bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Coercion
Authors: Viehoff Daniel Viehoff and Juri 
Published: August 2023

AbstractClaims about coercion play a significant role in some of the most important questions in political philosophy: most ordinary citizens as well as philosophers think that the exercise of power by the state and other political institutions is coercive, and as such requires special justification. Political philosophy, it has been assumed, must assess both the truth of that claim and its relevance for whether or not states, in general, can be justified. Whether the state (or its law) isalwaysornecessarilycoercive is a central question in the philosophy of law. Under what conditions a state exercising coercive power can be justified is the question that informs all major works in the social contract tradition since Thomas Hobbes'sLeviathan.
Commercial Society
Authors: Turner Brandon P. 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

The term “commercial society” refers to attempts to theorize systematically the matrix of relationships and behaviors that emerged during the processes of rapidly evolving labor and goods markets, rising standards of living, and shifting class relations which occurred in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These processes occupied many of the pre‐eminent thinkers of the day, roused new lines of social scientific inquiry – in particular, what is today referred to as the study of political economy – and inspired many of the great figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. The most pre‐eminent of these theorists, Adam Smith, argued in book I of
The Wealth of Nations
(1776) that commercial society arises when the division of labor is “thoroughly established,” forcing highly specialized laborers to sell and barter their labor surplus in an increasingly intricate marketplace: “every man thus lives by exchanging, or becomes in some measure a merchant.” In addition to the division of labor, Smith and others pointed to a system of robust property rights, a rigorous application of the rule of law, relatively broad freedom of movement for economic actors (especially laborers), and expanding domestic and international markets as the hallmarks of commercial society.
Commonwealth
Authors: Steeves Rouven 
Published: August 2023

AbstractThe word commonwealth is a compound of the Old English words “common” and “weal,” which entails a more classic understanding of “wealth” as “well‐being.” A commonwealth in its most general sense therefore involves a conception of common and public well‐being with respect to various forms of human association, without being tied to any particular form of government. There exists no comprehensive and systemic definition, though in both classic and early modern formulations the term never fails to evoke a sense of social, political, or sociopolitical community concerned with public well‐being – the common‐wealth. Only with the political turmoil plaguing seventeenth‐century Europe, especially in England, does the term begin to become a point of controversy with respect to its meaning and implications for sociopolitical order.
Condorcet, Marie‐Jean, Marquis de (1743–94)
Authors: Hendrickson Randal R. 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

A celebrated mathematician and philosopher, Condorcet was permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences (from 1776), Inspector General of the Mint under Louis XVI, and, uniquely among the
philosophes
, a politician during the French Revolution. He argued in various works for laissez‐faire policies, for women's rights and the rights of Protestants, for reform of the criminal justice system, for free public education, and for the abolition of slavery. Condorcet was the last important figure of the French Enlightenment.
Conservatism
Authors: Coole Diana 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Conservatism may variously be defined as a political attitude or ethos that is marked by antipathy toward radical change and a pragmatic orientation to political practice; as a doctrine predicated on a set of principles in which tradition and authority figure prominently; as an ideology that is mobilized against competitors, most notably socialism, and as a political label that has been adopted by political parties on the right of the political spectrum. While this fourfold summary provides a serviceable overview of conservatism it inevitably glosses over the diversity of conservative positions that emerged historically in different countries, especially with regard to some new directions taken politically since the 1970s. It nonetheless provides a useful way to approach this significant political concept.
Constant, Benjamin (1767–1830)
Authors: Neidleman Jason 
Published: August 2023

AbstractBorn in Switzerland in 1767, Benjamin Constant's inauguration into the political and literary world began in earnest in 1794 after he entered into a personal and intellectual relationship with Germaine de Staël, the widely published author and daughter of French minister of finance Jacques Necker. With de Stael's encouragement and the patronage of the great revolutionary political theorist, Joseph Emmanuel Sieyès, Constant set out to craft a defense of liberal principles that could accommodate the new republican impulse while avoiding the usurpations of a Robespierre or a Bonaparte.
Constitutionalism
Authors: Lieberman Jethro K. 
Published: August 2023

AbstractConstitutionalism is a central and protean political concept that for more than two millennia has never surrendered to a formal, fixed definition. In its earliest incarnation, constitutionalism was taken merely as descriptive fact. To the ancient Greeks, the constitution meant “the state as it actually is.” Today the idea of constitutionalism comprises a cluster of particular jurisprudential and sociological attributes, summed up as “limited government under a higher law.” Manifestly, not every state claiming independent sovereignty can lay claim to the constitutional mantle.
Contestation
Authors: Maxwell Lida 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Contestation became a prominent term in political theory in the 1970s and 1980s. Arising primarily in the thought of poststructuralists and Anglo‐American agonistic theorists and inspired by new appropriations of Nietzsche and Anglo linguistic philosophy, contestation is a term used by theorists to refer to activities that resist political and theoretical claims to final, universal, or absolute solutions to political dilemmas.
Cornell, Drucilla (1950–)
Authors: Archer Crina 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Drucilla Cornell is professor of political science, women's studies, and comparative literature at Rutgers University and National Research Foundation Professor in Customary Law, Indigenous Ideals and the Dignity Jurisprudence at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Cornell was an organizer of the series of conferences on deconstruction and justice with Jacques Derrida, held at Cardozo Law School in 1989, 1990, and 1993, that are often cited as influential on Derrida's philosophical turn to ethics. Within and across the disciplinary boundaries of gender studies, political theory, law, and philosophy, Cornell's feminist legal theory has altered the terrain of contemporary intellectual debates that valorize or dismiss deconstructive critical theory for its corrosive effects on the rights and values of the tradition of political liberalism. By contrast, Cornell proposes that deconstruction is an ethical project, capable of supporting the promotion of liberal ideals that she deems necessary for the advancement of feminist legal and political reforms.
Counter‐Reformation
Authors: Bireley Robert 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

The term Counter‐Reformation, Catholic Reform, or, now, early modern Catholicism, designates the period in the history of Catholicism from roughly 1500 to 1700. Three principal features of this period stand out to which the political thought of the Counter‐Reformation responded: the emergence of the modern state, especially in France, England, and Spain; the expansion of Europe into Asia and America with the beginnings of the Portuguese and Spanish colonial empires; and the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation with Luther's posting of the
Ninety‐Five Theses
in Wittenberg in 1517.
Customary Law
Authors: Mot Jef De , Parisi Francesco 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
The process of formation of customary law is quite unique and different from the process of formation of other sources of law. According to traditional theories, an enforceable custom emerges from two formative elements: (1) a quantitative element consisting of a general practice; and (2) a qualitative element reflected in the belief that the practice reflects a legal obligation. Unlike mere social norms, customary laws are treated by some legal systems as proper sources of law and enjoy the centralized enforcement and adjudication generally reserved to legislation, judge‐made law, or binding international treaties. Parisi and Fon have described the process of customary law formation as a form of “direct legislation through action,” which differs from traditional lawmaking processes in that the resulting rules emerge gradually through the actions of the subjects of the law rather than through political deliberation or adjudication.
Cynicism
Authors: Bilakovics Steven 
Published: August 2023

AbstractCynicism denotes a posture of disrespect toward the leading persons, practices, institutions, and values of society. Originating in the fifth centurybce, the term is often analyzed by distinguishing between ancient Cynicism and modern cynicism, which paradoxically signify two very different, even contradictory, viewpoints. However certain continuities enable one to examine cynicism as a coherent concept. Ancient Cynicism was a way of life guided by the authority of nature (phusis) over the human animal and an attendant irreverence regarding the authority of social conventions (nomos). Predominantly Socratic in lineage and exemplified by Diogenes of Sinope, Cynicism held that virtue (aretê) is necessary and sufficient for human flourishing (eudaimonia) and that the virtuous life is inscribed in the simple truths and freedoms of physical nature. Modern cynicism is the opinion that certain facts of human nature and modern reality dominate social values. Associated above all with Machiavelli and Hobbes, cynicism maintains the harsh truth that the human animal is ultimately motivated by the desire for power and the freedoms it affords, regardless of any naive idealism or sentimentalism to the contrary. Ancient Cynics thus disrespect social norms because they are ethically deficient, and modern cynics because they are materially inefficacious, lacking real power. Both strands nonetheless proceed in parallel by collapsing the distinctions between public and private life and radicalizing the distinctions between speech and action.
Dante (Durante degli Alighieri) (1265–1321)
Authors: Macfarland Joseph C. 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) is author of
The Divine Comedy
, an epic poem describing a journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. In this work, as well as in his principal political work, the
Monarchia
, Dante acutely analyzes the political figures of his age and articulates a political vision which advocates a strict separation of church and state and the vigorous rule of a cosmopolitan empire. This political vision anticipates modern teachings regarding church and state and the cosmopolitan organization of humankind, although it articulates these doctrines on Aristotelian grounds, and perhaps on tacit theological grounds, that are foreign to analogous modern political doctrines.
Debord, Guy (1931–94)
Authors: Jappe Anselm 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
French revolutionary theoretician Guy Debord cofounded the Situationist International (SI) in 1957, a politico‐artistic vanguard that went from its original, surrealism‐inspired project of revolutionizing art and life to the search for new ways of totally overcoming capitalist society. Among Debord's early interlocutors were Henri Lefebvre, with whom he exchanged ideas on everyday life and the city as theatres of social change, and the Socialisme ou Barbarie group where the focus was on the critique of the bureaucratic degeneration afflicting the workers’ movement. Through their practical and theoretical activity the SI fomented the May 1968 uprising in Paris, leaving their radical imprint on it in terms of language, style, and content. After dissolving the SI in 1972, Debord, who had always led an “antispectacular” life distant from mass media and institutions, devoted himself to writing and filmmaking. His work has gained wider recognition posthumously.
Decisionism
Authors: Cristi Renato 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

“Decisionism,” a term of art coined by Carl Schmitt in his
Political Theology
, refers to the rule of a personal will as opposed to the rule of impersonal norms. Decisionism highlights Schmitt's disagreement with Hans Kelsen's pure theory of the juridical. For Kelsen supposedly every case of judicial interpretation may be mechanically derived from a positive juridical norm, pushing aside the notion of sovereignty and its decisionist disposition. According to Schmitt, this is consistent with an intellectualist theology according to which “God enunciates only general and not particular declarations of the will”. Schmitt assumes theological voluntarism and asserts that pure norms “can never become reality” on their own. The circumstance that a decision is required for its normative realization (
Rechtsverwirklichung
) means that an extra‐normative judicial decision “remains an independently determining moment”. There is more to the juridical than pure norms. Norms together with arbitrary decisions or commands are seen by Schmitt as the two essential elements of a juridical order.
Decolonization
Authors: Kohn Margaret , McBride Keally 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
The term “decolonization” refers to the process whereby a people becomes self‐governing. Often it describes the struggles to end European domination over Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Scholars have also used the phrase “internal colonialism” to understand the way in which settler societies continue to exercise formal and informal political control over indigenous communities. From this perspective, decolonization is an ongoing process of dismantling the barriers to self‐determination.
Deleuze, Gilles (1925–95)
Authors: Connolly William E. 
Published: August 2023

AbstractGilles Deleuze was one among several French philosophers who came to exert a powerful effect on political theory in the United States, the UK, and Australia, starting perhaps in the late 1970s and accelerating from that date. His influence was preceded by that of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. But the untimely death of the former, whose work had several affinities with that of Deleuze, and growing concerns in several circles that deconstruction provided insufficient metaphysical support and political energy soon propelled Deleuze's work into wider circulation. Translations by Paul Patton and Brian Massumi in the 1990s of key texts by Deleuze helped that process considerably.
Democracy
Authors: Schwartzberg Melissa 
Published: August 2023

AbstractThe term democracy is ancient Greek: it is a compound word,demokratia, linkingdemos(“people”) withkratos(“rule” or “power”). But even the translation ofdemokratiaas “rule of the people” is controversial. Scholars debate whether “people” refers to the collective body of adult male citizens, or if it had class significance from inception, in the sense of the “many” rather than the “few.” Nor is the meaning ofkratosself‐evident: whereas some scholars translatekratosto mean “power” in the sense of “agency” (the etymology ofkratosis linked to “grasp” or “grip”), one might believe that “rule” better captures the authoritative nature of popular decisions. We remain uncertain about which institutionsdemokratiaoriginally referred to, in part because the date of the term's coinage is unknown.Demokratia's connection with other Greek concepts, such asisonomia(equality before the law) andisegoria(equality of public speech), is no less contentious. Given the ambiguous and contested nature of the term from antiquity – and its pejorative connotations for many centuries – it is remarkable that 2500 years later, “democracy” is the most important concept of modern political life.
Dewey, John (1859–1952)
Authors: Festenstein Matthew 
Published: August 2023

AbstractJohn Dewey is probably best known as an American philosopher and as a philosopher of democracy. However, Dewey never assumed that these surroundings were, or had been, wholly democratic: his democratic faith was for him a critical yardstick that showed up the extent to which his society was failing to live up to its own ideals. Their implications were far more radical than their proponents tended to believe. At the core of his thought is the effort to offer an interpretation of rapidly changing modern industrial societies, with which, he believed, traditional philosophical, moral, and political standards were not fitted to cope. Dewey optimistically insists that we have available a method for improving moral and political judgments, which is grounded in his distinctive conception of empirical inquiry.
Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Authors: Kaya Yasin 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Dictatorship of the proletariat is a phrase used by Karl Marx to refer to the assumption of state power by the working class. For Marx, it is a transitional period of permanent revolution between the overthrow of bourgeois political rule and a classless society. The locution acquired currency after World War I because of its use by the Bolshevik government of the Soviet Union to describe its revolutionary stage.
Difference
Authors: Widder Nathan 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

The concept of difference arguably presents the most fundamental problem of political thought: how can diverse individuals and groups be brought together in such a way that political principles such as equality, freedom, justice, sovereignty, and recognition can be realized? While one might imagine such principles being achieved in a homogeneous community, in a society without differences these would not be
political
principles. The political problem of difference would thus seem to be a problem of human plurality and the possibilities for bringing it into harmony and unity. But recent political theory has also pushed the concept of difference beyond the notion of a distinction between already existing types. Today difference is often conceived as a
constitutive
relation, one that, on the one hand, establishes individual and collective identities and distinguishes them from one another, thus making politics possible by delineating both the constituencies to be represented in political processes and those deemed to fall outside the political field, but that also, on the other hand, problematizes the way these differences are often taken to be natural or fixed, thereby exposing their contingency and malleability.
Direct Democracy
Authors: Smith Daniel A. 
Published: August 2023

AbstractDirect democracy – which includes the plebiscitary devices of initiative, popular referendum, and recall – is the political process whereby citizens participate directly in the political process by casting their votes on measures placed on the ballot. The initiative is the most participatory and widely used form of direct democracy. With the initiative, proponents circulate petitions, collecting a specified number of valid signatures, in order to place either a statutory measure or a constitutional amendment on the ballot for “citizen lawmakers” to adopt or reject. In addition to the initiative, the popular referendum allows citizens to petition their legislatures to place a disputed legislative action on the ballot for the voters to “veto,” and the recall enables citizens to collect signatures to force a retention vote of an elected official.
Divine Right of Kings
Authors: Murphy Andrew R. 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
The divine right of kings was a widespread and influential early modern doctrine of political authority, legitimacy, obligation, and sovereignty. It achieved its most sophisticated elaboration and exposition during the seventeenth century, and was especially important in the French and English political traditions. Scholars often draw connections between divine right theory and theories of royal absolutism, since the argument that kings were granted authority by, and accountable to, God alone implied that they ruled their realms absolutely, answerable to no other earthly authorities (Sommerville 1986; but cf. Burgess 1992). Likewise, scholars also relate divine right theory to theories of nonresistance: since kings draw their authority from God and not from the people, the people are never justified in actively rebelling against a harsh king. More broadly, divine right theories are predicated on a hierarchical view of the social and political world: indeed, David Wootton views the idea of the Great Chain of Being – that God arranged the cosmos in a series of ordered hierarchies, with God Himself settled comfortably at the top – as central to divine right theory (1986: 29–30).
Division of Labor
Authors: Kaya Yasin 
Published: August 2023

AbstractThe term “division of labor” is generally understood to mean (1) the division of labor in the productive process, where the process is subdivided into simpler operations which are performed by different persons; or (2) the division of labor in society, where different occupations or other social roles are performed by distinct persons or social groups. In the field of economic theory, it is identified as a basis for economies of scale. And in social theory, its positive impacts on social cohesion are studied, as well as its negative social ramifications, such as alienation, social stratification, domination, and bureaucratization.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor (1821–81)
Authors: Berkowitz Roger 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

Fyodor Dostoevsky was a Russian writer best known for his philosophical novels
Notes from the Underground
(1864),
Crime and Punishment
(1866), and
The Brothers Karamazov
(1880). With his contemporary Friedrich Nietzsche, Dostoevsky was one of the first excavators of nihilism. His work explores how utilitarian and rationalist thinking deprived humanity of spiritual enlightenment, an ultimate reason for existence that could justify the fact of human suffering.
Duverger, Maurice (1917–)
Authors: da Silva Virgílio Afonso 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

Maurice Duverger is a French political scientist and constitutional lawyer. He taught at the University of Bordeaux, until 1955, and the University of Paris, until retiring in 1985. His works, translated into over 20 languages, are often located at the interface between law and political science. In 1951, he published his seminal work,
Les partis politiques
, translated three years later into English. The most influential and long‐lasting contributions of this book were his analysis of the organization of political parties and the establishment of a strong relationship between electoral systems and the number of parties in a given democracy. While the influence of the latter remains strong within the study of electoral systems, the former has gradually lost explanatory strength.
Easton, David (1917–)
Authors: Monroe Kristen 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

A leading figure in the behavioral movement in political science, David Easton restructured the conceptual landscape of the discipline by providing the new language and conceptual framework for a scientific and interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of politics. This agenda was developed and presented most prominently in three books:
The Political System: An Inquiry into the State of Political Science, A Framework for Political Analysis
, and
A Systems Analysis of Political Life
.