It is said in some quarters that political theory need not, and perhaps should not, be a “historical” enterprise. It should be concerned with discovering and articulating timeless truths or addressing “perennial problems.” Or it should be an ahistorical “analytical” study in which one aims to answer important questions definitively and once and for all. The author argues that these and other attempts to de-historicize political theory are misguided and that, indeed, political theory is inescapably historical in several senses of that term. Firstly, works of political theory are written in particular places and times by authors attempting to address particular questions. Secondly, these works are received and read by audiences in other times. And thirdly, the meanings of these works are interpreted by readers through the medium of one or another interpretive framework, which is itself historically datable. All these considerations point to the conclusion that political theory is necessarily “historical.”
Search Results
You are looking at 1 - 10 of 330 items for :
- "political theory" x
- Refine by Access: All content x
- Refine by Content Type: All x
In Contributions to the History of Concepts
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2006
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 7–18 (12 total)
Political Theory and Political Science
Can This Marriage Be Saved?
Terence Ball
The too-often unhappy 'marriage' of political theory and political science has long been a source of anguish for both partners. Should this troubled partnership be dissolved? Or might this marriage yet be saved? Ball answers the former question negatively and the latter affirmatively. Playing the part of therapist instead of theorist, he selectively recounts a number of episodes which estranged the partners and strained the marriage. And yet, he concludes that the conflicts were in hindsight more constructive than destructive, benefiting both partners in heretofore unexpected ways and perhaps paving a path toward reconciliation and rapprochement.
Maša Mrovlje and Jennet Kirkpatrick
in political theory, standing at the heart of attempts to respond to the dilemmas of contemporary times. However, many accounts tend to ascribe to an idealised, heroic view. In this view, resistance represents a clear-cut action against injustice and
Marcelo Hoffman
Anxiety about the party form casts a long shadow over various currents of radical political theory. This anxiety is rooted in historical experiences and legacies not only among long-established communist and socialist parties in Europe but
Modern Revolutions and Beyond
An Interview with John Dunn
Benjamin Abrams and John Dunn
, and remains perhaps the most impactful piece of political theory published on the topic in the last fifty years. Though Modern Revolutions itself only received one formal English-language update, in 1989, Dunn’s theory of revolution has continued to
Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice
Democratic Theory through an Agonistic Lens
Marie Paxton
Introduction The question of “where does democratic theory's value lie?” is timely and much needed. In an era of cuts to the social sciences and, more specifically, political science and political theory, it is fundamental to defend the
In Democratic Theory
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2019
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 85–95 (11 total)
Christian Fuchs and John Collier
Economic logic impinges on contemporary political theory through both economic reductionism and economic methodology applied to political decision-making (through game theory). The authors argue that the sort of models used are based on mechanistic and linear methodologies that have now been found wanting in physics. They further argue that complexity based self-organization methods are better suited to model the complexities of economy and polity and their interactions with the overall social system.
Amílcar Cabral and Amartya Sen
Freedom, Resistance and Radical Realism
Lawrence Hamilton
. – Amartya Sen (1980: 218 ) Much mainstream political theory and development studies has tended to be too parochial, abstract and cautious to be of practical help in orienting agents in politics, to help us judge what is a good or a bad idea and to decide
The End of Revolution, and Its Means
Processual and Programmatic Approaches to Revolution in the Epoch of Revolution Debate
Benjamin Abrams
of other political theory, we are intuitively tempted to try to derive naturalistic pronouncements from his work. We presume that when Dunn says that the “Epoch of Revolution” has passed, he is stating that there will be no more historical phenomena
Ethnicity, Homogeneity, Nation
A Relationship of Tension
Samuel Salzborn
the Twenty-first Century ’. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 61 ( 144 ): 19 – 39 . doi: 10.3167/th.2015.6214402 . Salzborn , S. 2017 . Kampf der Ideen: Die Geschichte politischer Theorien im Kontext [Battle of ideas: The