Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal最新文献

{"title":"An Appraisal of Thomas Hobbes Leviathan to Corporate Governance, and Accountability in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic","authors":"Abdulyakeen Abdulrasheed","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3904861","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3904861","url":null,"abstract":"England in the middle of the seventeenth century was a quagmire of political posturing from a variety of power centers; royalists, anti-royalists, the clergy, and sundry who were jockeying for the most advantageous positions. With the outbreak of Civil War, England’s social and political future looked anything but certain, Hobbes sought to bring his political philosophy to the English audience with the publication of Leviathan in 1651. This work was to be his most powerful restatement of absolute government, grounded on a compact between the ruled and a sovereign authority that would protect the citizenry and secure peace. In line with this, the Nigeria state is also having some internal problems among the federating component with several agitations clamoring for restructuring. This paper argues that the problem of constitutionalism and political development in Nigeria’s fourth republic is a problem of governance; when defined in terms of the proper, fair and equitable allocation of resources for the achievement of the end or purposes of the state, which is the promotion of the common good. The paper submits that for good governance to be feasible in Nigeria, sound anti-corruption policies devoid of mere speeches must be put in place. Furthermore, the paper recommends a functional legislature, a viable and independent judiciary, and the attitudinal transformation on the part of the political elite, the absence of which constitutionalism, good governance and political development will continue to be a mirage in the fourth republic.","PeriodicalId":397807,"journal":{"name":"Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121732896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neo-Liberalism, Neoclassical Economics, and Foucault: Dominant Schools of Economic Thought in American Anarcho-Liberalism and German Ordoliberalism","authors":"Koen Smeets","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3684056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3684056","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the influence of American and German neo-liberalism on the dominant school of economics in their respective countries based on an extended version of Foucault’s The Birth of Biopolitics. The analyses of the American neo-liberal economists, or anarcho-liberalists, legitimised the extension of the basic neoclassical model to non-economic, social phenomena and invalidated governmental intervention in both economic and social phenomena. In contrast, the assumption of the German neo-liberals, or Ordoliberals, of markets as artificial, imperfect constructs validated setting the right conditions for the market by the government. This analysis demonstrates and draws lessons from the historical conditions under which a school with divergent assumptions from the neoclassical assumptions of perfect rationality and perfect competition became dominant in a neo-liberal political-economic environment.","PeriodicalId":397807,"journal":{"name":"Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128747772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Historical Materialism and the Concept of Supervenience","authors":"Malcolm J. Rogge","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3567965","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3567965","url":null,"abstract":"The author applies the concept of supervenience in contemporary metaphysics to Marx’s foundational proposition that the relations of production in a society “correspond�? to the underlying forces of production. The author proposes that this correspondence relation be regarded as Marxian supervenience. The author draws on Gerald Cohen’s analytical breakdown of Marx’s theory of history and on Jaegwon Kim's formulations of strong and weak supervenience to show how the concept of strong supervenience is most useful for interpreting Marx’s primacy thesis. While no position is advanced here about whether the theory of historical materialism is true or not, the author provides a tool that can be used for developing a clearer conception of Marx’s foundational construct. By employing the concept of Marxian supervenience as an interpretive tool, it might be possible to uncover critical problems or advantages for the theory; it might also be possible to develop a clearer understanding of how to find evidence for the truth or falsity of historical materialism. The results of such efforts could find practical application in the fields of political philosophy, political science, legal science, political history, ethics and sociology.","PeriodicalId":397807,"journal":{"name":"Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115106387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"W. H. Hutt and the Conceptualization of Consumers’ Sovereignty","authors":"Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay","doi":"10.1093/oep/gpaa015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpaa015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article examines the meaning of consumers’ sovereignty in the interwar thought of the economist William Harold Hutt. For Hutt, consumers’ sovereignty was an ideal, a norm against which economists could assess different economic systems. It connected the value of individual freedom, the commitment to a market society and an appeal to a liberal democracy. By coining the expression of consumers’ sovereignty, Hutt operated a creative re-description of the Millian idea of individual sovereignty which reflected the rise of the figure of the consumer in the public space. Hutt’s vision had been forged by the teaching he received at the London School of Economics and his involvement in the Individualist movement in the 1920s.","PeriodicalId":397807,"journal":{"name":"Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130093488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conservative Liberalism: Hume, Smith, and Burke as Policy Liberals and Polity Conservatives","authors":"D. Klein","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3537275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3537275","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract On regular issues of policy reform—presupposing a stable integrated polity— Hume, Smith, and Burke were liberal in the original political meaning of “liberal.” Thus, on policy reform, although they accorded the status quo a certain presumption (as any reasonable person must), the more distinctive feature is that they maintained (even propounded, most plainly in Smith's case) a presumption of liberty in matters of policy reform. But we need another conceptualization that treats their attitudes about establishing, reforming, and securing the wider structure of political institutions, political procedure, and political culture and character—matters of polity reformation. On polity reformation, they showed sensibilities for which “conservative” is apt (though such conservatism was not otherwise purely neutral). Hume, Smith, and Burke were basically in agreement in the matters treated here. They are polity conservatives. The article develops the two conceptualizations—policy reform and polity reformation—, an understanding of “liberal” applicable to policy reform, and an understanding of “conservative” (namely, a heavy presumption of the status quo) that may be applied to policy reform and to polity reformation. If we code the three thinkers as PLPC (policy liberals and polity conservatives), we may put the matter this way: It would be meaningful but wrong to code them instead PCPC (policy conservatives and polity conservatives). I call their outlook conservative liberalism. I deal disproportionately with Burke, to tussle with two sets of imagined interlocutors, one on Burke as liberal, and the other on Burkean insight on polity reformation.","PeriodicalId":397807,"journal":{"name":"Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal","volume":"109 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127575012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reason and Political Economy in Hume","authors":"Erik W. Matson","doi":"10.23941/EJPE.V12I1.333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/EJPE.V12I1.333","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines some connections between Hume’s epistemology in his Treatise of Human Nature and his political economy. I make three claims: (1) First, I argue that it is the development of Hume’s account of the faculty of reason in Book I of the Treatise that leads him to emphasize social science—including political economy—and the humanities over more abstract modes of intellectual inquiry. (2) Second, I argue that Hume’s conception of reason has implications for his methodology in political economy. His perception of human reason leads him to deploy a method of qualified generalization that emphasizes the by-and-large nature of theoretical statements. (3) Third, when it comes to policy matters, the method of qualified generalization in theory cashes out in terms of practical maxims. I suggest that two central maxims in Hume’s political economy derive from his views of the usefulness of economic liberty and the coordinating nature of the status quo.","PeriodicalId":397807,"journal":{"name":"Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123244669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Developing a Methodology to Evaluate Various Parameters of the General Interest as Defined in Political Philosophy of J. J. Rousseau","authors":"O. Kopsidas","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3501373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3501373","url":null,"abstract":"The “social contract” is the most famous philosophical text of Zac Jacques Roussos, which was to influence the intellectual and political movement of the 18th century. By publishing the “social contract” or “Civil Law Principles” in 1762, Rousseau, presenting his theory of the state and seeking the foundation of civil society, attempts to expose the conditions of a stable and just state by putting freedom as a precondition for law and the common good must be lawful. A central place in its political theory is the concept of general will, which is in the general interest (otherwise the common good) and on which the idea of a favored constitutional state is based. We estimate approximately the size of the external economy by the method of the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is a survey-based technique, frequently used in Experimental Economics, especially useful for the valuation of non-market resources/goods/services, and cultural heritage objects (of aesthetic, historic, scientific, or social value), such as conservation of monumental remains and preservation of the physical and anthropogenic environment.","PeriodicalId":397807,"journal":{"name":"Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122069756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reconstructing Adam Smith's Politics","authors":"B. Weingast","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3107350","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3107350","url":null,"abstract":"I divide this introduction to my book in progress, Reconstructing Adam Smith's Politics, into three parts. In Part 1, I give an overview of Smith's politics and how it fits together. This analysis shows that Smith anticipated many of the central questions that animate modern political science; notably, why are some countries rich and developed while others not? How do we explain different regime types across countries, including dictatorship and representative democracy? What accounts for different patterns of trade policies? And how do we account for the different behavior of empires; in particular, why were the British Colonies so rich? As I show, Smith's approach to politics and the answers he provides are surprisingly modern. I intend Part 2 to be the heart of the analysis with a systematic, in-depth discussion of a dozen or more political-economic topics covered by Smith. As the book remains in early stages, I concentrate in this draft on four of Smith's separate discussions that, in toto, provide a powerful explanation of the centuries-long lack of development of feudal Europe. In part 3, I discuss several general theses that emerge from Smith's politics; namely: the role of liberty as the foundation of an economy; the importance of violence in his political-economics; the central role of concepts of credible commitment and political exchange; why some countries are rich while most are poor; and methodological issues, such as the use of equilibrium and comparative statics as well as dynamics.","PeriodicalId":397807,"journal":{"name":"Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121305629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Arendtian Construal of the State and Sovereignty: An Extant Version Stance","authors":"Lawrence Ofunja Kangei, P. Nyabul, John Muhenda","doi":"10.29322/IJSRP.8.8.2018.P8025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.8.8.2018.P8025","url":null,"abstract":"The conception(s) of the State and Sovereignty is not new-fangled at any apposite construal outlook. However, this ought not to be deciphered to connote that an affinity to delve into their comprehension is futile. In this paper, there are a plethora of sub-themes that constitute these two themes of interest. Appertaining to the State, it is ordered by the constitutional structures which partake of proffering a delineating social identity as well as the legitimacy of the State action. Moreover, the society is construed to be the transitional sphere through which individuals can deliberate on varied issues as a sort of nourishment. State sovereignty is comprehended as vastly resounding along with invariant expressions. Varied schools of thought such as the realists interpret the State sovereignty from a pragmatist stance. It is in tandem with this deportment that the concern of whether sovereignty could suffer any brand of obliteration emerges. The interest of this exposition is to delve into the ambivalent nature of the State along with its co-reality, that is, sovereignty. The methodologies that were employed in the pursuit of possible rejoinder(s) to the foregoing problem were hermeneutic and critical approach. Arendtian proclivity to the State’s and sovereignty viewpoints were interpreted and later on appraised with an avant-garde lens. It was realized that Arendt thought sovereignty besides autarchy to be the same in human endeavours by differentiating between an idea of rights and rights. Additionally, there ensues to be two sorts of sovereignty, to be precise, external along with internal sovereignties. The lingering enquiry at this juncture is the equipoise and nexus between internal and external sovereignty. Autocracy is by and largely vindicated as the need to surmount temporarily the weakness of dualistic or admixture or functionally separated forms of government. The facilitation is in determining the institution of a legitimate actor entitled to all rights along with privileges of statehood in addition to defining the underpinning strictures of rightful State action. It is germane to accentuate that legitimacy ought to be silhouetted by the construal of power as the outright will’s aptitude to bring into being as well as impose change on that which is in the correlation between the State and sovereignty.","PeriodicalId":397807,"journal":{"name":"Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal","volume":"82 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132984859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is the US Electoral College a Polite Fiction That Should Be Abolished?","authors":"F. Dufour","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.3082282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.3082282","url":null,"abstract":"The US electoral college started to cast doubt in American voters only 20 years after the 12th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1804, which provides for election of the president and vice president by the electoral college. Should there be no majority vote for one person, the House of Representatives (one vote per state) chooses the president and the Senate the vice president. Today, 213 years after the first harbinger sign surfaced in 1824 with the election of John Quincy Adams, the efficiency of the electoral college is still a hot and a highly moot topic… At the time the US constitution was written and ratified, it was, thanks to its vision, an endeavor that was entirely ahead of its time. It epitomizes American exceptionalism, which is characterized by a unique history, a unique mission, and unique values. Alexis de Tocqueville was the first to pinpoint that exceptionalism and to give it his approval or benediction in his book Democracy in America. He was a French observer of American democracy who traveled throughout the new American country and let his French colleagues and philosophers back home know, afterwards, that the ideas that were dear to them were working in America. However, as it is the case for everything that is man-made, the electoral college, the US constitution’s brainchild, is not failproof, and turns out to be the constitution’s white elephant, its bete noire.","PeriodicalId":397807,"journal":{"name":"Political Theory: History of Political Thought eJournal","volume":"324 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114064686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}