Fugitive Democracy
And Other Essays
Published on 20. September 2016
Book
Hardback
520 pages
978-0-691-13364-5 (ISBN)
Description
Sheldon Wolin was one of the most influential and original political thinkers of the past fifty years. Fugitive Democracy brings together his most important writings, from classic essays such as "Political Theory as a Vocation," written amid the Cold War and the conflict in Vietnam, to his late radical essays on American democracy such as "Fugitive Democracy," in which he offers a controversial reinterpretation of democracy as an episodic phenomenon distinct from the routinized political management that passes for democracy today. The breathtaking range of Wolin's scholarship, political commitment, and critical acumen are on full display in this authoritative and accessible collection. He critically engages a diverse range of political theorists, including Thomas Hobbes, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, John Rawls, Michel Foucault, and Richard Rorty. These essays grapple with topics such as power, modernization, the sixties, revolutionary politics, and inequality, all the while showcasing Wolin's enduring commitment to writing civic-minded theoretical commentary on the most pressing political issues of the day.
Here, Wolin laments the rise of conservatives who style themselves as revolutionary, criticizes Rawlsian liberals as abstract to the point of being apolitical, diagnoses postmodern theory as a form of acquiescence, and much more. Fugitive Democracy offers enduring insights into many of today's most pressing political predicaments, and introduces a whole new generation of readers to this provocative figure in contemporary political thought.
Here, Wolin laments the rise of conservatives who style themselves as revolutionary, criticizes Rawlsian liberals as abstract to the point of being apolitical, diagnoses postmodern theory as a form of acquiescence, and much more. Fugitive Democracy offers enduring insights into many of today's most pressing political predicaments, and introduces a whole new generation of readers to this provocative figure in contemporary political thought.
Reviews / Votes
"These essays are stunning. No one speaks for democracy as Wolin does."-Anne Norton, author of On the Muslim Question "This collection is long overdue. Fugitive Democracy is a book that every current and future political theorist and political philosopher should own."-Melissa A. Orlie, author of Living Ethically, Acting PoliticallyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
794 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-13364-5 (9780691133645)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2018
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€33.99
Available for download
Persons
Sheldon S. Wolin (1922-2015) was professor emeritus of politics at Princeton University. His books include Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought and Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism (both Princeton). Nicholas Xenos is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His books include Cloaked in Virtue: Unveiling Leo Strauss and the Rhetoric of American Foreign Policy.
Content
Foreword vii Editor's Introduction xiii Part One THE POLITICAL AND THEORETICAL Chapter 1 Political Theory as a Vocation 3 Chapter 2 Political Theory: From Vocation to Invocation 33 Part Two HISTORICAL Ancient and Modern Democracy 51 Chapter 3 Transgression, Equality, and Voice 53 Chapter 4 Norm and Form: The Constitutionalizing of Democracy 77 Chapter 5 Fugitive Democracy 100 Hobbes 115 Chapter 6 Hobbes and the Epic Tradition of Political Theory 117 Chapter 7 Hobbes and the Culture of Despotism 149 Modern Theorists 171 Chapter 8 On Reading Marx Politically 173 Chapter 9 Max Weber: Legitimation, Method, and the Politics of Theory 195 Part Three RECENT THEORISTS Chapter 10 Reason in Exile: Critical Theory and Technological Society 217 Chapter 11 Hannah Arendt: Democracy and the Political 237 Chapter 12 Hannah Arendt and the Ordinance of Time 250 Chapter 13 The Liberal/Democratic Divide: On Rawls's Political Liberalism 260 Part Four POSTMODERNS Chapter 14 On the Theory and Practice of Power 283 Chapter 15 Democracy in the Discourse of Postmodernism 300 Chapter 16 Postmodern Politics and the Absence of Myth 316 Chapter 17 The Destructive Sixties and Postmodern Conservatism 330 Chapter 18 From Progress to Modernization: The Conservative Turn 348 Part Five REVISIONING DEMOCRACY Chapter 19 Editorial 363 Chapter 20 What Revolutionary Action Means Today 368 Chapter 21 The People's Two Bodies 379 Chapter 22 The New Public Philosophy 394 Chapter 23 Democracy, Difference, and Re-Cognition 405 Chapter 24 Constitutional Order, Revolutionary Violence, and Modern Power: An Essay of Juxtapositions 421 Chapter 25 Agitated Times 438 Notes 449 Sources 491 Index 493