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Political Theory

Selected Works

2012

Politics

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

South Sudan-Sudan Relations In The Light Of Current Conflicts And Border Disputes, Anne Hamilton Dec 2012

South Sudan-Sudan Relations In The Light Of Current Conflicts And Border Disputes, Anne Hamilton

Anne Hamilton

The 2012 South Sudan–Sudan border war was an armed conflict between the states of Sudan and the South Sudan in 2012 over oil-rich regions between the South Sudan's Unity and the Sudan's. South Kordofan The oil rich region Heglig is well under the control of the Republic of Sudan. Certain areas involved, notably Abyei, are claimed by both sides as part of their sovereign territory. In September 2012, a series of eight agreements were made, resolving most aspects of the conflict. Background South Sudan's independence was preceded by two civil wars, from 1955-1972 and from 1983- 2005 in which 2.5 …


Discourse And Argument In Instituting The Governance Of Social Law, Richard Weiner Mar 2012

Discourse And Argument In Instituting The Governance Of Social Law, Richard Weiner

Richard R Weiner

Social Rights were initially understood as the rights of a pluralism of instituted associations; and transformed to the rights of distributive justice associated with the politics of access to welfare state corporatism. More recently, they have been understood as the rights of multicultural difference; and now as the rights to complexity (Zolo), and rights to consideration of polycontextural effect vis-�- vis transnational corporations (Teubner). Social rights are no longer subject positions versus political bodies, but also against social institutions, in particular, vis-�-vis centers of economic power.


Complementary Institutions And Reflexive Governance In Autonomous Social Law, Richard R. Weiner Mar 2012

Complementary Institutions And Reflexive Governance In Autonomous Social Law, Richard R. Weiner

Richard R Weiner

We approach institutions as stabilizing structures with consequences of functional incorporateness. Yet we also imagine, assert and enact claims and warrants as institutionalizable practices. There are functional supports. And there are the warranted claims of categorical normativity. Normativity in itself can be understood in terms of compliance with or acquiescence in legitimating structures. Yet normativity itself can be understood as a solidarism we intersubjectively co-constitute. The challenge in political thought has been dealing with the disincorporateness associated with modernity, specifically how a new order and dialogue may be of heterogeneous social values. A new way of ordering socioeconomic relationships of …


Traces Of The Stillborn? , Richard Weiner Mar 2012

Traces Of The Stillborn? , Richard Weiner

Richard R Weiner

The architect Daniel Libeskind has written a noted lecture, "Traces of the Unborn." We might add, "Traces of the Stillborn." There is a tendency in historical institutionalism (HI) to concentrate on the retrieval of traces of paths taken rather than (1) to consider the processes involved in the selection of paths; and (2) to reflect upon the conditions of institutional emergence and sedimentation of paths, whether taken or untaken. Contrary to the path-dependency obsessed historical institutionalism of a Paul Pierson, this paper stresses the significance of historical case studies of institutional emergence in the earlier 20th century and …


Piacular Subjectivity And Contested Narrative In The Imre Nagy Memorials, Karl Benziger, Richard Weiner Mar 2012

Piacular Subjectivity And Contested Narrative In The Imre Nagy Memorials, Karl Benziger, Richard Weiner

Richard R Weiner

The funeral of Imre Nagy on June 16, 1989 can be seen as a critical moment in the Hungarian transition to a democratic republic as it explicitly undermined the moral and political authority of the communist government then in power. This Nagy memorial signified a longing for a national identity tied to the spirit of republicanism that had been thwarted in 1956 and had roots going back to 1848. The unity of purpose displayed by the Hungarian people at the funeral brings to mind Emile Durkheim_s analysis of piaculum and the conscience collective. This is what the sociologist, Robert Bellah …


Arendtian Action And The Camp: Understanding The Connection Between Totalitarianism And Politics, Corey Dethier Feb 2012

Arendtian Action And The Camp: Understanding The Connection Between Totalitarianism And Politics, Corey Dethier

Corey Dethier

This paper argues for a reconceptualization of Arendt's concept of action based on her account of and experience with totalitarianism. Using Origins of Totalitarianism as a guide to what Arendt sees as the breakdown of a functioning society, it reconstructs her conception of politics found inThe Human Condition and On Revolution to show that what Arendt aims for is a form of government that can prevent the spread of totalitarianism and its characteristics. From this perspective, it argues that Arendt's concepts of politics and action are designed to create a public aware of its plurality and primarily concerned with protecting …


Course Syllabus: Harry Potter And International Politics - Identity, Violence And Social Control, Emma Norman Dec 2011

Course Syllabus: Harry Potter And International Politics - Identity, Violence And Social Control, Emma Norman

Emma R. Norman

The themes we draw from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are used to illuminate parallels in contemporary world politics and to apprehend in detail some of the key problems that revolve around the three core themes of the course (identity, violence, and social control). How, for instance, does life in Hogwarts help to illuminate the multiple, crosscutting identities produced by globalization? How does the divide between wizards and muggles, or Hermione’s obsession with elvish welfare, serve to illuminate continued discrimination in current liberal democracies and do these narratives help to widen our options when it comes to minimizing it? What …