Political Theory Research Articles

Conspiracy Theories as Productive Practices: Toward a Theory of Conspiratorial Style, Agency, and Politics

This article reviews anthropological explorations of conspiracy theories—in dialogue with insights from other disciplines, primarily political science, philosophy, and social psychology—to frame conspiracy theories as productive social practices. While conspiracy theories are often depicted through their epistemological shortcomings and associated with social and political margins, this article traces the nascent threads across anthropological scholarship to reach an emic understanding of those narratives and their sociopolitical reverberations and proposes approaching conspiracy theories through their style, agentive implications, and political effects. Conspiratorial style, the article argues, pertains not to the content of the narrative but to its incessant seeking of covert operations beyond readily visible forms as well as a growing flexibility regarding the narrator's belief in the narrative's veracity. The agentivizing dynamic generated through conspiracism differentiates contemporary conspiracism from its predecessors and involves an empowering current. Finally, the article focuses on how contemporary conspiracism is intricately linked to political contestations.

Political leader's background and innovation in developing countries

Studies of innovations in developing countries remain mitigated. Those that have tackled the quest for determinants have been limited to the profiles of business leaders, thus neglecting those of presidents. Yet they are the main drivers of their countries' economic policies. In order to overcome this shortcoming, this article aims to verify, in the light of the political leader theory, the effect of the profile of national leaders on innovation indicators. We formulate the following hypothesis: the preferences of political leaders are defined by their background. We test this hypothesis on a panel of 48 developing countries, covering the period from 1995 to 2018, using the GMM estimation. Results indicate that militaries spend more on R&D than other professions and enhance patent demands, while political horizon hinders innovations. The robustness of the results is verified by using other innovation indicators, in particular domestic patent applications, foreign applications, and the political regime. This article contributes to the pursuit of Sustainable Development Goal 9 by providing a new tool for policy‐makers to rely on.

Locating the State: Between Region and History

If anthropology once concerned itself with politics in stateless societies outside Euro-America over and against prevailing Euro-American political theory, today anthropologists see the state at work everywhere. Anthropologists have sought to trouble spatial metaphors of state power that assumed, among other things, its centralization and the unitary character of sovereignty. Locating the state through an attendant question of region, we explore recent literatures on everyday state practices in Central and Eastern Europe and South Asia to show how different regional histories and configurations of knowledge continue to structure our assumptions about the state and its functions as well as the grammar of our descriptions. We suggest that the state could prove to be a useful optic for the study of region, which provides an alternative to an overly rigid local/global dichotomy that continues to shadow our theorizations.

A Critical Comparison of Kautilya's 'Arthashastra' and Machiavelli's 'The Prince', Their Political Theories and Philosophies

Kautilya’s Arthashastra was translated to English in the year 1915, since then its comparison with Machiavelli started. Chanakya is credited with the creation of Arthashastra, a magnum opus on statecraft, law, military, and other matters of the state. The Arthashastra is the oldest book on political science and political ethics, and he introduced many other prominent issues to be kept in mind compared to Machiavelli. Machiavelli only concentrates on political and fiscal matters, Kautilya writes about the importance of land settlements, promotion of economic activity, rules of society, construction of infrastructure, defence, and communication. He has given a list of behavioral codes for ministers, king, and civilians. There is mention of diverse levels of administration, various departments and the roles for the officials are clearly defined. And the entire administration was based on the foundation of ‘Dharma’. Arthashastra is a comprehensive, coherent, original document while on the other hand Machiavelli was seeking a job and he sent his manuscript with job application. Consequently, he covered a very few topics and did not analyze any topic in depth. Though written and complied centuries apart and prior to Machiavelli’s Prince, The Arthashastra is much more detailed and complete text on state craft which is relevant even today. Some researchers have even gone to the extent of saying that, comparing Machiavelli’s Prince to Kautilya’s Arthashastra is like comparing a candlelight to that of sunlight.

Research on the Application and Innovation of Environmental Design in Ideological and Political Work in Universities

As higher education continues to evolve, the effective integration of environmental design and ideological and political work has become a key issue for enhancing educational outcomes. This paper delves into the theoretical foundations, current status, and applications of environmental design in conjunction with ideological and political work, proposing innovative models and strategies. First, the article analyzes the core theories of environmental design, including environmental psychology, spatial cognition, and environmental behavior theory, and explores their intersection with ideological and political education theory, educational psychology, and socio-cultural theory. Second, the paper evaluates the current state of environmental design in universities, identifying the effectiveness and challenges, such as insufficient alignment with objectives, technical and financial limitations, and imperfect evaluation mechanisms. Lastly, the article introduces innovative models like thematic design, functional zoning, and immersive experience design, suggesting interdisciplinary integration, intelligent design, and community feedback mechanisms as strategies for innovation. Practical guidance and policy recommendations are provided to promote the deeper application of environmental design in ideological and political education.

LITURATERRA [Entrevista: 2024, 3] A política contra o destino: o modo de pensar as alternativas

Brazilian philosopher Roberto Mangabeira Unger, a professor at Harvard University (USA) for over forty years, presents and discusses his perspective on politics in this interview. In it, he discusses elements of his social and political theory, one of the highlights of which is his treatment of institutional issues in an original way that differs from conventional institutionalism. He begins by defining the distinction between right and left in contemporary circumstances. It defines the possible types of politics. He deals with the fundamental concepts of his theory of institutional alternatives, explaining the nature of his experimentalist proposal. It approaches the organization of powers with a different emphasis from the dominant reflection on political institutions, always uncritically focused on the issue of stability, and proposes that the main objective of politics is to provide structural transformations. It argues that the democratic regime should have its center of gravity focused on majorities and not minorities. And he suggests that the central cause of the current crisis in democratic societies is of a programmatic nature: we have not yet been able to clear away the rubble of bankrupt social democracy. The general theme discussed was a new institutional model that would enable liberal societies to overcome the dead end in which they find themselves. The interview took place on May 22, 2022, in the district of Araras, in the municipality of Petrópolis (RJ).

Какая гендерная теория нужна российской социальной психологии

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective</strong>. The article problematizes the theoretical field of gender studies and the concept of “gender”, which are currently vulnerable in the socio-political context. The aim of the article is to determine the range of theories of Russian psychologists capable of solving topical issues in the field of gender social psychology outside of a politically conflicting discourse. <br><strong>Background</strong>. According to political theory, psychological knowledge can become a guide for political practice, this area of political science is called biopolitics. The constructivist theoretical field of gender studies belongs to the field of biopolitics; in Western gender theory, the deconstruction of gender is allowed not only as a social phenomenon, but also as a change in biological sex. Moreover, the possibility of deconstructing gender and sex is currently determined by political practice, not by psychological or psychiatric indications. The use of Western gender theory and the concept of “gender” in political conflicts pushes Russian social psychology to search for a theory based on the concepts of Russian psychologists focused on the analysis of the socio-psychological reality of gender relations. <br><strong>Results</strong>. The article emphasizes the impossibility of the reverse movement of science and the choice of the gender-role approach as outdated, not responding to the needs of modernity. Three theories are called productive and adequate to modern problems: the cultural-historical theory of L.S. Vygotsky, the subject-activity approach of S.L. Rubinstein, the theory of relations by V.N. Myasishchev. The concept of gender relations by I.S. Kletsina, one of the most popular modern concepts of gender in Russian psychology. <strong>Conclusions</strong>. Gender psychology is a new branch of social psychology, which turned out to be vulnerable to political initiatives in a period of socio-political instability. The search for new theoretical constructs and the educational activity of psychologists in the biopolitical field will help gender psychology overcome the crisis period.</p>

Seguridad Nacional y Construcción del Estado-Nación: El Rol del Centro de Altos Estudios Nacionales en la Historia Contemporánea del Perú

This article aims to analyze and highlight the contributions of the Centro de Altos Estudios Nacionales (CAEN) in the construction of the nation state and the consolidation of national security in Peru. It addresses the growth of the institution from its founding as the Centro de Altos Estudios Militares (CAEM) to its transformation into CAEN, and explores its roles and achievements in the context of the Peruvian reality. To do so, a methodology based on a documentary review of historical and academic sources has been used, analyzing how philosophical and political theories have influenced its development; in addition, a multidisciplinary perspective has been incorporated to understand the relationship between development and security in the Peruvian context. It is concluded that this institution has played a central role in the training of military and civilian leaders capable of facing the challenges of national security from a comprehensive perspective. Its contributions have been significant in terms of socioeconomic development and in the creation of public policies oriented towards equity and social inclusion, since the strategic approach and reforms promoted by the CAEN have contributed to a vision of Peru as an integral entity, which considers its diverse populations, cultures and problems.

Hobbes Reimagined: New Materialism, Ethics and Political Theory

Abstract This contribution to a symposium on Samantha Frost’s Lessons from a Materialist Thinker considers her innovative reinterpretation of Thomas Hobbes’s philosophy, situating him as a precursor of New Materialism. Frost’s reading emphasizes Hobbes’s conception of human beings as ‘thinking bodies’ inextricably intertwined with their environment. This materialist conception leads to a relational, peace-oriented ethic rooted in our interdependence. Frost’s interpretation is contrasted with those of Arash Abizadeh and Stephen Darwall. Abizadeh identifies two normative dimensions in Hobbes’s ethics: the prudential and the juridical. This perspective highlights the role of contractual obligations, which is less prominent in Frost’s interpretation. Darwall’s projectivist interpretation suggests that Hobbes saw ethical judgments as projections of our desires onto the world, which potentially challenges Frost’s materialist reading. While acknowledging the tensions between these interpretations, it is argued that Frost’s reinterpretation offers valuable insights for addressing contemporary ethical and political challenges.

The moderating role of government heuristics in public preferences for redistribution

A theory of rational attitude formation suggests public perceptions that income differences are too large should lead to demands for income redistribution. Public opinion scientists irregularly observe this at best. It is possible that the instruments we use to observe support for income redistribution are ineffective. We suggest at least part of the inconsistently observed linkages are due to unobserved confounding of government heuristics. We hypothesize that government affect provides a heuristic cue for survey respondents to answer questions on their preference for the government engaging in income redistribution. The greater the valence or quantity of reasons for a survey respondent to have negative government affect, the more perceptions of inequality and support for redistribution are decoupled and apparently inconsistent. To test this, we measured government affect at the country-time level using trust, corruption perceptions, and economic performance. We executed tests of moderation using slopes-as-outcomes regressions with ISSP data from 36 countries in 102 country-time points. Given the difficulty in fitting complex theories of society and politics into a limited number of macro-comparative cases, we ran a multiverse analysis of alternatively plausible models. There is a consistent negative moderation effect across models suggesting that our theory of government affect as opinion expression on a survey is worthy of further consideration. The findings also suggest more qualitative cognitive survey interviews to better understand this process.

The ultimate political question? Realism and omnicide

ABSTRACT Realist political theory purports to prioritize the goals of order, security, and ‘political survival’. In spite of these concerns, it has not yet addressed the growing risk that humanity might be lurching towards self-extinction. This contribution considers what omnicidal risk means for contemporary realism, making two arguments. First, we argue that omnicidal risk poses a political problem in a distinctly realist sense of the term. In doing so, we demonstrate that omnicide is a relevant concern for all realists, while ordorealists in particular hold an unrecognized commitment to mitigating omnicidal risk. Second, by demonstrating the extent to which capitalism can be considered a cause of contemporary omnicidal risk, we argue that this concern and commitment should draw realists – and, in particular, ordorealists – into a critique of contemporary political economy. Realism should not ignore omnicidal risk; instead, its consideration should work to radicalize realism.

Making citizens, procedures, and outcomes: Theorizing politics in a co-productionist idiom.

The literature engaging political theory in STS often puts forward a deficit model view of STS, in which homegrown STS ideas about politics, such as co-production, are either treated as having an insufficient account of the political or not read as political theory at all. This article challenges the deficit discourse by reading co-production as a full-blown political theory in its own right, in particular by showing how it investigates normative questions of 'the good' that are central to any theorization of politics. Where political theory often concerns itself with the construction and application of universal political ideals-such as of the good citizen, legitimate procedures or smart outcomes-co-production looks at empirical sites where citizens, procedures, and outcomes articulate understandings of the good held by political actors in situ. By looking at the making of citizens, procedures, and outcomes in practice, we can better understand co-production as political theory. In particular, co-production elaborates on how the making of citizens, procedures, and outcomes constitute (and are constituted by) ideal normative positions, including: authoritative views about what citizens may claim to know, culturally-situated understandings of procedural legitimacy, and political values and ideologies embedded in seemingly 'objective' measurements of outcomes.

Antigone or the Right to Kill: Making Noise As Resistance

ABSTRACTThis article delves into the relation between the terms social dissonance, necropolitics and Sophocles' tragedy, Antigone. By attempting an interdisciplinary analysis and by bringing together elements of sound studies, political theory and classical literature, I will explore the contemporary dynamics between social dissonance, necropolitics and resistance. The key point is that beyond contemporary contexts or rather recent modernity, resistance to the authoritarian volition can be understood metaphorically as noise within a context of a wider social dissonance arrangement. While examining Antigone's defiance in the face of oppressive power, we are reminded of the individuals striving for justice and autonomy in the face of oppressive systems, as resistance to generalized capitalism prevailing positivity and appropriation. By juxtaposing the sociopolitical context in which Sophocles wrote Antigone and various manifestations of necropolitics in our times, this article explores the relevance of the play in today's ubiquitous surveillance and subjugation. Moreover, it emphasises the significance of the term 'social dissonance', as proposed by Mattin, in understanding the responses towards power struggles and forms of resistance. The collision of these concepts occurs, here, in their shared focus on power dynamics and resistance against oppressive systems: it explores the ways in which power operates, so as to control and manipulate individuals and communities, creating conditions of voluntary servitude and subjugation. As this analysis emphasises the potential for resistance, these terms can serve as a framework to challenge dominant narratives. When examining the intersection of necropolitics and social dissonance, we can explore how the exercise of necropolitical strategies leads to oppression by silencing dissent, suppressing alternative narratives and perpetuating oppressive structures. Silence is metaphorically seen here as a system of perpetuating power, subordinating resistance and ultimately, incorporating noise into the capitalist narrative. The clash between the dominant necropolitical regime and the underlying resistance exposes the tension and contradictions within society, laying the foundation for social movements.

Using Political Connections to Raise Rivals’ Costs: Evidence from an Emerging Market

AbstractIn this paper, we leverage resource dependency theory to examine the impact of political connections on rivals’ costs and how this impact is affected by rival‐side and politician‐side contingencies. Using a panel dataset of Pakistani firms, our system generalized method of moments estimates show that politically connected firms can increase their rivals’ costs by influencing their rivals’ dependency relationship with the government. This impact is attenuated by the rivals’ strategic flexibility and social legitimacy, which provide some protection or insulation from political attacks in resource markets. Together, our findings extend the contingent dynamics of resource dependency in political markets from focal firms to competitors and offer significant contributions to the corporate political activity literature and resource dependency theory.

The Privilege of Territory: Christian Wolff at the Origins of Statist International Thought

The modern state is often taken as the only legitimate claimant to the division of the globe. Political theorists offer many theories of territorial rights but tend to agree that the state remains the proper institutional bearer of such rights. This article examines how states became the exclusive bearers of territorial rights by returning to the international theory of the eighteenth-century Prussian jurist Christian Wolff (1679–1754), who wrote in a moment when sovereign states were not the heirs apparent to the globe but competed with other claimants to territorial rights. Despite proposing a radically pluralistic and anti-imperial account of land ownership, Wolff nonetheless paved the way for the state to become the sole bearer of territorial rights. Wolff’s international thought is an illustration of how building a state-centric international order was a double-edged sword: it criticized imperial overreach while also closing the international arena to nonstate forms of collective life. In this process, he offered two distinct ideas of political space: the territorial space of states, and the land ownership tracts of nonstate peoples, including pastoralists and nomads. To Wolff, only states were entitled to full and permanent territorial rights, while nonstate peoples were shut out of the international system, made both de facto and de jure stateless.

Confucian Familialism and the Crisis of Care

Abstract This paper critically examines Confucian proposals for social welfare espoused by contemporary Confucian moral and political theorists, who promote a familialist, residual welfare state in which welfare provision should be the family's primary responsibility and public assistance be a last resort only available to the poor without family support. By investigating the situation in South Korea, a country whose welfare system bears a striking resemblance to the Confucian ideal, I argue that the Confucian scheme is inherently flawed. It considers poverty to be a personal failure, idealizes the family as a single unity of common interest free from power hierarchies, and lacks knowledge about social reproduction. Their proposal in actuality humiliates and excludes disadvantaged and marginalized people from social protection, abdicates the state's responsibility for the well-being of citizens, and colludes with capitalism in free riding on women's unpaid labor.

Testing the Relationship Between Local Context and Immigrant-Serving Nonprofit Strategies

Abstract Studies at the nexus of immigration, organizations, and migrant mobilizations find that the strategies that immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations (INOs) employ differ in cities with disparate levels of immigrant inclusion. Yet studies yield mixed results abound other shortcomings in the literature. This study draws from disparate literatures and theoretical frameworks to assemble an understanding on the interrelations between local context and strategies. I investigate the following questions: how does the level of citizenry inclusion impact the strategies employed by INOs, and do more inclusive cities facilitate or constrain contentious advocacy? I draw from a national sample of INOs to test the empirical relationship. The results have implications for political opportunity theory and future lines of research drawing from this framework. Research, nonprofit practice, and policy implications are discussed.

The theory of democratic integration

The outcome of the 2024 European Parliament elections highlights the need for the EU to underpin its functioning as a European democracy with a proper political theory. This article introduces the theory of democratic integration as a political philosophy of the EU. It aims to provide the EU with a philosophical foundation by analysing its evolution as a deviation from the Westphalian system of international relations and its doctrine of absolute sovereignty. The article finds that the EU is succeeding in creating a new democratic home for its citizens and its member states. In times of increasing support for parties which promote national sovereignty as the recipe for the future and which consequently call for the dismantling of the European Parliament and the deconstruction of EU democracy, the theory will empower the Union to defend its constitutional achievements and prevent it from backsliding into an undemocratic organisation of illiberal states.

Introduction: the cultural deliberation of Europe

ABSTRACT This special issue started years ago as part of a collective reading group on the public sphere with colleagues at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. A significant portion of our initial time was dedicated to understanding Jurgen Habermas’ (1989 [1962]) foundational contributions, which established the basis for a wide-ranging and complex field of study. This field spans social and political theory, media and communication studies, sociology, and philosophy. Since then, scholars from diverse disciplines have responded to and critiqued Habermas’ concept, contributing to the development and refinement of its analytical potential by challenging the implicit normativity of Habermas’ initial notion. These critical reactions have further enriched the theoretical landscape by expanding its scope and applications. One point on which Habermas’ initial work was opened significantly related to the exclusionary nature of the historical practice described by Habermas by exposing the historical situatedness and specificity of his concept of the public sphere.

LA INCONCEBIBILIDAD DE LA POBREZA EN LA SOCIEDAD LIBRE. EL ARGUMENTO JURÍDICO.

Poverty, an open wound on humanity, is also a pending issue for libertarian political theory, the current of thought that advocates minimization of coercion, and thereby maximization of freedom, as an ideal of social organization. While libertarians have prolifically argued that a free society would be much more prosperous in all its strata, they have never sought to demonstrate so ambitious a proposition that such a society would become incompatible with the very phenomenon of poverty. This essay provides demonstration thereof by means of a legal-philosophical argument built upon the legal treatment that so-called famine theft would presumably receive in the non-statist legal community. Based on the primacy of human life and dignity over any other legal value, famine theft would constitute an exception to the inviolability of private property. Echoing the historical development of maintenance obligations arising from a family relationship, the evolutionary nature of decentralized law would gradually widen the range of material needs suitable to qualify as determinants of poverty, the presence of which would legitimize the resort to this exception. Likewise, it would spontaneously result in the voluntary articulation of social assistance networks, the contribution to which would be judicially recognized as a counter-exception to the admissibility of famine theft and similar behaviors—thus affording full legal protection of property.