Andre Gorz is one of the most important contemporary socialist thinkers, acquiring the reputation of an iconoclastic theorist who poses radical questions about the future of the Left.
This full length assessment of his work is the first to critically evaluate all of his writings from the 1950s to the '90s. Highlighting the eclectic nature of Gorz's intellectual heritage beginning with his existentialist-Marxist roots in post-war France, Adrian Little creates a unique perspective, arguing that Gorz is primarily a theorist of individual freedom and autonomy. In this context he can be regarded not only as a post-Marxist thinker but as a unique purveyor of individualistic socialism. This view offers a challenge to all on the Left who are concerned with the reproduction of welfare capitalism and the future of democratic socialism.

This unique text challenges the notion that absence of conflict is the foundation and norm of a stable political environment. Combining complexity theory and the notion of signature with case studies, it argues that political processes need to be understood within their social and cultural contexts. It thus develops the idea of enduring conflict, referring to both the enduring nature of political conflict and the endurance of people in conflict-ridden societies, looking at countries involved in conflict transformation, such as Northern Ireland, Cambodia, Indonesia, and South Africa. Examining debates around trauma, memory, and reconciliation, the work shows how conflicts are so socially and culturally ingrained and protracted that political agreements alone cannot bring substantive change. In addition, key texts, such as peace agreements, along with interviews of politicians, participants, and NGOs help identify the conditions under which notions like peace, democracy, and conflict resolution can even be conceived - let alone implemented. This innovative text is a significant contribution to the literature as it highlights the limitations of conflict resolution strategies and identifies the issues that pertain to conflicts throughout global politics. Written in an accessible manner, it will be highly attractive to students in conflict processes, peace studies, and international relations theory.

Politics: The Key Concepts is an up-to-date and broad-ranging introduction to the terms that lie at the heart of political discourse. Entries are drawn from areas such as political theory, international politics, political science and methodology. As well as explaining core, established principles, this informative guide explores some of the more complex, topical and contested concepts from the world of politics. Concepts covered include: Capitalism Class Identity Institutionalism Referendum Marxism Pluralism Postmodernism Socialism Social Constructivism In an accessible A-Z format with helpful cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, Politics: The Key Concepts is an invaluable reference for all students of politics, international relations and related courses.

Andre Gorz is one of the most important contemporary socialist thinkers. He has acquired a reputation as an iconoclastic theorist who poses radical questions about the future of the Left. This is the first full length assessment of his work which critically evaluates all of his writings from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Contents:
Preface 1. Extract from The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli 2. Extract from Areopagitica6n, Extract from An Agreement of the Free People of England Extract from The Law of Freedom in a Platform John Milton and the Levellers 3. Extract from Leviathan Thomas Hobbes 4. Extract from Two Treatises of Government John Locke 5. Extract from A Treatise of Human Nature David Hume 6. Extract from The Spirit of the Laws Montesquieu 7. Extract from The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith 8. Extract from A Dissertation on the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind Extract from The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau 9. Extract from The Federalist Papers James Madison and Alexander Hamilton 10. Extract from Reflections on the Revolution in France Edmund Burke 11. Extract from Rights of Man Thomas Paine 12. Extract from A Vindication of the Rights of Women Mary Wollstonecraft 13. Extract from An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation Jeremy Bentham 14. Extract from On Liberty John Stuart Mill 15. Extract from Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 Extract from Manifesto of the Communist Party Extract from Capital

Provides an introduction to the key works of the major political thinkers from the English Civil War to the end of the 19th Century. It draws together the important parts of seminal works of political thought such as Hobbes' "Leviathan" , Locke's "Treatises" , Rousseau's "The Social Contract" , and Mill's "On Liberty", and offers substantial extracts of seminal texts from Machievelli's "The Prince" to Marx's "Capital", with accessible introductions to each thinker, explaining their lives and works, and placing them in the historical context in which they worked and wrote. Political thinkers included in this book are: Machiavelli; Milton and the Levellers; Hobbes; Locke; Hume; Montesquieu; Smith; Rousseau; Madison and Hamilton; Burke; Paine; Wollestonecraft; Bentham; Mill; and Marx.

Post-Industrial Socialism provides critical analysis of recent developments in leftist political thought. Adrian Little charts new directions in the economy and the effects they have had on traditional models of social welfare and orthodox approaches to social policy.
In demonstrating the limitations of the welfare state and the associated concept of citizenship, this book suggests that we need to renew socialist welfare theory through the evaluation of universal welfare provision and a policy of breaking the link between work and income.

Politics: The Key Concepts is an up-to-date and broad-ranging introduction to the terms that lie at the heart of political discourse. Entries are drawn from areas such as political theory, international politics, political science and methodology. As well as explaining core, established principles, this informative guide explores some of the more complex, topical and contested concepts from the world of politics. Concepts covered include: Capitalism Class Identity Institutionalism Referendum Marxism Pluralism Postmodernism Socialism Social Constructivism In an accessible A-Z format with helpful cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, Politics: The Key Concepts is an invaluable reference for all students of politics, international relations and related courses.

'At the leading edge of critical studies into democratic theory and practice.'

Dr Iain MacKenzie, University of Kent

This book presents an innovative analysis of the nature of democratic theory, focusing on the prevalence of pious discourses of democracy in contemporary politics.

Democracy is now promoted in religious terms to such an extent that it has become sacrosanct in Western political theory. Rather than accepting this situation, this book argues that such piety relies on unsophisticated political analysis that pays scant attention to the complex conditions of contemporary politics. Little contends that the importance of conflict is underplayed in much democratic theory and that it is more useful to think instead of democracy in terms of the centrality of political disagreement and its propensity to generate political violence. This argument is exemplified by the ways in which democracy and violence have been conceptualised in the war on terrorism.

Fighting against democratic piety, this book contends that it is vital to understand the inevitable failure of democratic politics and thus promotes a theory of democracy founded on the idea of 'constitutive failure'.

Key Features:

Challenges democratic piety through the application of key contemporary approaches in political theory: complexity theory, post-structuralism and the idea of radical democracy

Uses the work of theorists such as Jacques RanciA]re, William Connolly, Chantal Mouffe, Judith Butler, Slavoj A1/2iA3/4ek, Giorgio Agamben, Walter Benjamin and Alain Badiou to interrogate the discourses of democracy which characterise contemporary political debate

Grounds the theoretical analysis of democraticdiscourse with examples from contemporary politics including the war on terror, the process of indigenous reconciliation in Australia, the struggles for recognition of refugees and asylum seekers, the plight of the Sans-Papiers in France, and the problems in Northern Irish politics over the last ten years.

Adrian Little demonstrates the ways in which different conceptions of past, present and future contribute to the nature of political conflict in the world today. Reacting against narratives of political disillusionment and apathy, he focuses on how a new understanding of political temporality can inform our approach to political problems. Little develops a theory of temporality focused on material politics. His argument is formed around three major cases in which the nature of past, present and future is contested: Indigenous politics in settler colonies, the politics of bordering and migration and the debates over the future of democracy. He shows how to rethink ways in which we can act on intractable issues in politics beyond philosophical analysis. In doing so he brings together a theory of temporality with a model of political action derived from process philosophy to reinvigorate temporal understandings of the problems that political actors face.

This book addresses the idea of radical democracy and, in particular, its poststructuralist articulation. It analyses the approach to radical democracy taken by a number of contemporary theorists and political commentators:, including Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Judith Butler, William Connolly, Jacques Ranciere, Claude Lefort, Sheldon Wolin, Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri, and Giorgio Agamben. By examining critically the critiques accounts of democracy advanced by these theorists, this volume explores how a more radically conceived theory of democracy might be extended in a more egalitarian and inclusive direction. developed. The strand of radical democracy examined in this book is defined by a number of characteristics: *Democracy is conceptualised understood as a fugitive condition, being open to perpetual disruption and reinvention *The relationship between the state and civil society is regarded as the site where the open-ended 'promise' of democracy is fought out *There is an emphasis on questions of political renewal *There is a deep suspicion of identity-based political claims *Politics is conceived as either the site of or as one of the mechanisms for identity construction * Democratic politics is understood as a politics of contestation and disagreement * Democracy is regarded as always at least partially conflictual and not a means through which violence and conflict can be permanently eradicated *There is a deep suspicion of identity-based political claims *The political is assumed to be ontologically conflictual, with such conflict being understood as ultimately ineradicable from politics, though the form it takes necessarily varies from time to time and context to context The book clarifies the concept of radical democracy by mapping the field, and elaborates it further through a critical engagement with the works of its key proponents. In addition, it draws on the insights of radical democratic theory to explore a range of concrete political cases (e.g. the struggles of indigenous people, same-sex marriage, societies emerging from prolonged social and political strife, and the role of social movements in opposing processes of globalization) in order to illustrate its practical nature.

This unique text challenges the notion that absence of conflict is the foundation and norm of a stable political environment. Combining complexity theory and the notion of signature with case studies, it argues that political processes need to be understood within their social and cultural contexts. It thus develops the idea of enduring conflict, referring to both the enduring nature of political conflict and the endurance of people in conflict-ridden societies, looking at countries involved in conflict transformation, such as Northern Ireland, Cambodia, Indonesia, and South Africa. Examining debates around trauma, memory, and reconciliation, the work shows how conflicts are so socially and culturally ingrained and protracted that political agreements alone cannot bring substantive change. In addition, key texts, such as peace agreements, along with interviews of politicians, participants, and NGOs help identify the conditions under which notions like peace, democracy, and conflict resolution can even be conceived - let alone implemented. This innovative text is a significant contribution to the literature as it highlights the limitations of conflict resolution strategies and identifies the issues that pertain to conflicts throughout global politics. Written in an accessible manner, it will be highly attractive to students in conflict processes, peace studies, and international relations theory.