The Predicament of Modern Politics PDF Download

Author: Harold J. Spaeth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Author: George Scialabba
Publisher: Pressed Wafer
ISBN: 9780983197560
Category : Civilization, Modern
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Nonfiction. Politics. Literary Criticism THE MODERN PREDICAMENT is George Scialabba's second essay collection, following his acclaimed WHAT ARE INTELLECTUALS GOOD FOR? (Pressed Wafer, 2009). In 23 compact, lucid essays ranging across philosophy (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche), literature (D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot), history (Michael Foucault, Christopher Lasch) and politics (Michael Harrington), Scialabba poses a number of searching questions, directly and eloquently, continually returning to one: Is moral progress possible, and at what price? In her introduction Barbara Ehrenreich writes, "As long as we exist as a species, we'll be debating what constitutes morality and virtue, and we could hardly have a better guide than George Scialabba." James Woods hails THE MODERN PREDICAMENT as a stimulating encounter with "one of America's best all-round intellects."

Author: Steven B. Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139828258
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Leo Strauss was a central figure in the twentieth century renaissance of political philosophy. The essays of The Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss provide a comprehensive and non-partisan survey of the major themes and problems that constituted Strauss's work. These include his revival of the great 'quarrel between the ancients and the moderns,' his examination of tension between Jerusalem and Athens, and most controversially his recovery of the tradition of esoteric writing. The volume also examines Strauss's complex relation to a range of contemporary political movements and thinkers, including Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Gershom Scholem, as well as the creation of a distinctive school of 'Straussian' political philosophy.

Author: Wael B. Hallaq
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231530862
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Wael B. Hallaq boldly argues that the "Islamic state," judged by any standard definition of what the modern state represents, is both impossible and inherently self-contradictory. Comparing the legal, political, moral, and constitutional histories of premodern Islam and Euro-America, he finds the adoption and practice of the modern state to be highly problematic for modern Muslims. He also critiques more expansively modernity's moral predicament, which renders impossible any project resting solely on ethical foundations. The modern state not only suffers from serious legal, political, and constitutional issues, Hallaq argues, but also, by its very nature, fashions a subject inconsistent with what it means to be, or to live as, a Muslim. By Islamic standards, the state's technologies of the self are severely lacking in moral substance, and today's Islamic state, as Hallaq shows, has done little to advance an acceptable form of genuine Shari'a governance. The Islamists' constitutional battles in Egypt and Pakistan, the Islamic legal and political failures of the Iranian Revolution, and similar disappointments underscore this fact. Nevertheless, the state remains the favored template of the Islamists and the ulama (Muslim clergymen). Providing Muslims with a path toward realizing the good life, Hallaq turns to the rich moral resources of Islamic history. Along the way, he proves political and other "crises of Islam" are not unique to the Islamic world nor to the Muslim religion. These crises are integral to the modern condition of both East and West, and by acknowledging these parallels, Muslims can engage more productively with their Western counterparts.

Author: Jemima Pierre
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226923029
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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What is the meaning of blackness in Africa? This title tackles the question of race in West Africa through its post-colonial manifestations. Pierre examines key facets of contemporary Ghanaian society, from the pervasive significance of 'whiteness' to the practice of chemical skin-bleaching to the government's active promotion of Pan-African 'heritage tourism'.

Author: Karen Orren
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674728742
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Introduction: Public policy and state formation -- The policy motive -- Rights in the policy state -- Structure in the policy state -- Politics in the policy state

Author: Karen Orren
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674983165
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Policy is government’s response to changing times, the key to its successful adaptation. It tackles problems as they arise, from foreign relations and economic affairs to race relations and family affairs. Karen Orren and Stephen Skowronek take a close look at this well-known reality of modern governance: the expanded domain of the “policy state.”

Author: David Ricci
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107170842
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Conservatives use great stories to prescribe government policy. Liberals engage the world via science and pragmatism, rendering liberalism less inspiring. This book examines this difference.

Author: Kathryn S. Olmsted
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1620970961
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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"In a major reassessment of modern conservatism, historian Kathryn S. Olmsted reexamines the explosive labor disputes in the agricultural fields of Depression-era California, the cauldron that inspired a generation of artists and writers and that triggered the intervention of FDR's New Deal. Right Out of California tells how this brief moment of upheaval terrified business leaders into rethinking their relationship to American politics--a narrative that pits a ruthless generation of growers against a passionate cast of reformers, writers, and revolutionaries. Olmsted reveals how California's businessmen learned the language of populism with the help of allies in the media and entertainment industries, and in the process created a new style of politics: corporate funding of grassroots groups, military-style intelligence gathering against political enemies, professional campaign consultants, and alliances between religious and economic conservatives. The business leaders who battled for the hearts and minds of Depression-era California, moreover, would go on to create the organizations that launched the careers of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. A riveting history in its own right, Right Out of California is also a vital chapter in our nation's political transformation whose echoes are still felt today"--

Author: Ramona June Grey
Publisher: Cognella Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9781516529773
Category : Political science
Languages : en
Pages : 541

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Book Description
Political Theory and the Human Predicament: An Introduction to Major Political Thinkers presents the work of important political theorists from Plato to Marx. The primary source material introduces students to the political and ethical questions theorists have, with varying degrees of success, tried to answer and shows how these questions have evolved over time. The political thinkers are covered chronologically and the selected readings from their works are organized to allow readers to easily locate key passages for study and discussion. Each chapter opens with an informative introductory essay that acquaints readers with the theorist's life and times, and his or her particular approach to the study of politics and the human condition. Together the introductory essays and selected readings provide an overview of the assumptions and important arguments still used by those seeking to understand human nature, society and political life. Political Theory and the Human Predicament aims to encourage a careful and critical reading of the most significant and often controversial ideas--regarding justice, legitimate authority, law, rights, freedom, and the good life--examined in the works of classical and modern political theory. This revised edition features questions at the end of each chapter that are designed to help readers gauge their understanding of the original material. Several of these questions are analytical, for which there are no clear-cut answers, and have been added to encourage students to consider their own assumptions and political values when assessing the merits of a particular argument. These can be used to enhance classroom discussion or to facilitate essay and homework assignments. Political Theory and the Human Predicament is written for introductory political theory courses, political ethics courses, and more specialized courses in ancient and modern political thought.