Túl a legitimitáson? Xenophón Anabasziszának tanulságai a kortárs realista politikaelmélet számára
Beyond legitimacy? The lessons of Xenophon’s Anabasis for contemporary realist political theory

Summary/Abstract: Legitimacy seems to be the problem of contemporary realist political theory to which most attention is paid. The reason for this is that contemporary realism aims to take a kind of intermediate position between on the one hand a ‘political moralist’ standpoint, which traces back the justifi cation of political acts to moral principles outside of politics, mostly exemplifi ed as Rawlsian philosophy by the realists, and the standpoint they call ‘Realpolitik’, ‘Machiavellism’ or ‘might is right’, which justifi es political acts solely by the success of maintaining power over the other. However, it is questionable whether such an intermediate position is possible. Relying on Xenophon’s Anabasis, the paper argues that it is not, but that this is not fatal from the point of view of realist political theory, and it does not necessarily result in the acceptance of the standpoint of ‘might is right’. The essence of Xenophon’s thought is that the norms of correct political action are to be sought in the continuous urge to choose created by the confl icts of various normative viewpoints rather than in the form of abstract political norms detached from morality (as the concept of legitimacy would suggest). This is a lesson that contemporary realism should consider adopting, instead of the fruitless conceptual discussions of legitimacy.

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