Field Of Political Theory Research Articles

Leibniz on Hobbes, Locke's Two Treatises and Sherlock's Case of Allegiance

Writers on Leibniz have frequently stressed the marked contrast in character between his metaphysics and his political theory. As a metaphysician Leibniz appears as a thinker of daring originality whose views have sometimes seemed to set up certain tensions with orthodox Christian teaching. In the field of political theory, however, we encounter a much more traditional and conservative figure. Writing in a post-Hobbesian period Leibniz is a determined opponent of any trend towards a secular analysis of political questions; yet, within a framework of conventional theological assumptions, he is quite as insistent as Hobbes that obligation is co-extensive with the ruler's ability to provide protection. In a large measure the conservatism of Leibniz's political views can be explained by reference to die external facts of his position. Occupying a semi-official post at the court of Hanover, Leibniz was dependent on the favour of his electoral patrons; his political writings tended to be occasional pieces composed with a view to promoting specific Hanoverian interests. Leibniz's experience of politics was thus confined to the world of a minor German court, and die narrowness of diis background placed him at a severe disadvantage for understanding the political debates of a country like England with quite different traditions.

The New Political Geography

The connections between theory in human geography and theory in political science are sadly ill-developed. Of the three types of theory in political science-normative, descriptive and positive-it is the last two which would seem to have the greatest relevance for geography. Normative theory hardly features in geography since the subject has neither an explicit nor implicit normative base. Of the likely fields of political theory which would be fruitful in geography, those concerning individuals and their motives, and decision theory seem particularly promising. Of the positive theory, the theory of games at a micro-level and the theory of the firm at a macro-level seem to have great potential. Geographers should learn much from the political literature on decision-making in an environment of uncertainty. The new political geographer should be concerned with the decision forces affecting the distribution of space as a scarce public good and consequently with the values, the organization and the access to power of groups. THE decision to confront the theme of public policy at the I974 Conference must have concentrated a number of minds wonderfully, because there is still an astonishing lack of effective connection between theory in human geography and theory in political science. I would argue that the word 'astonishing' is justified, for the need for such connection is now so clear. Younger human geographers, working for their Ph.Ds, are tending to turn away from highly quantified macro-models because they find them lacking in depth of causal explanation and thereby (they feel) inadequate in predictive power. They are increasingly concentrating instead on micro-studies of spatial decision processes by one man or (more usually) a number of people and groups working in interaction: the decision to locate a factory in a development area, the decision to build an urban motorway on one line rather than another. These workers are having to forge a new body of theory on their own; yet, apart from the neo-Marxian framework provided by Harvey (I973) and Pahl (1970) (and, behind them, French writers like Castells (I972) and Lefebvre (I972)), virtually no interpretation of political science models is available in spatial terms. In these circumstances, my contribution can be no more than suggestive. It is clearly impossible to make a systematic review of the vast body of literature which is of potential relevance, and to try to interpret it in terms meaningful to the geographer; in any case, such a systematic review exists in the early chapters of Bauer and Gergen (I968). Therefore, I shall try first to make a very general taxonomy of the theoretical work; then, within this framework, to focus on some of the more important insights; lastly, to suggest in very tentative terms some geographical applications. THE MAIN THEORETICAL APPROACHES The simplest possible division, made in Bauer and Gergen's review as in a number of other sources, is between normative theory and descriptive theory. One may ask how people and groups should act in order to get the best results; or one may ask how people actually go about getting the results they do, whether admirable or not. But then, borrowing also from the language of economics, one may speak of a third type; positive theory. Like normative theory, this is deductive in that it starts from certain rules or premises. But like descriptive theory, it seeks to explain what will happen under certain conditions, not what should happen. Nevertheless, because it has an inherent logical structure, it provides an implicit guide to policy-makers in that it seeks to show them the consequences of alternative policy actions. This three-fold classification is I believe the most useful one. It is not always easy to decide where any particular theory belongs within it. Some reviews describe whole groups of theories-in particular,

Some New Concerns of Legal Process Research Within Political Science

Political science has generally been divided into the fields of political theory, comparative government, international relations, public administration, policy formation, state and local government, and public law. The public law or legal process field has also been called the law and politics field to emphasize that it is the study within political science of the judicial process, constitutional law, and related subjects. Law and politics research has changed greatly since 1955 in both methodology and substance. It is the purpose of the articles in this symposium to illustrate some of the more recent trends in law and politics research, particularly trends of interest to law professors, sociologists, and others in the broader area of law and society research.

A Nineteenth Century View of Jihad

In the Qur'an jihad is only one of several duties which are incumbent upon the Muslim. The Arab conquests, however, gave a psychological twist to Islamic thought, as a result of which the duty of jihad was exalted in the Traditions. The Sunni theory of jihad developed against the need to reconcile religious theory and historical precedent. The Shi'a were not faced with this problem and were able to reject historical precedent and to exaggerate the religious element. The disappearance of the twelfth imam in 260/873 and the death of the fourth agent (nd'ib khdss) (1) of the 'hidden imam' in 329/940 without having named a successor had important consequences for the Shi'i conception of jihdd, the obligation to undertake which became limited during the concealment of the imam. In spite of this, it was in connexion with the theory of jihad that certain important developments occurred in the field of political theory in the course of the nineteenth century. The first great period of Shi'i jurisprudence and theology was the Buyid period when the main lines which were to be followed in later times were laid down. Shaykh Mufid (d. 413/1022-3) added to the dar al-isldm and the ddr al-harb a third category, the ddr al-Tman. This comprised those places in which the true faith, i.e. Ithna 'Ashari Shi'ism, prevailed, whereas the ddr al-isldm consisted of those places

A Reconsideration of the Position of the Marja' Al-Taqlid and the Religious Institution

Shi'ism, unlike Sunnism, was not faced from the beginning with the problem of justifying the state as it developed historically. The great Shi'i doctors, Kulini (d. A. D. 939), al-Sadiq al-Qummi (d. A. D. 991), and al-Tius (d. A. D. 1067), who had formulated the doctrines of the Shi'a, lived under the Buyids. The latter, although Shi'i themselves, nevertheless kept in existence the 'Abbasid caliph. Writing during the occultation of the Hidden Imam the Shi'i jurists did not feel the need, which al-Mawardi had felt, to justify the state. In the absence of the imam, all government, even if the holders of actual power were Shi'i, was regarded as unrighteous by the Shi'i divines. They felt no responsibility for the conduct of political affairs or compulsion, as had al-Ghazali, to legitimate the power of the temporal government. They awaited the coming of the Kingdom of God upon earth. The later Shi'i doctors, Najm al-Din Ja'far b. Yahya (d. A. D. 1325) and Hasan b. 'All b. alMutahhar al-Hilli (d. A. D. 1325), who lived under the Mongol Ilkhans, added little to the works of earlier writers in the field of political theory. Even when Shi'ism of the Ithna 'Ashari rite became the official religion of the state under the Safawids, the exposition of Majlisl and others did not materially modify the Shi'i theory of state. Such contributions as Shi'l thinkers made to Islamic theories of state came for the most part through philosophers in the tradition of al-Farabi, such as Nasir al-Din Tuisi, and not through the jurists. The religious institution under the Safawids was from the

How to Read Milton's Areopagitica

REEDOM, WE HAVE LATELY BEEN REMINDEDy is a problem.1 It is, moreover, a difficult problem, and one that is no less difficult to solve when, turning our attention away from what we may call freedom in general, we state it in terms of particular freedoms (e.g., freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc.). Each of these turns out to be a problem, too, bearing no simple relation to the others, and likely to require special handlingdifferent symbolization, vocabulary and theoretic procedures.2 We may, for that reason, speak properly of a literature of the problem of freedom of thought and speech, one easy to identify in the sense that most scholars in the field of political theory, regardless of their views on that problem (if more than one view there be), would name the same list of must items dealing with the problem, and cite those items over and over again when they address themselves to the problem. All these items, we might add, are generally regarded as pro freedom of thought and speech (whether rightly or wrongly, we need not attempt to say here, except for that one of them that is the topic of the present article).3 These items are:

Towards a Theory of Power and Political Instability in Latin America

o N^NE MAY consider James B. Conant has observed, an attempt... lower the degree of empiricism or extend the range of theory.... Almost all significant work of scientists today, I believe, comes under the heading of attempts reduce the degree of empiricism. 1 Despite the conception of science and theory prevalent in the natural sciences and reflected in the formulation of Conant, the discipline of political science has yet reject decisively the notion of theory as an aggregation of metaphysical speculations unrelated experience and practice. Academically, in fact, the field of political theory, within the discipline of political science, traditionally has defined its role as recording, with varied degrees of interpretation, the history of metaphysical speculations in the area of politics and the state.2 But theorizing, even about politics, as Lasswell and Kaplan correctly assert, not be confused with metaphysical speculation in terms of abstractions hopelessly removed from empirical observation and control. 3 Within a scientific framework, consequently, a theory of power and instability in Latin America must attempt discharge at least four functions. (1) An adequate theory must serve to reduce the degree of empiricism; that is, it must place in a broad and meaningful context the apparently disconnected manifestations of instability in Latin America. (2) It must offer generalizations regarding the exercise of power and the prevalence of instability in Latin America which are compatible with the available evidence. (3) It must offer a guide and provide a framework for relevant research. A scientific theory neither anticipates every future event nor solves every practical problem. A theory with scientific pretensions, however, does provide directions for the investigation and solution of subsequent problems. (4) A theory of Latin American instability, if it is

Sorel Revisited

The name of George Sorel, whom Benedetto Croce called the only original thinker socialism has had besides Marx, is fairly well established by now. The Author of the Reflections on Violence has achieved text-book stature; even the most casual survey of representative digests in the field of political theory will bear out that assertion. But whether the understanding of Sorel’s work is on a par with his still growing reputation is one question; another is whether Sorel’s teaching is still alive, or merely a paragraph is a closed chapter of recent intellectual history. knows no Latin and less Greek.

The Federalist on Public Opinion

PROGRESS in the technique of ascertaining states and trends of mass opinion has revived interest in the question of representative versus direct democracy. What is the proper role of public opinion in the American system of government? The problem is by no means new, but needs to be reconsidered in the light, not only of improvements in polling techniques, but also in relation to the public policy demands of our time and the capacities of the average man. Dr. Wilson is professor of political science at the University of Illinois and the author of the well-known text in the field of political theory, Elements of Modern Politics. He brings to our attention the wisdom of the authors of the Federalist papers as it applies to the problem at hand.

Sovereignty and Social Dynamics

The ceaseless struggle of opposing ideas is the historical continuum of political theory. However concrete the situation which launches a particular conflict, all too often the struggle of ideas continues long after the objective scene of the conflict has moved on to quite different fields, long after new problems have outmoded old solutions, and long after new ways of thinking should have revised or displaced old concepts. This intellectual problem of continuity of ideas and of modes of thought is, of course, no more than the reflection of the larger issue of the liberation of human society from the “dead hand of the past.” The solution of this problem is no easy one, entailing as it does careful discrimination and emphasis upon the quality of “deadness,” but many reasoned attempts are being made toward this end.The forms which these attempts are taking in the field of political theory (including the concept of sovereignty, which is the subject of this paper) and of political science in general are several. We have had an increasing, and productive, “realistic presentation of the facts of the governmental process” which has served to deflate such overweening concepts as that of sovereignty.