Political Theory Research Articles

Strengthening the Practical Path of Sensory Education in Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Universities—Based on Marcuse's New Theory of Sensibility

Strengthening the Practical Path of Sensory Education in Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Universities—Based on Marcuse's New Theory of Sensibility

Sovereignty cubed: The Arctic as a territorial and ontological volume

State sovereignty over space has traditionally been viewed as confined to a bounded land area. However, scholarship in critical cartography, political, and social theory shows this understanding to be flawed. This perspective not only limits understandings of sovereignty density, but also weakens our understanding of the limits of the state. This is particularly evident in the Arctic, where sovereignty discourse often fails to address the complexities of space in connection with authority and legitimacy for decision-making in the region. This article first critically examines Arctic sovereignty, challenging the notion of sovereignty as merely a horizontal area with land or sea boundaries. Instead, it argues that Arctic geopolitics and governance are better understood when sovereignty is considered as a scalar concept encompassing a territorial volume. Second, it contextualises the processes involved in the legitimisation of sovereignty and governance practices across the Arctic, framing this as ontological sovereignty. The article contends that Arctic sovereignty and governance are more comprehensively understood by shifting from a strictly material perspective to an ontological framing, which encompasses control over the nature and existence of Arctic spaces, with implications for future development and understandings of Arctic governance.

Research on the Practice of Ideological and Political Theories Teaching Innovation in College Mathematics Courses Under the Concept of Comprehensive Development

Research on the Practice of Ideological and Political Theories Teaching Innovation in College Mathematics Courses Under the Concept of Comprehensive Development

Africana Political Theory as Decolonial Critique

ABSTRACT This article illuminates a fundamental problem at the core of canonical political theory: the racialization of knowledge. It contends that the history of canonical thought as being necessarily Western and, therefore, European American, means the emergence of epistemic racism produces enormous consequences for the practice of philosophical thought—namely, Africana political theory (APT). Thus, this article raises important questions such as the colonization of reason, as well as the ongoing relationship between political theory and race, such that the specter of anti-black racism manifests and becomes intertwined with the foundations of the canon. Ultimately, the article proffers APT as decolonial critique to complicate and expand the parameters of philosophical practice. The overall consequences for the discipline, its students, and its practitioners actualize an ongoing movement for black liberation.

A Philosophical Analysis of the Legitimacy of Political Power in Tanzania from a Lockean Perspective

This article conducts a philosophical analysis of the legitimacy of political power in Tanzania using John Locke’s political theory as a framework. It evolved from researcher’s observation and empirical studies that concerned political legitimacy in Tanzania. The lack of philosophical approach opened away for philosophical investigations and the necessity of involving philosophical views like that of the John Locke, in addressing of the shaking political legitimacy in Tanzania. The factors such as; allegations of corruption, restricted freedom of expression and limited access to justice, stimulated the author into philosophical inquiring, in accordance to John Locke’s political philosophy on the theory of legitimacy of political power. The Article examines how Locke’s principles of consent, protection of individual rights, and limited government apply within Tanzania’s socio-political context. The study highlights significant challenges to political legitimacy, including allegations of electoral manipulation, constraints on political freedoms, and governance issues such as corruption and lack of transparency. Recommendations are proposed to enhance democratic governance and accountability in Tanzania, emphasizing the critical need to strengthen electoral integrity, protect fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and assembly, and bolster institutional frameworks for transparency and judicial independence. By applying Locke’s principles, this analysis aims to contribute insights into the dynamics of political authority in Tanzania and suggest pathways for fostering a more inclusive, accountable, and legitimate governance framework aligned with the aspirations of its citizens.

Theories, Facts, and Meanings in Political Philosophy

The consequences of correctly implementing a normative political theory arguably bear on its acceptability. A theory whose correct implementation permits slavery is highly implausible. We defend a claim about incorrect implementation. We argue that normative political theories that will predictably be put to bad use deserve harsher assessments than theories that will predictably be put to better use. Theories that key political actors will predictably invoke to justify bad policy recommendations are bad theories, even if those recommendations are not logical consequences of the theories (even in conjunction with well-established factual propositions). However, standard discussions of political theories ignore such “misapplications” when it comes to assessing the principles and values proclaimed by those theories. We reject this view because the action guidance that a normative political theory effectively provides is mediated by political actors’ prior beliefs. At the limit, these actors may regard public policies as specifying principles that the theory proclaims, as something different from regarding such policies as causally effective in achieving the ends or enforcing the rights proclaimed by those principles. As a result, political actors see themselves as exempted from the need to undertake careful causal analysis. Morally defensible action guidance requires, then, that those principles be qualified by empirically-grounded policy constraints. Normative political theories qualified in those ways constitute theoretical improvements, that is, improvements on the action guidance that the theories provide on their own.

A reformation to end the revolution: Germaine de Staël and the struggle for republican mores under directory France

ABSTRACT Between 1797 and 1798, Germaine de Staël argued that France needed a reformation to end the Revolution, proposing the adoption Protestantism as a religion of state. This proposal has been explained away as an obvious and uninteresting consequence of her Calvinist upbringing. While obviously relevant, Staël’s religious background is not a sufficient explanation for a proposal that would have upended the constitutional principles of the Directorial republic as well as centuries of tradition in France. I argue instead that Staël’s proposal is better understood in framework of the Directory’s plans to breach the state’s neutrality in religious matters, established in the 1795 Constitution, in order to promote love of the republic via a new religion, theophilanthropy. Thus, Staël identified a political opportunity for constitutional change in matters of religion and sought to steer the course towards an existing religion that, as she argued, had all the benefits that the Directory saw in theophilanthropy, but none of the pitfalls, especially the theophilanthropists’ association with the Terror. This re-interpretation of Staël’s proposal, made in Circonstances actuelles, has implications for our broader understanding of this work, hailed as her ‘most substantial contribution to political and constitutional theory’, and the Thermidorian republic.

Envisioning ecopolitical futures: Reading climate fiction as political theory

Scholarship on how speculative knowledges can contribute to envisioning sustainable futures is thriving. There is less attention to the specific ways in which political theory as speculative knowledge is relevant to these scholarly discussions. This article fosters this link by suggesting reading climate fiction as political theory. The article follows a four-step analysis. First, it clarifies the importance of pluralising and decolonising the knowledges through which climate change is engaged politically. Second, it introduces the concept of ecopolitical imaginary to capture collective visions for sustainable futures, showing the relevance of the theorising endeavour. Third, it elucidates the idea that placing political theory and climate fiction in dialogue can help envisage alternative ecopolitical imaginaries for future world ordering. Finally, it reads Robinson’s Ministry for the Future as an experiment in political thinking: an ecopolitical imaginary that helps to think through the challenges involved in countering the colonial logic of global climate governance and the Eurocentric universalism underpinning it. The overarching argument is that reading climate fiction as political theory offers insight into envisioning just sustainable futures.

From legitimate boundaries to legitimate boundary-making: towards a theory of post-sovereign membership politics

ABSTRACT Questions of political membership belong to the most controversial issues in political theory today. Most of the contributions to these debates, however, leave aside the procedural question of how and by whom membership boundaries can be legitimately redrawn. In this article, I argue that membership theory should move from dealing with legitimate boundaries to legitimate boundary-making. Highlighting the limits of two normative models – sovereign and cosmopolitan membership politics – and building on a new interpretation of Seyla Benhabib’s concept of ‘democratic iterations’, I develop an alternative approach, which I describe as post-sovereign membership politics. Post-sovereign membership politics envisages differentiated participatory entitlements for members and non-members in boundary-making and aims to realize both members’ and non-members’ autonomy in decisions on controversial issues such as citizenship tests, prisoner disenfranchisement, or the selling of passports.

A post-Hegelian theory of human rights: beyond recognition and the state

This article develops a post-Hegelian social and political theory of human rights. To do this, it moves past two legacies that can be traced back to Hegel’s philosophy: his theory of recognition and his views about the embeddedness of rights within states. IR often misinterprets Hegel’s recognition theory as applying within a public world of state action. However, Hegel argues that recognition occurs before rather than within a social world. Instead, I show how and why Hegel’s analysis of Sophocles’ play Antigone is a more fruitful starting point for theorising contemporary international practices. I mobilise a Hegelian social ontology of ‘ethical life’ and a post-Hegelian critique of statism and Eurocentrism to argue that human rights should be understood as an independent field of action in which agency is embedded, rather than as a practice that is tied to sovereignty and states. Several conclusions about the ontology and epistemology of human rights stem from this analysis. Human rights practice brings forms of action and obligation into being. It enables collective (not only individual) action. It requires the exercise of humility rather than hubris. Finally, it invites a discussion of how agents can bridge external and internal perspectives to evaluate the actions that seem to be required by their practices. This critical exploration and re-interpretation of Hegel’s early work corrects IR’s tendency to use his later and more statist writings to locate and concretise the grounds for ethics.

Shadows of Being. Encounters with Heidegger in Political Theory and Historical Reflection, written by Jeffrey Andrew Barash

Shadows of Being. Encounters with Heidegger in Political Theory and Historical Reflection, written by Jeffrey Andrew Barash

ROUSSEAU HEIR OF HOBBES? ANALYZING HUMAN NATURE AND POLITICAL ORDER IN THE INTERWOVEN PHILOSOPHIES OF HOBBES AND ROUSSEAU

The article addresses the contributions of Hobbes and Rousseau in the construction of models of human sociability, highlighting how both have marked the history of political philosophy with distinct and, in certain aspects, mutually exclusive visions. Hobbes is recognized for his negative view of man and for introducing the modern concept of the State, while Rousseau criticizes Hobbes's anthropological pessimism, emphasizing passive egoism in the state of nature. Traditional political theories fail to fully understand the relationship between Hobbes and Rousseau, especially concerning their views on human nature and the origin of society. This article seeks to clarify these differences and complementarities. The objective of the article is to examine how the ideas of Hobbes and Rousseau intertwine and contrast, providing a deeper understanding of the formation of modern political thought. The methodology used includes a comparative analysis of the works of Hobbes and Rousseau, focusing on their conceptions of human nature, the state of nature, and the formation of the State and society. It is concluded that although Rousseau criticizes Hobbes for his negative view of the state of nature, he also recognizes the importance of the social contract as a means of establishing political order. Rousseau seeks to overcome the arbitrariness present in Hobbes's theory, proposing active participation of the people in lawmaking, emphasizing popular sovereignty and civil liberty. Thus, the article highlights how both philosophers contributed to constructing a political theory that balances authority and freedom.

The dynamic spatial effects of education investment on carbon emissions: heterogeneous analysis based on north-south differences in China

This article is based on panel data from 266 cities in China from 2009 to 2020. Classical economics theory and Marxist political economy theory are used as the theoretical basis for the study. Static spatial Durbin model regression and dynamic spatial Durbin model regression are conducted to analyze the impact of education investment on carbon dioxide emissions. The results show that education investment can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, not only through spatial spillover effects, but also through dynamic effects over time. The implementation of education investment in one city can have a positive impact on surrounding cities, thereby achieving a certain degree of reduction in carbon emissions. Additionally, the inhibitory effect of education investment on carbon emissions is more significant in the short term. Furthermore, the study found that there is significant heterogeneity in the effect of education investment on carbon dioxide emissions between northern and southern cities, with education investment in southern cities having a more significant effect. This may be related to the industrial structure and climate of southern cities. The conclusions of this study provide useful reference for the development of education policies and environmental protection policies. In the future, the government can increase education investment appropriately to achieve the goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. And research has shown that education investment can suppress carbon emissions by influencing changes in energy and industrial structures. Therefore, when using measures to reduce emissions in education investment, we can focus on these two aspects.

Subsidiarity, sphere sovereignty, and state sovereignty

An important question for liberal political theory is whether its account of political morality is compatible with religious political thought. This paper examines one aspect of that broad question, namely the compatibility of the Christian pluralist tradition with liberalism's account of state sovereignty. According to Cécile Laborde, a central commitment of liberalism—and perhaps its most radical—is the claim that the state possesses a form of sovereignty that she dubs ‘competence-competence’. This refers to the state's meta-jurisdictional authority to decide the areas of competence of associations within it. The Christian pluralist tradition, in contrast, emphasises the independent authority of various kinds of social groups and the external limits this places on the state. The paper argues that, despite appearances to the contrary and the claims of many pluralist thinkers, these two views are compatible. It does so through a detailed examination of the two main strands of Christian pluralism, namely subsidiarity and sphere sovereignty, and by comparing pluralists’ and liberals’ approaches to the regulation of religious groups.

Research on Teaching Reform of Construction Equipment Engineering Course Based on Ideological and Political Theories Teaching in All Course

Ideological and Political Theories Teaching in All Course means integrating ideological and political education elements into the teaching process to ensure that the transmission of knowledge is consistent with the guidance of values. With the deepening of higher education reform in China, Ideological and Political Theories Teaching in All Course has become a key way to improve the quality of education in higher education institutions. Under the current educational background, integrating the thought of Ideological and Political Theories Teaching in All Course into the course of construction equipment engineering can not only enhance students professional skills and knowledge, but also help them establish correct values, ethics and social responsibility. This paper aims at how to implement the strategy of Ideological and Political Theories Teaching in All Course efficiently in the course of construction equipment engineering, hoping to provide useful suggestions and references for the educational reform in this field.

Political geography I: Blue geopolitics

This report provides an overview of contemporary scholarship on the political geographies of oceans. While oceans were overlooked for many years as theories of sovereignty, territory, and borders focused on terrestrial politics, the significant impact of climate change resulted in a new focus on the role oceans place in global environmental and political systems. At the same time, the enclosure of over 40 percent of the oceans as territorial seas, exclusive economic zones, and extended continental shelves through the Convention on the Law of the Sea produced burgeoning literature on maritime borders and conflicts. The report proposes the concept of blue geopolitics to capture an oceanic turn in political geography theories.

The Authoritarian Nature of Common Good Constitutionalism

Abstract How are we to evaluate the project of common good constitutionalism? This new movement, which dismisses positivism and liberalism, progressivism and originalism, aims to overturn the entire canon of modern political and constitutional theory. In its place, it aims to restore a classical tradition of natural law jurisprudence, which is said to have been lost over the last century of constitutional law and practice. In so doing it uses one of liberalism’s own juristic heroes, Ronald Dworkin, in order to free conservatism from the tethers of fidelity to constitutional text and the principle of popular sovereignty underwriting it. Common good constitutionalism’s intervention in the constitutional culture wars of the present is authoritarian not because of its opposition to liberalism, but because of its steadfast refusal of any link between constitutional authority and democracy.

MUSLIM INTELLECTUAL THOUGHT IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE: THE CONCEPT OF THE STATE IN POLITICAL THOUGHT AL-FARABI, AL-MAWARDI, IBN KHALDUN

This article discusses the concept and urgency of the State for human life and the characteristics of heads of State based on the political thoughts of Al-Farabi, Al-Mawardi, and Ibn Khaldun. Islam, being a religion sprung from Allah, does not limit itself to discussing issues of faith and morality but also delves into all aspects of life, including the government. But it is believed that there is clearly no concept of government or kingship in Islam, nor is there a concept of nation-state in the concept of Islam. Understanding the concept of nation will be easier when we use various angles and viewpoints. Since the verses of the Holy Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad do not mention a nation that does not have a ruler. However, we rush to the AlQuran and Hadist when we want to know the organs of that country. Islam is a comprehensive religion that addresses all issues, both external and internal. Issues of ketatanegaraan, including issues of national concept according to Islam, are likely to be addressed in this duniawi. This kind of study is known as library research using a descriptive-qualitative approach. Researchers Al-Farabi, Al-Mawardi, and Ibnu Khaldun set out to fill a gap in our knowledge by analysing the political theories of the three major Islamic thinkers

Tradition and Disruption in Latinx and Latin American Political Thought

Abstract This article presents Latinx political thought as a distinctive tradition in political theory that reworks central concepts in response to historical experiences of conquest, colonialism, migration, and transnational politics. In reconstructing this tradition, we argue that its problem space converges with US-based Latin American political thought. The article first traces a genealogy of Latinx political theory and then explores three realms of theorizing around which Latinx and Latin American political thought cluster: sovereignty and state violence, peoplehood, and transnationalism. We explain how the surveyed works disrupt and enrich political theory accounts of these problems. In arguing for the recognition of this field as a tradition, the article also aims to make it intelligible as an area of concentration for PhD students in political science.

(Re)Designing the Public Sphere? Doing Political Theory After the Empirical Turn

(Re)Designing the Public Sphere? Doing Political Theory After the Empirical Turn