We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
So how far is utopianism part of totalitarianism, or theoretically or causally related to it? This is, clearly, a definitional issue at the outset, and so an assessment of terms is necessary at the outset here. I will then look at a schema of utopian projections before turning to the totalitarian dystopia.My concentration here will be on the now well-grounded hypothesis that utopia has been most prone to produce dystopia when it assumes the shape of a “political religion.” Finally, I will try to modify this hypothesis somewhat by disaggregating the millenarian and other components within supposed “political religions” in order to see what is left once the more destructive elements in modern utopianism have been winnowed out.
More...
In the chapter I wrote for the Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature,I set out to offer an outline of the history of the concept of utopia by highlighting the way the meaning of the neologism created by Thomas More has changed over the centuries.1 As I evinced then, after its deneologization the concept of utopia underwent several semantic renewals, having been used by different authors to refer to a variety of things. This fluctuation of meaning, I then tried to show, was largely due to the never-ending tension that prevails between the concept of utopia (literally a “nonplace”)and that of eutopia (a “good place”).
More...
In this chapter we examine hybrid political ideas that bridged or even blended allegedly incompatible ideologies and created a new texture. The ideas to be discussed are “anarcho-democracy” and “liberal socialism” in twentieth-century Central Europe. These ideas came close to utopian thinking in that their representative proponents tried to find a non-existent third way between clear-cut models. Instead of hewing to either anarchism or liberal democracy, they tried to figure out a third way solution between the two. Instead of taking sides in the historic debate between liberalism and socialism, they tried to find a new blend, liberal socialism. Therefore it is not unjustified to call them variations of third way, or hybrid, utopianism. Refusing to accept “either/or” solutions, third way thinkers wanted to discover a new road to human paradise that incorporated all the good sides of opposing ideologies and eliminated their negative aspects. In approaching this topic, we suggest that a utopia does not always represent a clear and coherent single idea. On the contrary, a utopian vision might appear as a positive way out of two or more sometimes negative (but often contradicting) perspectives by merging and transcending them.
More...
One of the most recent and important contributions to Soviet history is that of “Soviet subjectivity” literature. This approach originates in the works of Igal Halfin and Jochen Hellbeck, for both of whom Michel Foucault and post-structuralist theory are major sources of inspiration. Halfin and Hellbeck use the Foucauldian analysis of the creation of subjectivity by power to look at the Stalinist purges in a new way. The self that they write about is not a Cartesian or Kantian self, but rather an intersection of discourses and mechanisms of power. This is a radical version of the linguistic turn in history, and the questions that Halfin and Hellbeck raise are equally radical. What potential for resistance was there in the USSR? What were the limits and peculiarities of the new “Soviet self”? And what were the sources of the uniquely confessionary nature of Stalinist terror?
More...
The present essay focuses on post-9/11 films which present the cataclysm and the post-apocalypse implaced in New York. The central motif analyzed will be the effects of the conjunction of the iconographies of fictional catastrophe and historical trauma, how the September 11 attacks and their aftermath influenced and re-shaped the topicalization and visualization of widespread urban destruction, especially that of Manhattan, and how a narrative of historical trauma intersects and interweaves with narratives of spatial carnage regarded as entertainment.
More...
This essay was written as a contribution to The Paradox of Realism project (National Research, Development and Innovation Office – NKFIH K 117041). George R. R. Martin’s fantasy book series, A Song of Ice and Fire (1996–, followed by the Game of Thrones TV series based on the books, 2011–) was critically acclaimed as a dystopian depiction of a world of dynastic wars, civil discontents, and feudal feuds. Its plot is centered around power hunger, violence, conspiracies, and treachery. Not surprisingly, many reviewers welcomed the series as a textbook example of Machiavellian political realism. Self-contradictory as it may seem, a story of imagined lands, decadelong winters, zombies, magic, and dragons proves to be markedly realistic, at least in comparison with the classics of the fantasy genre, especially J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. How can this be possible? If political realism, in a nutshell, is the refutation of the Kantian assertion that “all politics must bend its knee before right,”1 then Tolkien’s novels may justly be described as representing Kant’s ideal, while Martin’s books present us a world where “might is right.” Most of Martin’s characters would readily concur with the crude sincerity of the Athenians recorded in Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War, an unsurpassed classic of realist thinking, that “you know as well as we do that when we are talking on the human plane questions of justice only arise when there is equal power to compel: in terms of practicality the dominant exact what they can and the weak concede what they must.”
More...
Šmit je 1927. godine obezbedio osnovni kriterijum za procenu međunarodnih odnosa u epohi evropske suverene države, a to je distinkcija između prijatelja i neprijatelja. Njegov kriterijum se takođe smatra ispravnim i u proceni odnosa unutar jedne države, kada sukobi u njoj dostignu tačku građanskog rata. On je procenjivao političke odnose preko jedne uvek-već-prisutne mogućnosti sukoba koji može da se završi smrću. Ograničavajući svoju raspravu o politici na oblast evropske suverene države - ili, grubo rečeno, na period od XVI-XVII veka pa do naših vremena - Šmit je video da međunarodni odnosi tih država u doba mira zavise od izvesnih prihvaćenih »pravila igre«. To, nadalje, ima određene posledice po ponašanje država u ratnim vremenima. Pošto su politički odnosi medu nezavisnim političkim entitetima u doba mira imali različite forme, i pošto ti odnosi nisu uvek bili ograničeni uzajamno prihvaćenim pravilima, to se odražava i na ponašanje takvih država u ratnim vremenima. U sumrak epohe evropske suverene države, Šmitovo objašnjenje treba ponovo razmotriti u svetlu konceptualne distinkcije između neprijatelja i protivnika (enemy i foe).
More...
V poslední době došlo v politické teorii ke znovuoživení tázání po poslání a statusu tohoto oboru. Po dlouhých dekádách, v nichž byly cíle a metody této disciplíny považovány za samozřejmé a implicitně sdílené, se naplno projevil nesoulad v náhledech politických teoretiků na svůj vědní obor (Stears 2005). Toto tázání bylo sice podpořeno i obecnějším trendem zabývat se metodologickými otázkami ve filosofii (pro dobré shrnutí viz Cappelen, Gendler a Hawthorne 2016), ale rozproudila je kritika mnoha politických teoretiků směřující do vlastních řad. Agendu politické teorie od počátku 70. let rozhodujícím způsobem ovlivnilo vydání Rawlsovy knihy Teorie spravedlnosti (1971). Právě nespokojenost s „rawlsovským“ způsobem „provozování“ politické teorie dnes naplno vyplula na povrch. Dříve, než se pustíme do rozboru současných debat mezi politickými teoretiky, rád bych ještě poukázal na změnu, kterou vydání Rawlsovy Teorie spravedlnosti pro politickou teorii znamenalo. Bezprostřední úspěch a ocenění, jichž se této knize ze strany širokého publika (nejen politických teoretiků) dostalo, dodaly odvahu a sebevědomí politickým teoretikům, kteří se po vzoru Rawlse snažili o konstruování normativních teorií. Ty se staly jakousi obdobou empirických teorií, které známe z pozitivních věd.
More...
Imperialism is the capitalism in the highest stage of its own development: monopoly capitalism. This is the economic essence of imperialism. Imperialism is "the transition from a capitalist system to a higher socio-economic system", that is transition to a socialist socio-economic order. This is the socio-historical essence of imperialism.
More...
In a classical conceptual discourse, the concept of the state is inseparable from the concept of sovereignty. However, due to globalization processes and influence of global institutions of power, the sovereignty of states is being eroded. The state lost its traditional sovereignty, related to the monopoly of power, stability and safety. Powerful states and their global institutions are using different mechanisms through which they impose their interests and accomplish neoliberal aims that benefit the rich countries, and which contribute not only to impoverishment of states that accept those programs, but also to erosion of their sovereignty. Very strong and intense influence of supranational and transnational instituion calls in question the autonomy, independence, integrity and sovereignty of the states. Sovereignty is eroded and the state is desovereignized.
More...