State Complete with an introductory essay, cross-referencing, and an extensive bibliography, this book provides a unique and insightful introduction to the study of neoliberalism in all its forms and disguises.
In this definitive historical investigation, Italian author and philosopher Domenico Losurdo argues that from the outset liberalism, as a philosophical position and ideology, has been bound up with the most illiberal of policies: slavery, colonialism, genocide, racism and snobbery. Narrating an intellectual history running from the eighteenth through to the twentieth centuries, Losurdo examines the thought of preeminent liberal writers such as Locke, Burke, Tocqueville, Constant, Bentham, and Sieyes, revealing the inner contradictions of an intellectual position that has exercised a formative influence on today's politics. Among the dominant strains of liberalism, he discerns the counter-currents of more radical positions, lost in the constitution of the modern world order.
This book examines the impact of neoliberalism on society, bringing to the forefront a discussion of violence and harm, the inherent inequalities of neoliberalism and the ways in which our everyday lives in the Global North reproduce and facilitate this violence and harm. Drawing on a range of contemporary topics such as state violence, the carceral state, patriarchy, toxic masculinity, death, sports and entertainment, this book unmasks the banal forms of violence and harm that are a routine part of life that usurp, commodify and consume to reify the existing status quo of harm and inequality. It aims to defamiliarize routine forms of violence and inequality, thereby highlighting our own participation in its perpetuation, though consumerism and the consumption of neoliberal dogma. It is essential reading for students across criminology, sociology and political philosophy, particularly those engaged with crimes of the powerful, state crime and social harm.
Like American politics, the academic debate over justice is polarized, with almost all theories of justice falling within one of two traditions: egalitarianism and libertarianism. This book provides an alternative to the partisan standoff by focusing not on equality or liberty, but on the idea that we should give people the things that they deserve. Mulligan sets forth a theory of economic justice-meritocracy-which rests upon a desert principle and is distinctive from existing work in two ways. First, meritocracy is grounded in empirical research on how human beings think, intuitively, about justice. Research in social psychology and experimental economics reveals that people simply don't think that social goods should be distributed equally, nor do they dismiss the idea of social justice. Across ideological and cultural lines, people believe that rewards should reflect merit. Second, the book discusses hot-button political issues and makes concrete policy recommendations. These issues include anti-meritocratic bias against women and racial minorities and the United States' widening economic inequality. Justice and the Meritocratic State offers a new theory of justice and provides solutions to our most vexing social and economic problems. It will be of keen interest to philosophers, economists, and political theorists.
This book examines the multiple ways that popular media mainstream and reinforce neoliberal ideology, exposing how they promote neoliberalism's underlying ideas, values and beliefs so as to naturalize inequality, undercut democracy and contribute to the collapse of social notions of community and the common good. Covering a wide range of media and genres, and adopting a variety of qualitative textual methodologies and theoretical frameworks, the chapters examine diverse topics, from news coverage of the 2016 U.S. presidential election to the NBC show Superstore (an atypical instance in which a TV show, for one brief season, challenged the central tenets of neoliberalism) to "kitchen porn." The book also takes an intersectional approach, as contributors explore how gender, race, class and other aspects of social identity are inextricably tied to each other within media representation. At once innovative and distinctive in its illustration of how the media is complicit in perpetuating neoliberal ideology, Neoliberalism and the Media offers students and scholars alike an incisive portrait of the intersection between media and ideology today.
This book examines the multiple ways that popular media mainstream and reinforce neoliberal ideology, exposing how they promote neoliberalism's underlying ideas, values and beliefs so as to naturalize inequality, undercut democracy and contribute to the collapse of social notions of community and the common good. Covering a wide range of media and genres, and adopting a variety of qualitative textual methodologies and theoretical frameworks, the chapters examine diverse topics, from news coverage of the 2016 U.S. presidential election to the NBC show Superstore (an atypical instance in which a TV show, for one brief season, challenged the central tenets of neoliberalism) to "kitchen porn." The book also takes an intersectional approach, as contributors explore how gender, race, class and other aspects of social identity are inextricably tied to each other within media representation. At once innovative and distinctive in its illustration of how the media is complicit in perpetuating neoliberal ideology, Neoliberalism and the Media offers students and scholars alike an incisive portrait of the intersection between media and ideology today.
This long-promised sequel to Ophuls' influential and controversial classic "Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity" is an equally provocative critique of the liberal philosophy of government. Ophuls contends that the modern political paradigm--that is, the body of political concepts and beliefs bequeathed to us by the Enlightenment--is no longer intellectually tenable or practically viable. Our attempt to live individualistically, hedonistically, and rationally has failed utterly, causing a comprehensive crisis that is at once political, military, economic, ecological, ethical, psychological, and spiritual. Liberal politics has abandoned virtue, rejected community, and flouted nature, thereby becoming the author of its own demise.By exposing the intrinsically contradictory and self-destructive character of Hobbesian political systems, Ophuls subverts our conventional wisdom at every turn. Indeed, his impassioned text reads more like a Greek tragedy than like a conventional political argument. He critiques feminism, multiculturalism, the welfare state, and a host of other "liberal" shibboleths--but Ophuls is not another reactionary neoconservative. The aim of his thesis is far more radical and progressive, offering a political vision that entirely transcends the categories of liberal thought. His is a Thoreauvian vision of a "politics of consciousness" rooted in ecology as the moral and intellectual basis for governance in the twenty-first century. Ophuls holds that a polity based on a renewed erotic connection with nature offers a genuine solution to this crisis of contemporary civilization and only within such a polity will it be possible to fulfill the worthy liberal goal of individualself-development.Ophuls' work will interest and challenge a wide spectrum of readers, though it will not necessarily be well liked or easily accepted. No one will put down this book with his or her settled convictions about Western culture intact, nor will readers ever again take modern civilization and its survival for granted.
Professor Fiss examines contemporary free-speech issues in the context of the collision of liberal ideas of equality and freedom with modern social structures and speculates on what role the state might play in furthering robust public debate.
In this wide-ranging book, Stefan Collini deals with the relationship between Liberalism and sociology in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. He discusses in particular the crucial contributions of L. T. Hobhouse, the leading Liberal political theorist of the period who is also generally regarded as the 'Founding Father' of British sociology. Based upon extensive original research, the book draws together themes from three fields which are normally pursued in historiographical isolation. It examines the moral and intellectual inspiration of the New Liberalism which came to dominate Edwardian politics; explores the nature of the systematic political philosophy in this period; and shows how the contemporary understanding of sociology was bound up with attempts to provide a theoretical and historical grounding for the belief in Progress, especially in opposition to Social Darwinist and other biological social theories. Throughout, the intellectual context necessary to a properly historical understanding of these ideas is reconstructed in detail and particular attention if paid to the structure of the moral and political discourse of the time.
Liberalism: The Basics is an engaging and accessible introduction to liberalism. The author provides a comprehensive overview of liberal practices, liberal values and critically analyses liberal theories, allowing for a richer understanding of liberalism as a whole. The book is divided into three parts: Liberal practices: the rule of law, free speech, freedom of association and movement, economic freedom and sexual freedom. Liberal values: freedom, autonomy, equality, and the universal values of political societies - the communal identity - and well-being of their members. Liberal theories: natural rights, utilitarianism, Kant's rationalism and the contemporary theories of John Rawls and the post-Rawlsians. Presented in a clear and concise way, this book will be an ideal introduction for students and scholars of liberalism, political philosophy, political theory and political ideology.
This ambitious and wide-ranging book is about the relationship between liberalism and socialism in Britain in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It focuses largely on a group of intellectuals whose names are familiar but whose work has been neglected or misunderstood. Graham Wallas is the forgotten man of early Fabianism. L. T. Hobhouse has misleadingly been typecast as the last major exponent of a dying liberal tradition. J. A. Hobson's reputation has been obscured by repeated claims that he was a precursor either of the Leninist theory of imperialism or of the Keynesian revolution in economics. The historical work of J. L. and Barbara Hammond has suffered similar revenges from the whirligig of time. There are other liberals or socialists - notably Gilbert Murray, Bernard Shaw, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, R. H. Tawney and J. M. Keynes - who receive considerable attention. In the later chapters the economic approaches of Hobson and Keynes are disentangled and put in their proper historical setting.
The second edition of International Political Economy continues to be the perfect short introduction to the fundamental theories and issues of international political economy (IPE). Written in a concise, accessible style by an experienced teacher and scholar, it combines theoretical perspectives, real-world examples, and comparative policy analysis. The text offers students an in-depth, balanced understanding of the contrasting core perspectives in IPE, allowing them to critically evaluate and independently analyze major political-economic events. Having emerged from both the classical and modern schools of political economy, the book's unique structure is organized around the threefold world view classification of IPE that the author labels as free-market, institutionalist, and Marxist. The book: Compares, contrasts, and critiques the different approaches in the context of major global issues such as financial crises, free vs. fair trade, ecological degradation, growing inequality, gender, globalization, and multinational corporations; Explains key economic concepts such as financial markets, banking systems, monetary policy, foreign exchange, Keynesian economics, fiscal policy, comparative advantage, value theory, money, role of corporations, and ecological economics as well as their relationship to political concepts such as international regimes and governance; Contains 30 original figures and tables, review questions at the end of each chapter, and a detailed glossary to enhance student learning; Responds to the call from eminent IPE specialists Robert Keohane and Benjamin Cohen for textbooks that take a pluralistic approach. This thoroughly updated second edition is essential reading for students of international political economy, economics, political science and global governance.
Can the tension between relativism and the moral universalism current in contemporary politics be resolved within the framework of liberalism? How is liberal society to interpret the diversity of morals? Is pluralism the appropriate response? How does pluralism differ from the widely condemned ethnocentric relativism-"liberalism for the Liberals, cannibalism for the cannibals"? Confronting liberal thought with its own limitations, Steven Lukes' work is more relevant than ever. While recognizing the dangers of moral imperialism, Lukes argues that a relativist position based on identifying clearly distinct cultural and moral communities is incoherent. Drawing on work in anthropology and philosophy, he examines the nature of social justice, the politics of identity and human rights theory.
A bold new history of postwar political philosophy and of how John Rawls transformed modern liberalism In the Shadow of Justice tells the story of how liberal political philosophy was transformed in the second half of the twentieth century under the influence of John Rawls. In this first-ever history of contemporary liberal theory, Katrina Forrester shows how liberal egalitarianism-a set of ideas about justice, equality, obligation, and the state-became dominant, and traces its emergence from the political and ideological context of the postwar United States and Britain. In the aftermath of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, political philosophers extended, developed, and reshaped liberalism as they responded to challenges and alternatives on the left and right-from the New International Economic Order to the rise of the New Right. These thinkers remade political philosophy in ways that influenced both liberal theory and its critics. Recasting the history of late twentieth-century political thought, In the Shadow of Justice offers a rigorous look at liberalism's ambitions and limits.
Europe sees itself as embodying the ideals of modernity, especially in relation to democracy and the respect for human rights. Faced on the one hand with the need for public recognition of a new population of Muslim identity, and the threat of violent radicalization on the other, Europe is falling prey to the politics of fear and is tempted to compromise on its professed ideals. Reflecting on the manifestations and causes of the contemporary fear of Islam gaining ground in contemporary Europe, as well as on the factors contributing to the radicalization of some Muslims, (Il)liberal Europe: Islamophobia, Modernity and Radicalization offers a diversity of perspectives on both the challenges to social cohesion, and the danger of Islamophobia encouraging a spiral of co-radicalization. Combining empirical studies of several European countries with a comparative account of India and Europe, the book analyzes vital issues such as secularity, domophilia, de-politicization, neo-nationalism, the European unification project and more. Spanning a variety of disciplinary approaches, the volume offers novel insights into the complex landscape of identity politics in contemporary Europe to widen the scope of intellectual inquiry. This book was originally published as a special issue of Politics, Religion & Ideology.
This books brings together in one volume contributions made to the public debate that has developed around the Kilburn Manifesto, a Soundings project first launched in spring 2013 that seeks to map the political, economic, social and cultural contours of neoliberalism. The manifesto opens with a framing statement that explores the meaning of neoliberalism and introduces the concept of conjunctural analysis. Each chapter then analyses a specific issue or theme. The aim is to call into question the neoliberal order itself, and find radical alternatives to its foundational assumptions.
Liberals blame the global retreat of liberal democracy on globalisation and authoritarian leaders. Only liberalism, so they assume, can defend democratic rule against multinationals or populists at home and abroad. In this provocative book, Adrian Pabst contends that liberal democracy is illiberal and undemocratic - intolerant about the values of ordinary people while concentrating power and wealth in the hands of unaccountable elites. Under the influence of contemporary liberalism, democracy is sliding into oligarchy, demagogy and anarchy. Liberals, far from defending open markets and free speech, promote monopolies such as the new tech giants that undermine competition and democratic debate. Liberal individualism has eroded the social bonds and civic duties on which democracy depends for trust and cooperation. To banish liberal democracy's demons, Pabst proposes radical ideas for economic democracy, a politics of persuasion and a better balance of personal freedom with social solidarity. This book's defence of democratic politics against both liberals and populists will speak to all readers trying to understand our age of upheaval.
Upon publication in 1791-92, the two parts of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man proved to be both immensely popular and highly controversial. An immediate bestseller, it not only defended the French revolution but also challenged current laws, customs, and government. The Routledge Guidebook to Paine's Rights of Man provides the first comprehensive and fully contextualized introduction to this foundational text in the history of modern political thought, addressing its central themes, reception, and influence. The Guidebook examines: the history of rights, populism, representative governments, and challenges to monarchy from the 12th through 18th century; Paine's arguments against monarchies, mixed governments, war, and state-church establishments; Paine's views on constitutions; Paine's proposals regarding suffrage, inequality, poverty, and public welfare; Paine's revolution in rhetoric and style; the critical reception upon publication and influence through the centuries, as well as Paine's relevance today. The Routledge Guidebook to Paine's Rights of Man is essential reading for students of eighteenth-century American and British history, politics and philosophy, and anyone approaching Paine's work for the first time.
Graham Allen, a U.S. Army veteran and a rising star in the conservative movement, makes the case that the United States should look to the country as it was on September 12th, 2001 for lessons about our future. On the day after the World Trade Center was attacked, Americans came together regardless of color, religion, or sexual orientation. We were united. On that day, nearly every store in the country sold out of American flags. After the events of the last eighteen months, from the Covid-19 pandemic to the constant attempts to divide us by race, Graham Allen believes that we should all look back on the events of 9/12 and remember what unites us. He believes that we do not all have to be the same, that it's okay not to agree on everything, but that we share a common history and a set of values. Just as the year 1776 serves as a reminder of our beginning, 9/12 will serve as a reminder of our present and future.
At a time when neoliberal and conservative politics are again in the ascendency and social democracy is waning, Australian public policy re-engages with the values and goals of progressive public policy in Australia and the difficulties faced in re-affirming them. It brings together leading authors to explore economic, environmental, social, cultural, political and indigenous issues. It examines trends and current policy directions and outlines progressive alternatives that challenge and extend current thinking. While focused on Australia, the contributors offer valuable insights for people in other countries committed to social justice and those engaged in the ongoing contest between neo-liberalism and social democracy. This is essential reading for policy practitioners, researchers and students as well those with an interest in the future of public policy.
Liberals blame the retreat of the liberal world order on populists at home and authoritarian leaders abroad. Only liberalism, so they claim, can defend the rules-based international system against demagogy, corruption and nationalism. This provocative book contends that the liberal world order is illiberal and undemocratic - intolerant about the cultural values of ordinary people in the West and elsewhere while concentrating power in the hands of unaccountable Western elites and Western-dominated institutions. Under the influence of contemporary liberalism, the international system is fuelling economic injustice, social fragmentation and a worldwide "culture war" between globalists and nativists. Liberals, far from defending rules, have broken international law and imposed their version of market fundamentalism and democracy promotion by military means. Liberal "civilisation" has fuelled resentment across the world by imposing a narrow worldview that pits cultures against one another. To avoid a descent into a violent culture clash, this book proposes radical ideas for international order that take the form of cultural commonwealths - social bonds and crossborder cultural ties on which international trust and cooperation depends. The book's defence of an older order against both liberals and nationalists will speak to all readers trying to understand our age of anger. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and readers of liberalism, political theory and democracy, and more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.
American political thought was shaped by a unique combination of theoretical influences: republicanism, liberalism, and covenant theology. This reader shows how these influences came together. Organized chronologically from the Puritans' arrival in the New World to the Civil War, each chapter includes carefully selected primary sources and substantial commentary to explain the historical context and significance of the excerpts. A coherent interpretative framework is offered by focusing the analysis on the different assumptions of the people - the republican understanding as a corporate whole and the liberal understanding as a multitude of individuals - that were intertwined during the founding. The book features, for the first time, two chapters on non-American authors, who capture the main tenets of republicanism and liberalism and were widely quoted in the era, as well as excerpts from lesser-known sources, including Puritan covenants, the first state constitutions, and Native American speeches.
New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa casts a critical look at Africa's rapidly evolving religious media scene. Following political liberalization, media deregulation, and the proliferation of new media technologies, many African religious leaders and activists have appropriated such media to strengthen and expand their communities and gain public recognition. Media have also been used to marginalize and restrict the activities of other groups, which has sometimes led to tension, conflict, and even violence. Showing how media are rarely neutral vehicles of expression, the contributors to this multidisciplinary volume analyze the mutual imbrications of media and religion during times of rapid technological and social change in various places throughout Africa.
"No one gets today's Washington like Ben Terris...THE BIG BREAK is the definitive accounting of 'how it works' in this ongoing post-Trump (pre-Trump?) maelstrom. I just imbibed this book." Mark Leibovich, author of This Town The Big Break investigates how Washington works, and how different kinds of people try to make it work for them. Ben Terris presents an inside history of this crucial moment in Washington, reporting from exclusive parties, poker nights, fundraisers, secluded farms outside town and the halls of Congress; among the oddballs and opportunists and true believers. This book is about the people who see this moment as an opportunity to bet big-on their country or maybe just on themselves. It will take a close look at Washington's bold-faced names as they try to get their bearings on the post-Trump (and possibly pre-Trump) landscape. And it will introduce readers to the behind-the-scenes players - MAGA pilgrims and Resistance flame keepers and shapeshifting veterans - who believe they know what Washington, and America, must do if they're going to survive, or even thrive. Trump's arrival in Washington represented a big break in how the city operated. He surrounded himself with outsiders; power structures reorganized around those who knew him or his family and those who could flatter and influence his base. He changed the way the game was played, only it wasn't actually a game at all. When pro-Trump elements both inside and outside of government plotted to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election, the Capitol became a combat zone, then a military fortress. It was, to put it lightly, a destabilizing time. But how much did the Trump years really change Washington? Has Joe Biden's presidency heralded a return to normal, as many had hoped? What did 'normal' mean before Trump, and what do people think it means now? The Big Break will follow a cast of D.C. characters in search of answers to these questions. They are a diverse crew-a pollster with a gambling habit, an oil heiress with a big heart, a cowboy lobbyist, a Republican kingmaker who decided to love Trump and his right-hand man who decided he couldn't any longer. They all share at least one thing in common: They had seen their country go through a Big Break, and they'd come to get theirs.
On Extremism and Democracy in Europe is a collection of short and accessible essays on the far right, populism, Euroscepticism, and liberal democracy by one of the leading academic and public voices today. It includes both sober, fact-based analysis of the often sensationalized "rise of the far right" in Europe as well as passionate defence of the fundamental values of liberal democracy. Sometimes counter-intuitive and always thought-provoking, Mudde argues that the true challenge to liberal democracy comes from the political elites at the centre of the political systems rather than from the political challengers at the political margins. Pushing to go beyond the simplistic opposition of extremism and democracy, which is much clearer in theory than in practice, he accentuates the internal dangers of liberal democracy without ignoring the external threats. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in European politics, extremism and/or current affairs more generally. |
You may like...
Unlocking Liberalism - Life After the…
Robert Brown, Nigel Lindsay
Paperback
R339
Discovery Miles 3 390
|