Download or read book Marcel Gauchet and the Crisis of Democratic Politics written by Natalie J. Doyle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02-25 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents, for the first time in the English language, Marcel Gauchet’s interpretation of the challenges faced by contemporary Western societies as a result of the crisis of liberal democratic politics and the growing influence of populism. Responding to Gauchet’s analysis, international experts explore the depoliticising aspects of contemporary democratic culture that explain the appeal of populism: neo-liberal individualism, the cult of the individual and its related human rights, and the juridification of all human relationships. The book also provides the intellectual context within which Gauchet’s understanding of modern society has developed—in particular, his critical engagement with Marxism and the profound influence of Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort on his work. It highlights the way Gauchet’s work remains faithful to an understanding of history that stresses the role of humanity as a collective subject, while also seeking to account for both the historical novelty of contemporary individualism and the new form of alienation that radical modernity engenders. In doing so, the book also opens up new avenues for reflection on the political significance of the contemporary health crisis. Marcel Gauchet and the Crisis of Democratic Politics will be of great interest to scholars and postgraduate students of social and political thought, political anthropology and sociology, political philosophy, and political theory.
Download or read book Marcel Gauchet and the Loss of Common Purpose written by Natalie J. Doyle and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-12-20 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This bookexplores the work of Marcel Gauchet, one of France’s most prominent contemporary intellectuals, to examine the contemporary crisis of European democracy. It does so by examining the threats from ideological co-radicalization associated with the combined impact of economic crisis and Islamic fundamentalism. It locates Gauchet’s ideas in the context of French intellectual history and notes the significant influence upon it of the social and political theories of Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort and its reaction against those of Foucault. The book reviews the entire scope of Gauchet’s writings, from the early publications to the most recent publications on the “new world” of neo-liberal individualism, economism, and globalization. The book reveals how Gauchet’s work overcomes many of the misunderstandings affecting current discussions of controversial topics including the European Union, the nation-state, political Islam, the paradoxes of democracy, secularization, and reactionary political movements. It highlights the need for European societies to rediscover their political underpinnings: their capacity to invent a new collective future starting from the nation-state and to adapt to a new mode of international relations on a global scale. To do so, and to counter the threat of radicalization, they must retrieve the lost common purpose encapsulated in the notion of democratic sovereignty.
Download or read book Human Rights in Crisis written by Geneviève Souillac and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human Rights in Crisis uniquely documents recent ideas on democracy and human rights in the current French intellectual, social, and political context, arguing that the French emphasis on the interdependence between democracy and human rights as a tool for the critique and renewal of democracy is a valid contribution to the global debate on the political philosophy and the ethics of human rights. Centering on the work of four prominent, contemporary French political philosophers, Blandine Kriegel, Marcel Gauchet, Luc Ferry, and Etienne Balibar, Geneviève Souillac expertly examines the themes of contestation and reform that are the driving force in the French approach to democracy and human rights.
Download or read book Democracy in Modern France written by Nick Hewlett and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2005-12-08 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With its unique blend of political history and political theory, this book is a welcome addition to the series on Politics, Culture and Society in the New Europe. Nick Hewlett begins his fascinating study with a discussion of the various ways in which the concept of democracy has been interpreted. He continues by tracing the effect of France's revolutionary tradition on the theory and practice of democracy since the Enlightenment, looking in particular at both republican democracy and direct democracy. Hewlett examines the implications for democracy of profound social and political conflict in France and offers an unusual critique of the institutions and structures of formal politics, suggesting that their relationship with democracy is more tenuous than is often assumed. The political philosophy of `new liberals' such as Luc Ferry and Marcel Gauchet is also discussed in detail. Thought-provoking, original and closely-argued, this book explores some key aspects of politics in France whilst making a strong case for greater direct participation of ordinary people in politics. Nick Hewlett is Professor of French Studies and Director of the Centre for European Research at Oxford Brookes University. He is author of Modern French Politics. Conflict and Consensus since 1945 (1998), co-author of Contemporary France (with Jill Forbes and François Nectoux, 1994 and 2001), and co-editor of Currents in Contemporary French intellectual Life (with Christopher Flood, 2000) and Unity and Diversity in the New Europe (with Barrie Axford and Daniela Berghahn, 2000).
Download or read book What Is To Be Done written by Alain Badiou and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-01-27 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fall of the Berlin wall was seen by many as the final triumph of liberal democracy over communism. But now, in the wake of the great financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath, things look a little different. New questions are arising about capitalism and democracy, new social movements are challenging established institutions and new political possibilities are emerging. Is democracy an inevitable hostage of capitalism, or can it reinvent itself to meet the challenge of globalization? In an exclusive, previously unpublished dialogue, Alain Badiou, a key figure of the radical left and a leading advocate of the communist idea, and Marcel Gauchet, a major exponent of anti-totalitarianism and a champion of liberal democracy, confront one another. Together, they take stock of history, interrogate one another's views and defend their respective projects: on the one side, the revival of the communist hypothesis, and on the other, the radical reform of a contested democratic model.
Download or read book Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Sociology written by Maria Grasso and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2023-12-11 with total page 723 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive and authoritative Encyclopedia, featuring entries written by academic experts in the field, explores the diverse topics within the discipline of political sociology. By looking at both macro- and micro-components, questions relating to nation-states, political institutions and their development, and the sources of social and political change such as social movements and other forms of contentious politics, are raised and critically analysed.
Download or read book Madness and Democracy written by Marcel Gauchet and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-05 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the insane asylum became a laboratory of democracy is revealed in this provocative look at the treatment of the mentally ill in nineteenth-century France. Political thinkers reasoned that if government was to rest in the hands of individuals, then measures should be taken to understand the deepest reaches of the self, including the state of madness. Marcel Gauchet and Gladys Swain maintain that the asylum originally embodied the revolutionary hope of curing all the insane by saving the glimmer of sanity left in them. Their analysis of why this utopian vision failed ultimately constitutes both a powerful argument for liberalism and a direct challenge to Michel Foucault's indictment of liberal institutions. The creation of an artificial environment was meant to encourage the mentally ill to live as social beings, in conditions that resembled as much as possible those prevailing in real life. The asylum was therefore the first instance of a modern utopian community in which a scientifically designed environment was supposed to achieve complete control over the minds of a whole category of human beings. Gauchet and Swain argue that the social domination of the inner self, far from being the hidden truth of emancipation, represented the failure of its overly optimistic beginnings. Madness and Democracy combines rich details of nineteenth-century asylum life with reflections on the crucial role of subjectivity and difference within modernism. Its final achievement is to show that the lessons learned from the failure of the asylum led to the rise of psychoanalysis, an endeavor focused on individual care and on the cooperation between psychiatrist and patient. By linking the rise of liberalism to a chapter in the history of psychiatry, Gauchet and Swain offer a fascinating reassessment of political modernity.
Download or read book New French Thought written by Mark Lilla and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past fifteen years in France have seen a remarkable flourishing of new work in political philosophy. This anthology brings into English for the first time essays by some of the best young French political thinkers writing today, including Marcel Gauchet, Pierre Manent, Luc Ferry, and Alain Renaut. The central theme of these essays is liberal democracy: its nature, its development, its problems, its fundamental legitimacy. Although these themes are familiar to American and British readers, the French approach to them--which is profoundly historical and rooted in the tradition of continental philosophy--is quite different from our customary one. Included in this collection is a series of reconsiderations of French critics of liberal society (Lévi-Strauss, Foucault, Bourdieu) and of classical European liberals (Kant, Constant, Tocqueville). The continuing controversies over the nature of the modern era and the place of religion within it play a central role throughout the collection. The book includes a debate on the foundations of human rights and on the nature of a liberal political order. The concluding section presents some of the new sociological writing on modern individualism, its pleasures and its discontents. An introduction by Mark Lilla provides the historical background to the revival of French political thought about liberalism, and offers an analysis of what American and English readers might learn from it. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book French Liberalism from Montesquieu to the Present Day written by Raf Geenens and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is an enduring assumption that the French have never been and will never be liberal. As with all clichés, this contains a grain of truth, but it also overlooks an important school of thought that has been a constant presence in French intellectual and political culture for nearly three centuries: French political liberalism. In this collaborative volume, a distinguished group of philosophers, political theorists and intellectual historians uncover this unjustly neglected tradition. The chapters examine the nature and distinctiveness of French liberalism, providing a comprehensive treatment of major themes including French liberalism's relationship with republicanism, Protestantism, utilitarianism and the human rights tradition. Individual chapters are devoted to Montesquieu, Tocqueville, Aron, Lefort and Gauchet, as well as to some lesser known, yet important thinkers, including several political economists and French-style 'neoliberals'. French Liberalism from Montesquieu to the Present Day is essential reading for all those interested in the history of political thought.
Download or read book What Is To Be Done written by Alain Badiou and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-02-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fall of the Berlin wall was seen by many as the final triumph of liberal democracy over communism. But now, in the wake of the great financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath, things look a little different. New questions are arising about capitalism and democracy, new social movements are challenging established institutions and new political possibilities are emerging. Is democracy an inevitable hostage of capitalism, or can it reinvent itself to meet the challenge of globalization? In an exclusive, previously unpublished dialogue, Alain Badiou, a key figure of the radical left and a leading advocate of the communist idea, and Marcel Gauchet, a major exponent of anti-totalitarianism and a champion of liberal democracy, confront one another. Together, they take stock of history, interrogate one anothers views and defend their respective projects: on the one side, the revival of the communist hypothesis, and on the other, the radical reform of a contested democratic model.
Download or read book Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory written by Gerard Delanty and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2011-03-23 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook will address a range of issues that have emerged out of recent social and political theory. It will focus on key themes as opposed to schools of thought or major theorists. Each chapter is an emerging, cutting edge topic that is of interest both to social theory and to political theory. Most topics will have a clear and substantive focus on social or political problems.
Download or read book The Disenchantment of the World written by Marcel Gauchet and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marcel Gauchet has launched one of the most ambitious and controversial works of speculative history recently to appear, based on the contention that Christianity is "the religion of the end of religion." In The Disenchantment of the World, Gauchet reinterprets the development of the modern west, with all its political and psychological complexities, in terms of mankind's changing relation to religion. He views Western history as a movement away from religious society, beginning with prophetic Judaism, gaining tremendous momentum in Christianity, and eventually leading to the rise of the political state. Gauchet's view that monotheistic religion itself was a form of social revolution is rich with implications for readers in fields across the humanities and social sciences. Life in religious society, Gauchet reminds us, involves a very different way of being than we know in our secular age: we must imagine prehistoric times where ever-present gods controlled every aspect of daily reality, and where ancestor worship grounded life's meaning in a far-off past. As prophecy-oriented religions shaped the concept of a single omnipotent God, one removed from the world and yet potentially knowable through prayer and reflection, human beings became increasingly free. Gauchet's paradoxical argument is that the development of human political and psychological autonomy must be understood against the backdrop of this double movement in religious consciousness--the growth of divine power and its increasing distance from human activity. In a fitting tribute to this passionate and brilliantly argued book, Charles Taylor offers an equally provocative foreword. Offering interpretations of key concepts proposed by Gauchet, Taylor also explores an important question: Does religion have a place in the future of Western society? The book does not close the door on religion but rather invites us to explore its socially constructive powers, which continue to shape Western politics and conceptions of the state.
Download or read book Sovereignty in Action written by Bas Leijssenaar and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-18 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sovereignty, originally the figure of 'sovereign', then the state, today meets new challenges of globalization and privatization of power.
Download or read book Claude Lefort s Political Philosophy written by Mattia Di Pierro and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-08-21 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book proposes a new interpretation of Claude Lefort’s thought focusing on his phenomenological method. Although all scholars recognize the influence of Merleau-Ponty, so far no one has demonstrated the fundamental coherence between Merleau-Ponty’s theory and the main concepts proposed by Lefort; in particular between the concept of institution and the definitions of social and democracy. If Merleau-Ponty uses the idea of institution to think beyond the division between subject and object, to think together continuity and difference, permanence and change, this same concept allows Lefort to understand society as both conflict and unity. From this starting point, this study will attempt to clarify Lefort’s concept of the political and his interpretations of modernity, humanism, and the work of Niccolò Machiavelli. These very concepts will show the difference from structuralism, Michel Foucault’s contemporary theory and theories of immanence. At the same time this study highlights an internal tension in Lefort’s own thinking: between autonomy and experience, institution and insurgence.
Download or read book The Power to Assume Form written by Sean McMorrow and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Cornelius Castoriadis’s elucidation of the social imaginary within human societies, assessing how strict dichotomisation between autonomous and heteronomous modes of institution hinders further insights into the creative capacities of social imaginary, while also imposing limits on Castoriadis’s own assessment of the ‘partially’ autonomous situation of modern societies.
Download or read book The Passage to Europe written by Luuk van Middelaar and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-23 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides the untold story of the crises and compromises that lead to the formation of the European Union.
Download or read book The Optimistic Leftist written by Ruy Teixeira and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teixeira examines "the structural and economic shifts remaking advanced societies and [believes] that the left is in a far better position to advance its agenda than the right. Eventually, [he says], the right will be forced to play on the left's terms to be competitive. This is because only the left has growing, not declining, coalitional strength and only the left is willing to confront and solve capitalism's 'Piketty problem' (a vicious cycle of rising inequality, stagnating living standards, and slowing economic growth) by building a new equitable-growth 'opportunity state'"--
