bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Kojève, Alexandre (1902–68)
Authors: Nichols, James H.
Published: August 2023

Alexandre Kojève, born in Russia and educated there and in Germany, lived mostly in France, where he powerfully influenced intellectual life through a seminar on Hegel's
Phenomenology of Spirit
that he taught in Paris at the École Pratique des Hautes Études from 1933–9. After the war, he worked as a high‐level counselor in the Bureau of Foreign Economic Affairs of the French Ministry of Economics, where he dealt with such matters as the Marshall Plan, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Economic Community. He died in 1968 at an international meeting in Brussels.
Kolakowski, Leszek (1927–2009)
Authors: Janowski Zbigniew
Published: August 2023

The most notable of Leszek Kolakowski's many works for political thought are
Main Currents of Marxism
(1976) and his study of Dutch Protestantism,
Chrétiens sans église
(1962).
Main Currents of Marxism
is a tour de force of Marxist thought from its conceptual beginnings in the dialectic of the third‐century Greek philosopher Plotinus to 1976 when the work was published. This massive and yet highly readable work was written without a single footnote, which points to the personal character of Kolakowski's enterprise. It is not a work written by a scholar but by someone who lived under the spell of the Marxist idea, contributed to its development, only to emerge from its grip as its most brilliant critic.
Laski, Harold (1893–1950)
Authors: Morefield Jeanne
Published: August 2023

Harold Laski was a pluralist and socialist thinker and long‐time professor of political theory at the London School of Economics. He was best known for his sustained critique of the modern state in the history of political thought. Unlike the institutional pluralism of later American thinkers like Dahl, Laski's pluralism was influenced by early twentieth‐century English and French thinkers such as Neville, Cole, and DeGuit with whom he shared a critique of the idea of state sovereignty originally developed by Bodin and Hobbes.
Late Capitalism
Authors: Nickel Patricia Mooney
Published: August 2023

Late capitalism designates a phase (ca. 1940–) in the historical relationship between economy, government, and culture involving the mode of production, the state, and ideology. The phrase “late capitalism” was debated as early as 1968, notably in Theodor Adorno's opening address to the 16th German Sociological Congress, in which he illustrated how technological rationality eclipsed alternative approaches to social organization and spilled over into everyday life, thus forestalling the realization that capitalism was an irrational means for most people to achieve well‐being. However, the phrase is most often associated with Ernest Mandel and with Fredric Jameson. Although Adorno, Mandel, and Jameson differ in their interpretations of Marxist theory, their respective positions on the historical contestability of capitalism are influenced by the work of Karl Marx.
Latin American Political Thought
Authors: von Vacano Diego
Published: August 2023

The Latin American political tradition is related to, but distinct from, European political ideas. It is not entirely certain if it can be classified as part of the “western” intellectual world, since, in many areas of Spanish and Portuguese America, there was significant influx of Indigenous ideas into the political mindset of thinkers, laws, and policies. To this day, we see a fusion of ideas derived from western European traditions with autochthonous ways of looking at political life in the public affairs of what is now called “Latin America.” Moreover, the very unity (both geographical and cultural) of the region can be called into question owing to the deep diversity of cultures, ethnicities, races, religions, languages, and modes of life that have been present in the area since before the term was employed. There is, however, a strong case to be made that the common trajectories and leitmotifs in the region can be construed as making up a generally coherent tradition of political ideas.
Liberal Theory
Authors: Marwah Inder S.
Published: August 2023

Liberal theory is better characterized as a family of concepts, ideals, and commitments than as a single, readily identifiable doctrine. Reflecting both the principle of toleration from which they emerge and the Enlightenment ideals of freedom and autonomy that run through them, liberal theories are inescapably diverse, mutable, and capacious, crystallizing in myriad ways around a foundational set of moral and political principles. It is thus misleading to speak of liberal theory in singular terms; liberal theory is best understood as a shifting network of moral, political, and philosophical concerns and commitments.
Liberation Theology
Authors: Grigsby Ellen
Published: August 2023

Liberation theology takes as its foundation a concept of God as a being who wills liberation for all peoples from impoverishment, oppression, and other dehumanizing conditions.
Lincoln, Abraham (1809–65)
Authors: Kautz Steven
Published: August 2023

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States (1861–65). He presided over the nation during a period of moral and constitutional crisis arising from the tragedy of American slavery. If Lincoln was “the greatest among those associated with the cause of popular government,” that achievement is due to the respect he showed to the people he led, above all in a series of speeches in the 1850s that challenged them to understand the nature of American democracy and to act, even to the point of Civil War, on that understanding.
Magna Carta
Authors: Worcester Kenton W.
Published: August 2023

The Magna Carta is a medieval charter of rights that was stamped with the king's great seal on June 15, 1215 at Runnymede, on the Thames riverbank in southern England. Revised and reissued following the death of King John, and again in 1217 and 1225, the document was formally incorporated into law at the close of the thirteenth century.
Malcolm X (El‐Hajj Malik El‐Shabazz) (1925–65)
Authors: Ambar Saladin Malik
Published: August 2023

Malcolm X was among the twentieth century's most prolific and uncompromising spokespersons for the human rights of African Americans and those fighting for racial justice throughout the world. His militant stand for black dignity, which is often associated with his signature phrase “by any means necessary,” was seen as both an electrifying and a fearsome call for black self‐determination.
Maoism
Authors: Chandra Uday
Published: August 2023

Maoism refers to an ensemble of revolutionary ideas and practices inspired by the life and work of the Chinese political leader and philosopher Mao Tse‐tung (1893–1976). Broadly, these ideas and practices seek to deploy militant, even violent methods to install a new radical democratic regime that is committed to the collective pursuit of dignity, freedom, and equality.
Marcuse, Herbert (1898–1979)
Authors: Macdonald Bradley J.
Published: August 2023

Herbert Marcuse was a political theorist associated with the first generation of the Frankfurt School, a group of interdisciplinary scholars who promoted and developed a critical theory of society. While all the theorists in this group shared a basic commitment to uncovering the roots and conditions of human oppression and repression in advanced industrial society and to developing philosophical, cultural, and political resources designed to bring about human liberation, Marcuse's theory became the most famous and the most directly political one during their lifetime.
Markets
Authors: Grewal David Singh
Published: August 2023

Markets are institutions that allow for the exchange of commodities. They exist in concrete form when buyers and sellers meet in person to trade goods or services, either through barter, in which goods or services are exchanged directly for other goods or services, or else through money‐mediated transactions, in which currency, a unit of exchange representing value, enables more sophisticated trades among multiple agents or across time. Today, markets are generally understood as enabling the decentralized distribution of goods and services, coordinated through a system of prices and driven by the incentive of (individual) self‐interest.
Mass Media
Authors: Halpern Daniel
Published: August 2023

The term “mass media” involves several analytical dimensions that should be considered to explore its significance in political terms. This entry will explore three perspectives on mass media: medium theory, normative, and instrumental.
Mencius (385–312 BCE)
Authors: Xiao Yang
Published: August 2023

Mencius (Mengzi) is one of the founders of Chinese philosophy. He is regarded as the “second sage” of Confucianism, Confucius (551–479
bce
) being the “first sage.” Virtue politics is at the heart of Mencius's political thought.
Military Ethics
Authors: Axinn Sidney
Published: August 2023

Military ethics refers to the laws of warfare, the basis for knowing what is and what is not an acceptable action during a war. These are the codes established in the Hague Rules (October 1907), the four Geneva Conventions (August 1949), their updates, and the unwritten customary laws of war.
Moral Law
Authors: Formosa Paul
Published: August 2023

What is the moral law and what role does it and should it play in political theory and political practice? In this entry we will try to answer these important questions by first examining what the moral law is, before investigating the different ways in which the relationship between morality and politics can be conceptualized.
Mouffe, Chantal (1943–)
Authors: Wenman Mark
Published: August 2023

Chantal Mouffe started her career in the late 1970s as a Marxist, and today she is one of the leading theorists in the Anglo‐American academy, working with a broadly poststructuralist approach. Mouffe's oeuvre moves through a number of distinct phases: an initial Marxist period elaborated in her first edited volume of 1979,Gramsci and Marxist Theory; a post‐Marxist stage developed in the influential 1985Hegemony and Social Strategy, co‐authored with Ernesto Laclau; and a consolidated period, from the early 1990s on, where Mouffe's work is best understood as part of an emerging tradition of agonistic democracy and where, in particular, she has sought to address the challenges posed by the German legal theorist Carl Schmitt.
National Socialism
Authors: Graf Rüdiger
Published: August 2023

National socialism refers to both an ideology and a political movement that ruled Germany in the years from 1933 to 1945, an epoch which is commonly described as the “Third Reich,” the “national socialist dictatorship,” or simply the “time of national socialism.” It was simultaneously the most important and the least theoretically elaborated version of fascism and has also been defined as a form of totalitarianism that dominated many countries for at least some part of the twentieth century. Its main carriers were the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) and its affiliated organizations.
Nationality
Authors: Alptekin Huseyin
Published: August 2023

The term “nationality” has a variety of meanings, primarily in three contexts: (1) the quality or character of being a nation; (2) the relationship between individuals and their nations; and (3) a normative principle concerning the proper relationship between nations and states.
Natural Rights
Authors: Dow Douglas C.
Published: August 2023

The concept of natural rights posits the existence of certain rights that are understood to be possessed by all individual persons, universally and equally distributed, and not contingent upon any particular governmental concession. While the full and proper recognition of natural rights by political authorities may be dependent upon time and place, their real existence does not derive from human sources. Rather, they are given by God, or constitute part of an ordered and lawful universe. Natural rights may authorize persons to resist the arbitrary exercise of power, especially by governmental authorities.
Neoliberalism
Authors: Engelmann Stephen G.
Published: August 2023

In political theory, “neoliberalism” (also “neo‐liberalism”) names a movement of theory and practice that emerged in the early to mid‐twentieth century in response to socialism and the welfare state. This movement emphasized a renewal of individual liberty that embraced an apparent contradiction: antiplanning planning, through the mobilization of competitive individual initiative in the service of aggregate ends. This mobilization has proceeded above all by means of a cathexis in and through individual choice. Unlike eighteenth‐century laissez‐faire, neoliberalism at its most rigorous is avowedly constructivist: it does not make providential assumptions about a natural order that will emerge from the withdrawal of state action. But it sees the state as hostile to individual initiative, and as a potentially unjust and unproductive picker of winners and losers in the game of life. Neoliberal theory and practice have become dominant across political parties in developed countries and beyond, showing few signs of flagging even in the wake of economic crises of increasing severity. Neoliberal ascendancy appears to continue despite the fact that the post‐2007 predicament has been broadly recognized as a crisis of the Anglo‐American model of deregulated, finance‐led capitalism most closely associated with neoliberalism, and despite the fact that crisis management has been marked by massive state action in support of collapsing markets.
Nonviolence
Authors: Hutchings Kimberly
Published: August 2023

“Nonviolence” refers to a commitment to the use of nonviolent tactics to achieve political ends. The commitment to nonviolent tactics is most commonly rooted in moral or religious values, as in the thought of Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, or Martin Luther King. Nonviolence is closely associated with pacifism, but the two are not synonymous. Nonviolence is what happens when pacifism inspires an alternative way of doing politics.
Okin, Susan Moller (1946–2004)
Authors: Follesdal Andreas
Published: August 2023

Susan Moller Okin, an egalitarian feminist liberal, reconstructed the history of political thought to correct for the absence, exclusion, or distortion of women, gendered culture, and reproduction. She developed the social contract tradition to secure family and gender central place, highlighted the plight of minority women in multicultural societies, and contributed to women‐centered development policies.
Pateman, Carole (1940–)
Authors: Bennich‐Björkman Li
Published: August 2023

Carole Pateman is a British‐born political theorist who now resides in the USA. She graduated from Oxford, as one of the first in her family to receive a degree in higher education, and is presently teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2011 she held the prestigious position of president of the American Political Science Association (APSA), and in 2012 was awarded the Johan Skytte Prize in political science for outstanding contributions to the discipline. In 1970,
Participation and Democratic Theory
was published, a book that questioned the then prevailing theory on elite democracy, while reconnecting to traditions of participation as both individually and collectively beneficial.
Participation and Democratic Theory
gained rapid renown and is a classic in democratic theory. Pateman has since become one of the most influential representatives for participatory democracy, and in her presidential address at the APSA in 2011, she returned to this topic by reflecting upon recent experiments of participatory budgeting in Latin America.
Pitkin, Hanna F. (1931–)
Authors: Ring Jennifer , Mathiowetz Dean
Published: August 2023

Born in Berlin, the daughter of psychoanalyst Otto Fenichel and Clare (née Nathansohn) Fenichel, Hanna Fenichel Pitkin immigrated in 1938 to the United States with her parents, to escape Nazi anti‐Semitism. Pitkin's most significant innovation in political theory lies in her work on language and concepts. Throughout her writings, Pitkin returns to the question of how the political and moral problems that arise in political theorizing, judgment, and action must be understood in relation to the concepts that bear the cleavages of political life as we meet them every day.
Political Leadership
Authors: Keohane Nannerl O.
Published: August 2023

When most of us think about political life, one of the words that first spring to mind is “leadership.” Yet this term rarely appears in the canonical works of political theory. This is partly a matter of language. As Joseph Rost notes, the word “leadership” did not appear in dictionaries until the nineteenth century. Both Greek and Latin (and consequently modern Romance languages as well) lack a single word that can easily be translated as “leadership.” Yet political theory across the centuries is rich in discussions of ruling and governing, kings and princes, power and authority. It is difficult to think of political theory without such concepts, which are closely connected with leadership. In this sense, political theory is like a play in which a key character is rarely on stage, but is nonetheless intensely present from the first act to the final curtain.
Political Novel
Authors: Ciliotta‐Rubery Andrea
Published: August 2023

In Ivan Turgenev's
Fathers and Sons
, the impressionable Arcady Kirsanov attempts to defend his uncle Pavel before his radical friend Bazarov. Amid Bazarov's unyielding ridicule of the Anglophile's dress, manners, and overall presence, Arcady insists that his friend has erred in his judgment. In a few words, Arcady reveals the distinct power of the political novel to somehow give voice and meaning to the experiences of man, in the shape of “his story,” while confronting the powerful force of another's political ideology. In this instance, it is Bazarov's commitment to nihilism that comes into direct confrontation with Pavel's aesthetic adoption of western ideas and mores. This type of confrontation between ideology and human experience is the hallmark of the political novel.
Political Theology
Authors: Thiem Annika
Published: August 2023

In twentieth‐century political theory, political theology is most closely associated with the name of the German jurist Carl Schmitt (1888–1985). Schmitt argues that modern politics continues to have structural theological underpinnings and examines the transfer of theological concepts into modern political theory. Yet the debates conducted under the auspices of “political theology” or “the theological‐political problem” have also at various times included discussions concerning more generally the role of religion in politics, the relationship between religious and political power, the political implications of the dispersion of religious commitments and theological qualities into spheres that are not primarily religious (such as economics), and the religious and political presuppositions for religious pluralism, as well as assumptions about secularity and the neutrality of the public sphere, its norms, and institutions. All these strands interlace and draw on each other in ways that are hardly neatly separable, and what may appear as “political theology” proper morphs into a discussion of “public religion” and vice versa, so that while not reducible to each other, the two discursive frameworks also cannot be entirely severed from each other. In this light, this entry will trace out the discussions that have historically been negotiated under the umbrella of the term “political theology” and make some suggestions for mapping the current conjunctures. While most religious traditions have produced reflections on the relationship among that tradition, its practices, and politics, the discussion of “political theology” presented here will focus on engagements with the Christian theological tradition broadly construed.
Politics and Literature
Authors: McWilliams Susan
Published: August 2023

Much of what we recognize as political thought has been written down with attention to order and form, which is to say that it could be classified within the most general category of “literature.” And all political scientists communicate via the printed word, imbuing the study of politics with an unavoidably literary dimension. Yet invoking the phrase “politics and literature” in the context of political theory implies a more specific, although not small‐scale, series of questions, issues, and debates. These questions, issues, and debates have persisted throughout the history of political thought, drawing attention not only to the political dimensions of fiction, poetry, and storytelling, but also to the complex and contestable nature of political theory itself.
Postcolonial Feminism
Authors: Zuckerwise Lena K.
Published: August 2023

Born out of resistance to the exclusions and generalizations of second‐wave feminism, postcolonial feminism is a critical approach to theory that takes aim at the legacies of colonialism and their ongoing effects on women and gender. Though there is a rich diversity of social and political convictions among postcolonial feminists, they all share a commitment to attend to the literal and symbolic forms of violence that emerge from universalist assumptions about women, including the idea that they are all united as a sisterhood.
Postsecularism
Authors: Cassatella Andrea
Published: August 2023

It is not entirely clear what is meant by postsecularism. As a relatively new concept in political thought, it is still in the process of being formulated. Neverthless, postsecularism can be described as a broad concept referring to a constellation of positions that rethink secularism by responding to a version of the “secularization thesis.” Usually attributed to Max Weber, this thesis suggests the progressive privatization and decline of religion under the forces of modernization. The commitment to re‐examine this conception of secularism comes from a recognition that contemporary society is in some sense “postsecular,” in other words it is a society in which religion is neither in retreat nor in decline but persists in political discourse and practice.
Price, Richard (1723–91)
Authors: Dow Douglas C.
Published: August 2023

Richard Price was a British dissenting minister, known for his moral philosophy, theology, and work in the fields of actuary sciences and demography. Price's reputation as a political thinker derives from his commitment to natural rights and self‐governance and from his full‐throated defense of the English, American, and French Revolutions.
Privacy
Authors: Richardson Janice
Published: August 2023

There have been extended efforts to define “privacy” within political thought and the social sciences as well as within the context of legal disputes in the courts. In political theory, the public/private divide is associated mostly with the liberal tradition, in which privacy is linked to a private sphere that designates an area of life in which an individual can tell both the state and others that access to
his
body or information about him, including his correspondence, is “none of their business.” This has historically been gendered and associated with private property ownership, which gives the right to exclude others from a particular place, in particular the family home. In common law countries wives did not have the right to refuse their husbands access to their bodies until late into the twentieth century. For example, in the UK this marital exception to the rape laws persisted until a famous case in 1992. This last remnant of the doctrine of coverture persisted beyond other relationships that were defined by status.
Proudhon, Pierre‐Joseph (1809–65)
Authors: Prichard Alex
Published: August 2023

Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon was the first to clearly articulate a political philosophy of anarchism. Born in the Franche‐Comté region of France, Pierre‐Joseph's father was a cooper and his mother a cook. Proudhon's schooling was cut short due to the family's poverty, but when he later took work with a notable local printing press he taught himself Latin, Greek, and Hebrew while typesetting staple religious works. He was also exposed to more radical ideas while printing Charles Fourier's idiosyncratic works. At the age of 20, he won a scholarship to study in Paris, where he became intimately acquainted with radical European philosophy, from Kantian idealism to Michelet's universal history. However, it was the iniquities of bourgeois property relations that would inspire his first major work.
What Is Property? Or an Investigation into the Principle of Right and of Government
(1994 [1840]) made an instant mark and was quickly suppressed. Proudhon declared war on the established order with his now infamous view that “All property is theft!”
Przeworski, Adam (1940–)
Authors: Lawrence Andrew G.
Published: August 2023

Adam Przeworski is a Polish American professor of political science, best known for his analyses of democracy and political economy, in particular the political determinants of economic development and vice versa, combining analytical philosophy with quantitative methods. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1991, and the Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of European Studies, Politics, and Economics at the Wilf Family Department of Politics of New York University since 1995.
Public Goods
Authors: Baird Ryan G.
Published: August 2023

Pure public goods are defined by two characteristics; they are both nonrival and nonexcludable. They are nonrival goods in that their value is not lessened by the use of others. They are nonexcludable goods in that a person cannot be prevented from using it, whether they have paid for it or not. There are also “impure” public goods; they arise due to “congestion costs.” These costs arise when so many people are using the public good that the benefit of it is reduced for additional users. Public roads during rush hour are impure public goods.
Public Philosophy
Authors: Pasquali Francesca
Published: August 2023

Public philosophyhas no univocal meaning. On the one hand, it indicates a set of publicly shared principles and values, which, within a given context, regulate political practices, provide guidance and justification for policy decisions, and orient public debates and individual conduct. On the other hand, public philosophy may be intended as a specific approach to political philosophy, characterized by its primary concern with addressing and clarifying public questions. It is worth noticing that the two meanings tend to overlap and that public philosophy may be employed as a neutral and descriptive expression – indicating principles and values actually embedded in the practices at stake – or it may be attached with a normative and prescriptive significance – designating principles and values that ought to shape the relevant practices.
Public–Private Distinction
Authors: Howard Dana
Published: August 2023

A distinction between “the public” and “the private” realm of human life has featured centrally throughout the development of western conceptions of politics. However, from the nineteenth century on, the distinction itself, along with its practical role in legitimating certain social inequalities and exclusionary political practices, has increasingly been the subject of a number of important political, social, economic, and philosophical critiques. While there are many debates over how specifically to carve up these two spheres, “the private” generally connotes the elements of one's social life in which intrusion or interference from others “requires special justification,” whereas “the public” connotes elements of social life that are more readily and aptly accessible to all. Most who have written on the distinction agree that there issomeprivate realm of one's social life that should be immune to policing by the state or by public opinion. However, where to draw the boundary that distinguishes the private from the public and what makes that boundary of any normative significance to political theory remain disputed.
Queenship
Authors: Shadis Miriam
Published: August 2023

This entry focuses on queenship in the west. Historically, women have become queens either through marriage (more common) or through inheritance. A woman who becomes queen through marriage is sometimes referred to as a “queen‐consort,” whereas one who becomes queen through inheritance is a “queen‐regnant.” This contrasts with male kingship, which is more usually achieved through inheritance, sometimes through election, sometimes by conquest, and rarely through marriage. Kings, furthermore, are not identified in a qualified manner (as regnant, or consort). Thus the sources of the status of “queen,” and the scope of authority attached to that status are relational, and clearly gendered.
Racism
Authors: Alexander‐Floyd Nikol G.
Published: August 2023

Racism involves a society's creation and maintenance of a socioeconomic and political hierarchy based on racial categories. These racial categories are ostensibly based on phenotypic differences, most notably skin color, but also hair texture and other aspects of one's physicality. These differences, moreover, are thought to correspond to variations in innate intellectual ability, moral propriety, and emotional stability. Racism, then, serves to both constitute and legitimate unequal distribution of societal resources and political power, a reality that, in large part, explains the persistence of race, even though its scientific basis has long been discredited. Importantly, just as our definitions of racial groupings vary by time and context, so does the operation of racism. And since our understandings of these racial groupings are also generally gendered and classed, we cannot understand racism's operation outside of its connection to sexism and class strife.
Rationalism
Authors: Czobor‐Lupp Mihaela
Published: August 2023

In its most general sense, rationalism originates in Socratic self‐examination, namely, in the critical investigation of commonly held opinions and beliefs. In a more specific sense, classical (pre‐seventeenth‐century) rationalism originates in the philosophy of Plato (theory of Forms). Modern rationalism originates in the work of René Descartes, Benedict Spinoza, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. However, with specific relevance to political philosophy, modern rationalism takes its impetus from Immanuel Kant's notion of critique and from the complex and, sometimes, irreconcilable cluster of ideas that is called the Enlightenment. Kant denies that reason can provide us with knowledge about metaphysical issues. Instead, reason can improve experience and the actual world of politics.
Realpolitik
Authors: Humphreys Adam R. C.
Published: August 2023

Realpolitik is an approach to foreign policy in which preservation of the state and promotion of the national interest are the ultimate goals and power is the primary tool for achieving those ends. Associated historically with leaders such as Richelieu, Bismarck, Stresemann, and Kissinger, it may be understood as the practical counterpart to the realist school of international relations theory.
Reason
Authors: Martel James
Published: August 2023

The concept of reason is liberalism's answer to the question of how human beings can make decisions without the explicit guidance of divine law. It serves, in effect, as a replacement for (or embellishment to) divine sources of judgment. Reason is generally seen as a guide or lodestone for each of us as we struggle to make sense of the world around us and our place within it. More specifically, reason is that concept which emerges as the basis for much of liberal political thought today. Liberal thinkers from Locke to Kant to Rawls have argued that by consulting reason, human beings are capable of moral and ethical decisions even in the absence of the certainty of divine guidance and/or punishment. It is therefore a crucial concept and much of the political order of the last five centuries has been based on assumptions about its existence and how it operates.
Rebellion, Right of
Authors: Rigstad Mark
Published: August 2023

In the primary, full‐blooded sense of the term, political “rebellion” is forceful internal resistance to a ruling order. Its etymology is rooted in the Latinrebellio, which refers to a renewal of warfare that disrupts an established peace. The methods of force employed in rebellions are various. They may include, for example, a military coup d’état, clandestine or open political assassination, guerilla warfare, terrorist violence, sabotage of infrastructure, destruction of public and private property, and violent mob riots, whether armed or unarmed. The presence of such methods of force distinguishes full‐blooded rebellion from civil disobedience and peaceful dissent. Protest gatherings, labor strikes, acts of self‐immolation, and other such pacific methods of political dissent may spark full‐blooded rebellion, but they do not in themselves constitute it.
Relativism
Authors: Caputi Mary
Published: August 2023

Within the history of political theory, the term “relativism” has a long and varied past. It does not refer to a consistent set of meanings, but denotes an amalgam of ideas that share various points of overlap thanks to common intellectual and moral concerns. Despite this inevitable disarray, “relativism” still resonates with a degree of clarity for all involved: it designates the absence of a uniform, shared standard with which to interpret the world, highlighting the fact that people live, think, reason, and believe differently. In all its guises, relativism has consistently refuted the claim that abiding epistemological and moral assertions are available to everyone in a similar manner. Frequently, the term is associated with the field of anthropology, for in the early twentieth century the work of the German American anthropologist Franz Boas (1858–1942) made the concept of relativism axiomatic to that discipline. His ideas, in turn, were further popularized through the writings of Margaret Mead (1901–78), whose study of sexual mores in the South Pacific and in Southeast Asian cultures had a profound impact on western culture in the 1960s.
Representation
Authors: Montanaro Laura
Published: August 2023

The action of speaking, acting, or standing for a person, group, or thing. Also, the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way. In politics, representation arises when an actor speaks, acts, or stands for a group, so providing political presence for that group, to an audience. Democratic representation is a specific phenomenon of the general form, which arises when this activity occurs with the authorization of the represented, who can also demand accountability.
Reproduction
Authors: Repo Jemima
Published: August 2023

The issue of reproduction is associated with state intervention and government policies in the twentieth century as much as it is with radical feminist calls for women to counter sexual exploitation by taking control of their bodies. Possessing an elusive status in political thought, it has been conceptualized by feminists, Marxists, poststructuralists, and queer theorists alternatively as a biological process, a mode or form of labor, an object of governance, and the basis of sexual oppression. In turn, the development of the sexual division of labor has been ascribed to the structures and practices of everyday life imposed by liberalism, capitalism, and patriarchy. Lacking a self‐explanatory meaning yet capable of producing critical insights into the relationship between politics and the body, motherhood, and political economy, it has also been a contentious yet crucial concept in feminist theory and politics. This entry proceeds by examining the place of reproduction in early liberal political thought and feminist politics, followed by a more careful examination of reproduction in theorizations of the sexual division of labor, and then by a reflection on reproductive biopolitics and the place of reproduction in the progress‐oriented narrative of human history.
Republicanism
Authors: MacGilvray Eric
Published: August 2023

Republicanism is a political ideology that gives a central role to values such as liberty, civic virtue, self‐government, political independence, and the pursuit of the common good. It has a long and complicated history that stretches back to the very beginnings of western political thought, and has emerged in recent years as one of the most widely discussed and contested topics among intellectual historians and political philosophers.
Rights
Authors: Mitnick Eric J.
Published: August 2023

Rights today are most commonly conceptualized as individual or group‐based possessory interests or entitlements to engage or not engage in certain actions, or to be free of the actions of others.
Riker, William H. (1920–93)
Authors: McLean Iain
Published: August 2023

William Riker pioneered what he called “positive political theory” and “heresthetics.” The first has become a leading approach to comparative government and political economy. The second, after a faltering start, is gaining growing acceptance in the study of politics and political history.
Russell, Bertrand (1872–1970)
Authors: Stone Peter
Published: August 2023

Philosopher, humanist, social commentator, and political crusader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Russell's professional work encompassed many areas of philosophy, including logic, epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science. But almost all of his work on ethics and politics was popular in nature. For most of his life, Russell adhered to emotivism, a metaethical position holding that ethical statements were mere expressions of feeling, without meaning or truth value.
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1788–1860)
Authors: Cartwright David E.
Published: August 2023

The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer is best known for his metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, and the pessimism of his philosophy. Just as he had little personal concern for the politics of his day, he had relatively little concern for political philosophy. Consequently, what Schopenhauer wrote about political theory and philosophy was subordinate to and driven by his metaphysics and ethics. Yet the integration of his political philosophy within a comprehensive metaphysical‐ethical standpoint provides depth to his thought.
Schumpeter, Joseph Alois (1883–1950)
Authors: Medearis John
Published: August 2023

Schumpeter's most noted contribution to political philosophy has been his competitive elite theory of democracy, but his thought was diverse and wide‐ranging. His conceptualization of democracy was itself entwined in a rich theory of social, political, and economic transformation, the focus of his best‐known work,Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. His influence among some conservative thinkers, on the other hand, derives largely from his novel contributions as an economist. And his interests in social theory ranged across disciplinary boundaries to subjects from the causes of imperialism to the status of individualist axioms.
Secession
Authors: Griffiths Ryan D.
Published: August 2023

The term “secession” has a long history. It is derived from the Latin word
secessio
, which referred to the withdrawal of plebeians from Rome as a form of protest against the patricians. Over time the term was applied to a range of settings, including withdrawal from the church and other nonpolitical organizations. However, by the nineteenth century the term came to denote the permanent withdrawal of a territory and population from a state.
Separatism
Authors: Østerud Øyvind
Published: August 2023

Separatism is the advocacy of separation from another group, whether that group is governmental, ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, or based on gender. The aim of separation may be complete territorial secession, or some measure of autonomy within the larger unit. Separatism implies the idea of some generic characteristics as crucial for an autonomous existence.
Sexism
Authors: Little Kimberley
Published: August 2023

Sexism is discrimination or a discriminatory attitude based on an individual's sex and/or gender. It is an invisible tool primarily deployed against women and is based solely on a woman's biological identity. Discrimination in any form is fundamentally wrong, since it is based on a characteristic that is immutable (without external processes) and is reflective of stereotypical and contrived perceptions of a particular group. Sexism originates from the overemphasis of biological differences between men and women, differences based on the physiological distinctions between the male and female bodies, but more specifically, on the reproductive capacity of women. It is not merely this distinction that constitutes sexism. Rendering one sex superior to the other constructs a system that translates into definitions of gender that flow from this biological distinction. Other discriminatory practices that stem from these arbitrary notions regarding biological diversity include racism, classism, heterosexism, and ageism.
Shklar, Judith Nisse (1928–92)
Authors: Strong Tracy B.
Published: August 2023

Judith Nisse Shklar was born in Riga, Latvia and escaped the Nazi occupation of 1941 by fleeing, with her family, first to Norway and then across the USSR. She attended McGill University in Montreal, obtaining her BA and MA degrees there. She took classes in McGill from the American political theorist Frederick Watkins, who encouraged her to pursue political theory as a career. She was awarded her doctorate from Harvard in 1955, working principally with Carl Joachim Friedrich. Upon matriculation she was offered an instructorship (then the starting position at Harvard) and, except for visiting positions, she spent all of her academic career there. She was always conscious of being an exile and her political theory is to some degree shaped by the recognition of that fact.
Slave Morality
Authors: Brace Laura
Published: August 2023

“Slave morality” is a concept most closely associated with the political thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, and in its distinction between master and slave, it recalls G. W. F. Hegel's master/slave dialectic. Both examine the value of morality to give an ethical account of political agency and of freedom. The idea of a distinct “slave morality” works on the assumption that the state is always characterized by a political hierarchy, an order that distinguishes between nobles and slaves. That political distinction is then transformed into a psychological concept of rank, so that the nobles (or the masters) are able to tell and control the story of freedom, and of morality, and to oppress their slaves on the grounds that “the slaves of history are those who lack the spirit of freedom.” Such accounts of morality raise questions about possible counternarratives of freedom for the “slaves of history,” and about how to understand the agency and selfhood of those who have been systematically marginalized, dominated, and defined by others with more power.
Social Contract
Authors: Ellis Elisabeth
Published: August 2023

“Social contract” means different things in different contexts; there is no single authoritative social contract theory. In present‐day popular discourse, the phrase is often used to denote a more or less tacit agreement in which the people remain obedient in exchange for a minimum package of social conditions.
Socialist Feminism
Authors: Stewart Pamela J.
Published: August 2023

The term, socialist feminism, most often represents theories and practices initiated by the mid‐1970s, which work to analyze male domination and socioeconomic oppression and exploitation as inter‐related institutions and cultures. This analysis counters prior arguments, including Marxist perspectives, suggesting that once class (or racial or global economic) disparities could be leveled, sex‐based discrimination would end. Simultaneously, it inserted a socialist critique of women's marginalization in capitalist economic structures into liberal feminist arguments suggesting that changing laws and attitudes, but not necessarily economic structures, would create equality for women. For socialist feminists, analysis that confronts only male domination or economic and material injustice is insufficient in explaining or altering women's marginalized status.
Soul
Authors: Allman Dwight D.
Published: August 2023

The idea of the soul (psychē), conceived as an important concern of social‐political inquiry and analysis, begins with Socrates (469–399 bce). In Plato'sApology, Socrates defends his lifelong devotion to the practice of philosophy by contending for the priority of caring for the soul, both his own and those of his fellow citizens. Xenophon (ca. 430–354 bce) also portrays Socrates in his dialogues as having recourse to the idea of the soul in order to explain and to defend the practice of philosophy as a source of private as well as public good.
Spinoza, Benedict de (1632–77)
Authors: Gatens Moira
Published: August 2023

Baruch (later Benedict) Spinoza was born on November 24, 1632, into Amsterdam's Jewish community. In the late sixteenth century the relatively tolerant Dutch Republic had offered asylum for Spanish and Portuguese Jews fleeing the Inquisition. Some of those escaping persecution had been forced to adopt at least the outward appearance of the Christian faith and were known as “conversos” or “Marranos.” One strand of Spinoza commentary holds that an understanding of his ethno‐religious background as aconversois necessary in order to grasp the complexity of his philosophy. The idea that he wrote in a “dual language,” where the esoteric meaning was hidden beneath an innocuous surface, is reasonable given that to openly challenge theological authorities at the time he was writing was to court persecution, imprisonment, and even death. Spinoza was generally a prudent man; his signet ring was incised with “CAUTE” (Latin for “be careful”). Despite opportunities to publish his works in Dutch, he cautiously restricted his readership by publishing in Latin rather than in the vernacular. However, caution does not amount to concealment. The idea that Spinoza deliberately wrote in a self‐consciously duplicitous style is hard to tally with the fact that in 1656, when he was 24 years old, he was formally ostracized from the Jewish community through the pronouncement of a sterncheremfor his “abominable heresies.”
Teleology
Authors: Choat Simon
Published: August 2023

The word “teleology” derives from the Greek telos, usually translated as goal or purpose. It refers to the view that phenomena can be explained in terms of their purpose, function, or goal. In political thought, teleological arguments have been used to justify the existence and functions of the state by reference to the purpose of human life. Each of the three dominant traditions in political and moral philosophy – Aristotelian, utilitarian, and Kantian – relies to some extent on teleological claims.