Political pluralism and the state: beyond sovereignty
Marcel Wissenburg; London: Routledge (Routledge Innovators in Political Theory), 2008. ISBN: 9780415467391 (HB)
Available from Routledge
The concept of a sovereign nation-state is a central part in many of the debates discussing the salient issues in political science today. Yet the debate on the state is fragmented and while the different sub-disciplines within political science address the different possible consequences of different processes, the one thing they all share is uncertainty about the future shape and role of the state.
Political Pluralism and the State is the first work in political theory to bring together IR, comparative politics and political theory approaches to analyze the post-sovereign state and develop a new interpretative scheme for social and political scientists that takes account not only of the fragmentation of the polity but also of the often ignored concurrent fragmentation of society. The book seeks to understand and interpret political pluralization as an expression of the continuous processes of cooperation and secession that define politics and legitimize institutions. It develops an alternative, sovereignty-free conception of the ‘polis’ sensitive to these unavoidable processes, and assesses the viability of liberal-democratic ideals in a radically pluralized world.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars in philosophy, politics, political economy, international relations, sociology and other social sciences.
CONTENTS
Preface
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Sovereignty and the state
1.2 Replies to political pluralization
1.3 From politics to policy
1.4 Citizen and citizenship
1.5 The environment
1.6 The undiscovered polis
2 POLITICAL PLURALIZATION
2.1 New polities, new problems
2.2 Internationalization
2.3 The treaty culture
2.4 Dehierarchization
2.5 The challenges of political pluralization
2.6 Other directions
3 THE NEED TO INTERFERE
3.1 Authoritative interference
3.2 Politics versus economy: the green battlefield
3.3 Green production
3.4 Payoffs and incentives
3.5 The need for political incentives
3.6 A summary
3.7 Conclusion
4 PRINCIPLES, DISCORD AND CONCORD
4.1 Principles and politics
4.2 Objective truth
4.3 The principle of popularity
4.4 Controlled deliberation
4.5 Philosophical and political liberalism
4.6 Conclusion
5 SUSTAINABILITY AS A POLICY TELOS
5.1 Policy teloi
5.2 Sustainable development: ecology versus environment
5.3 Same telos, different place: liberal versus non-liberal societies
5.4 Perspectives
6 BEYOND POLITICAL PRINCIPLES
6.1 Foundational principles
6.2 Beyond the original position: the archpoint
6.3 The restraint principle
6.4 Beyond the archpoint
6.5 Conclusion
7 ALEXANDRISM
7.1 Cutting a knot
7.2 Swords, axes and tweezers
7.3 Murder as a political tool
7.4 Torture, threats and the reign of terror
7.5 The enlightened despot
7.6 Proceduralism
7.7 Lottery
7.8 Conclusion
8 THE NEW POLIS
8.1 The peppermill
8.2 The myth of the state
8.3 Conceptions of the polis
8.4 Metropolis
8.5 Conclusion
9 CITIZENSHIP IN THE METROPOLIS
9.1 Introduction
9.2 The rise and fall of mass democracy
9.3 The complex concept of representation
9.4 Mass democracy and representation
9.5 Unequal and equal access
9.6 Two futures for substantive representation
10 THE PRINCES OF INDUSTRY
10.1 Two kinds of proactive citizen
10.2 A political history of the economy
10.3 Social responsibility: fields and questions
10.4 The impossibility of responsibility
10.5 The civic role of enterprise
10.6 Conclusion
11 HARMONY AND POLITICAL PLURALIZATION
11.1 A political history
11.2 Legitimate political pluralization
11.3 Justice
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX