This is our backup site. Click here to visit our main site at MellenPress.com
Subject Area: Political Theory
Campbell, Janet2003 0-7734-6704-1 374 pages
The purpose of this work is to construct theoretically a regulatory system based on the writings of a selection of Marxist legal theorists (Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stuchka, Reisner and Pashukanis), ascertain whether such a system might be considered law, and determine whether or not there is a legitimate claim for a ‘socialist jurisprudence.’ Both theoretical constructs and historical examples are used during the course of discussion. The results indicate that there is a viable alternative to law which does not ignore the regulatory needs of society and is compatible with the Marxist critique of the legal order. It is fills the gap existing in the literature of ‘socialist law’ and articulates a system of social regulation that can be considered non-legal (thus making it compatible with Marxist theory). To this date, such an attempt to define theoretically a regulatory system in communism compatible with the writings of Marx and Engels has not been made.
Stirk, Peter M.R.
2005 0-7734-6112-4 164 pages
Carl Schmitt is one of the most contentious political theorists of the twentieth century. His complicity in Nazi Germany left him discredited yet he has continued to attract widespread attention as an insightful, if flawed, critic of the modern democratic order and its global ambitions. His assertion that ‘whoever invokes humanity is trying to cheat’ has been revived as a indictment of western especially American, intervention in the affairs of other countries. As a German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has noted Schmitt’s arguments potentially have a fatal appeal in the contemporary world. The essays in this volume explore related aspects of Schmitt’s arguments against intervention, about the concept of the enemy, political myth, occupation and the global order. In the light of the so-called war on terrorism, the occupation of Iraq and widespread hostility to American foreign policy, these arguments have gained new vitality, yet they are ultimately deceptive. This book examines both the reasons for the appeal of Schmitt’s arguments and the reasons why we should reject them.
Sicakkan, Hakan G.
2005 0-7734-6025-X 272 pages
How is citizenship and co-existence in diverse societies possible? This book endeavors to demonstrate that the links between belongings and memberships should be a central consideration in any attempt to answer this crucial question. Citizenship, understood as a form of membership, does not always seem to overlap with the existing forms of belonging. To provide a solid interdisciplinary basis for theorizing the links between belongings and memberships in contexts of diversity, this volume brings together the conceptual and methodological tools of political theory, social theory, history, political science, and sociology. In this book, scholars with unique competencies share their knowledge on the topic and provide novel angles for thinking about citizenship and co-existence in diverse societies.
Smith, Steven R.
2002 0-7734-6932-X 300 pages
Riser, John
2004 0-7734-6439-5 231 pages
This book provides an examination of democracy in a different light, specifically in the author’s identification, explication and elaboration of three fundamental criteria. These three fundamental criteria of democracy and democratic practice often discounted or simply disregarded are: 1) democracy is a form of human activity relevant not just for the conventionally political state but also, as much or more, for other social contexts of various magnitudes and functions; 2) democracy is a practice of positive freedom, incorporating negative freedom but subsuming the latter within the project of the mutual empowerment of human beings in accordance with humanistic values; 3) democracy is embodied most adequately in a communally (not merely socially) cooperative model that is different, in most important respects, from unitary, adversary or deliberative models (herein subjected to critique).
Explicit analyses are provided of a variety of socio-political concepts that are philosophically integrated with these criteria, concepts such as representation, participation, elitism, preferences, interests, the common good, human needs and human rights, negative freedom and positive freedom, justice, equality, difference, legitimacy, obligation and loyalty. The author’s own model of democracy – acknowledged to be unrealizable at the level of the nation-state (where adversary quasi-democracy is most practicable) – is explicated, at the same time, dealing with problems and prospects for it and emphasizing its importance for the social activity of human beings in the immediacy of their lifeworld.
Urban, William Lawrence
1991 0-7734-9783-8 180 pages
Examines the existence of the Dithmarschen Republic (1227-1559), ruled by commoners who developed their own institutions, had their own written constitution, and successfully defended their political independence against the forces of Holstein, the combined powers of Schleswig and Holstein, and the united kingdom of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Argues that the unique characteristics of Dithmarschen are not unique. Concludes that the small size of the Republic finally prevented its survival due to a reluctance to dilute its sovereignty by associating more closely with neighboring states.
LeBlanc, John Randolph
2004 0-7734-6567-7 284 pages
This work of political theory traces, for the first time in a book-length work, the critical development of the idea of creativity in politics through the intellectual relationship of Simone Weil and Albert Camus. Assessing their separate but complementary attempts to bring aesthetic considerations of beauty and order to bear on an ethical conception of political life, the book calls into question both a purely aestheticized picture of reality and postmodern tendency to see reality as a discontinuous discourses by emphasizing that which Weil and Camus believed the activities of labor and art share in common: the capacity and obligation to transform our perspective while respecting our physical and metaphysical limits.
Simpson, Archie W.
2015 0-7734-3503-4 360 pages
This study is concerned with European micro-states and their continual survival in the international system. Micro-states are sovereign states with populations up to one million people. The study of micro-states is much neglected within the discipline of International Relations and yet there are a wide number of very small states in the contemporary international system. The existence of micro-states raises a number of serious questions involving the granting of statehood, recognition of sovereignty and the ability of micro-states to maintain their presence in the international system.
This study begins with some background into small state theories, writings on micro-states and debates concerning sovereignty. It is argued that being sovereign members of the international system does not fully explain the extantism of the micro-states but that a functional account can. A theory of disfunctionality is outlined prior to a review of empirical evidence in support of this framework.
It is argued that a functional account of the state is central to the survival of European micro-states. In particular, it is suggested that micro-states ‘contract-out’ important state functions to others in the international system to ensure their continued survival. From this proposition, a theory of disfunctionality is outlined. This theory incorporates a functional matrix of statehood, the impact of small size upon states, dependency upon others and that the logic of appropriateness is in play for the micro-states.
The conclusion indicates that it is possible to identify three types of states in the contemporary system: functional states, dysfunctional states and non-function states. The final part of the study also suggests that the question of statehood is somewhat erratic and that a proliferation of micro-states may be expected in the 21st century.
Ford, Karen M.
2001 0-7734-7481-1 588 pages
This collection of Paine’s writings focuses on his approach to economic issues, such as the development of a central bank, paper money, public debt, property and poverty, in the light of an interpretation of his political theory as a unique combination of liberal or even libertarian and republican ideas. A critical introduction places these texts in the context of Paine’s life and his overall political theory, in addition to the wider context of the development of economic thought and financial practice of the late 18th century.
Papaioannou, Theo
2010 0-7734-3654-5 160 pages
This book examines the foundation and formation of Robert Nozick’s Libertarianism.
Swanson, Matthew
2001 0-7734-7476-5 196 pages
The question of political legitimacy is a question concerning the justification of coercive political institutions. We recognize an obligation to obey political institutions given the satisfaction of certain conditions. This work examines these conditions by investigating the models of political legitimacy proposed by the classic social contract authors Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, and extends the analysis to include the work of influential contemporary contract theorist John Rawls.
Chapman, Roger
2012 0-7734-3037-7 296 pages
The book deals with the various facets of the Tea Party movement. The book shows the irony in the Tea Party claims that it is a nativist movement drawing on fundamental principles from the Constitution. In fact, most of the ideological base of the movement comes from the writings of Russian born Ayn Rand, Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, and the French economic journalist Claude-Frederic Bastiat. None of these people had anything to do with the American Revolution.
Whisker, James B.
2003 0-7734-6848-X 280 pages
The Act of State Doctrine holds that a state is legally supreme within its own boundaries and its sovereign is wholly immune to the judgments of other nations. The acts that the sovereign power’s agents perform as part of their official duties and responsibilities cannot be called into question in the courts of another nation. If a state possesses not final and complete power over its own territory and citizens it is a dependency, a colony, or an occupied area. As nations moved into the modern world nations began to have second thoughts about maintaining and supporting sovereign absolutism. This study investigates past, current, and emerging meanings of the act of state doctrine. It also examines exceptions to the act of state doctrine.
Vasillopulos, Christopher
2024 1-4955-1299-1 304 pages
Discussion on the Trump Phenomenon. Trump and his supporters have been called sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, isolationist, and many other epithets of the Woke Culture. He and his supporters have been accused of being Neo-Nazis, or Quasi-Nazis by reasonably well educated and intelligent politicians, members of the Media, and a majority of academics. Of course, Trump has brought much of this onslaught upon himself with his often vulgar, bombastic, and exaggerated speech. His policies, however, have been prudent, measured, and effective. This book tries to account for this seeming discrepancy, as well as, the fierce loyalty and hatred he has provoked.
2018 1-4955-0639-8 664 pages
This book argues that the premises of the Republic and of Job are fundamentally the same and therefore deserve comparison. Their similarities derive from the premise of testing the just man by subjecting him to extreme injustice. The fundamental conclusion of the book is that both Job and the Republic teach that the foundation of innocence and therefore legal procedure lies in an eternal, beneficent creator. They differ when Job draws the further conclusion that both beneficent creation and wronged innocence require human rule over creation.
Kenney, Matthew T.
2003 0-7734-6581-2 198 pages
This book examines the interplay between political values and the health and stability of today’s liberal democracies. It examines a set of core political values by drawing on the insights and arguments of leading political theorists past and present. The new democracies are represented by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, and the established democracies by Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. The study uses data from the 1990 and 1995-7 World Values Surveys. Statistical analyses provide strong support for the theoretical claims of John Rawls and others that such liberal virtues as tolerance, trust, independence, and responsibility are conducive to democratic stability and to a more robust version of citizenship that goes well beyond the unfettered pursuit of private interests. Instead, this study argues that individuals who score high on the index of liberal virtues are more likely to discuss politics, to participate in politics, to resist authority, to view democracy as the best form of governance, and to demand equality of opportunity for all. This bridging of classical normative theory and contemporary empirical analysis in this work represents a much-needed contribution to scholarship in both political theory and comparative politics.
Tyler, Colin
1998 0-7734-8498-1 316 pages
Donaldson, Aidan
1996 0-7734-8742-5 348 pages
This work provides the first comprehensive and detailed exposition of the entire oeuvre of the important 20th-century philosopher and social researcher, Lucien Goldmann. His entire range of study, including his writings on literature, political theory and philosophy, as well as his methodology, are examined and assessed in full.