History of the State Books - Page 4

Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government (Oxford Political Theory)

Philip Pettit

Amazon Price: $47.84 List Price: $55.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $32.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Political
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> History & Theory
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Political Parties

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This is the first full-length presentation of a republican alternative to the liberal and communitarian theories that have dominated political philosophy in recent years. The latest addition to the acclaimed Oxford Political Theory series, Pettit's eloquent and compelling account opens with an examination of the traditional republican conception of freedom as non-domination, contrasting this with established negative and positive views of liberty.
The first part of the book traces the rise and decline of this conception, displays its many attractions, and makes a case for why it should still be regarded as a central political ideal. The second part of the book looks at what the implementation of the ideal would require with regard to substantive policy-making, constitutional and democratic design, regulatory control and the relation between state and civil society. Prominent in this account is a novel concept of democracy, under which government is exposed to systematic contestation, and a vision of state-societal relations founded upon civility and trust.
Pettit's powerful and insightful new work offers not only a unified, theoretical overview of the many strands of republican ideas, but also a new and sophisticated perspective on studies in related fields including the history of ideas, jurisprudence, and criminology.

Cultural Intimacy

Michae Herzfeld

List Price: $96.95 By: Routledge Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $215.27

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Anthropology -> Cultural
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Anthropology -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Anthropology -> General AAS

Editorial Review:

Cultural Intimacy reveals that every nation-state has its own 'dirty laundry'. In this book, the author looks at what constitutes 'dirty laundry' and what makes it 'dirty'. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork in Greece, as well as a wide range of comparisons from the United States, Africa, Western Europe and elsewhere, he ranges from sheep-thieves to flight attendants, from the banality of polite chit-chat to the divine vengeance invoked against perjury, and from the personal styles of coffee house and bar-room to the politics of academia and of national pride.

Defensor Pacis (Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching)

Marsilius of Padua

List Price: $18.95 By: University of Toronto Press Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $2.28

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Spain
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> Medieval
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Foreign Language Fiction -> French

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Marsilius of Padua is one of the few truly revolutionary figures in the history of political philosophy. The first to propound the separation of Church and State, he is considered the precursor to subsequent political thinkers, from Machiavelli to Marx. The Marsilian revolution consisted not only in a radical change in the theory of the relations between religion and politics that culminated in the Protestant Reformation and other central developments of the modern era, but, even more importantly, it had an effect on the whole conception of human beings -their nature, acts, values, and sociopolitical relations. As Cary J. Nederman writes in the foreword to the new edition, "Marsilius continues to speak to many of the salient issues of modern political life, expressing his doctrines in a language that has resonance and relevance. Whether in addressing the role of citizenship as a buffer between individual and community, or in explicating the foundations of religious toleration, the Defensor pacis (and Marsilius´ other writings) affords a distinctive theoretical perspective that rivals that of any of the great thinkers of the Western political tradition."

ON POWER

BERTRAND DE JOUVENEL

Amazon Price: $24.00 List Price: $24.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Liberty Fund Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $9.97

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Law -> General
Subjects -> Law -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> History of the State

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Profound critique and analysis on nature of political power 4 out of 5 stars.
15 of 16 people found this review helpful.

~On Power: The Natural History of Its Growth~ chronicles the growth of political power throughout the ages and explains how the powers welded by modern Parliaments and Presidents would be the envy of medieval kings. Bertrand de Jouvenel has a colorful past and was once snared by the etatism of his native France. After WWII, he produced this astute and trenchant analysis of political power and tracing its natural history and growth through the ages. Political power has reached a crescendo in the past century. Monarchs of yesteryears could only dream of the power welded by Presidents and Parliaments. Bertrand opens with a chapter entitled the Minotaur (who is analogous to the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler) and proceeds to document and trace the growth of state power through the ages. He addresses varying theories of sovereignty and the resulting practical effects of those theories in practice. He astutely captures the corrupting influence of Rousseau with amazing clarity and iconoclastically tackles that sacrosanct creature 'democracy' which Bertrand de Jouvenel rightly characterizes democracy as a child of war. He fittingly features a chapter entitled 'Totalitarian Democracy' as the book comes to a close. When the rule of law was held in high esteem, then efforts were made to check and prevent the concentration of power. Nonetheless, the dubious theories about the 'general will,' or similar theories purporting an infallible will of the people, seemed to take hold and gave way to legitimizing a succession of demagogues and dictators with unbridled power. The era of demagogues usually climaxes into an age of total war as these powers clash swords. It was essentially when democracy become the ultimate end, and not the means, that it achieved its most repugnant manifestations and lead to a concentration of power unimaginable in previous centuries. Revolutionaries and demagogues like Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler were the illegitimate sons of democracy and could all rightfully lay claim to being democrats.

Editorial Review:

Documenting the process by which government and controlling majorities have grown increasingly powerful and tyrannical, Bertrand de Jouvenel demonstrates how democracies have failed to limit the powers of government. This development Jouvenel traces all the way back to the days of royal absolutism, which established large administrative bureaucracies and thus laid the foundation of the modern omnipotent state.

Civil Society & Development: A Critical Exploration

Jude Howell, Jenny Pearce

Amazon Price: $55.00 List Price: $55.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Lynne Rienner Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $43.83

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Development & Growth
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Economic Policy & Development
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> General AAS

Editorial Review:

Incorporated into the lexicons of academics, policymakers and grassroots activists, of multilateral development agencies and local NGOs alike, "civil society" has become a topic of widespread discussion. But is there in fact any common understanding of the term? How useful is it when applied to the South, and what difference does it make to bring the concept into the debate on development? This book explores the complex relationships among civil society, the state and market, in the context of democratic development. Drawing on case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, it also unravels what is meant by development agencies - bilaterals, multilaterals, NGOs and international financial institutions, with their diverse approaches and agendas - when it refers to the urgent need to strengthen civil society.

Nationalism and the State

John Breuilly

Amazon Price: $35.10 List Price: $39.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University Of Chicago Press Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $13.44

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> World -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> General AAS

Editorial Review:

Since its publication this important study has become established as a central work on the vast and contested subject of modern nationalism. Placing historical evidence within a general theoretical framework, John Breuilly argues that nationalism should be understood as a form of politics that arises in opposition to the modern state. In this updated and revised edition, he extends his analysis to the most recent developments in central Europe and the former Soviet Union. He also addresses the current debates over the meaning of nationalism and their implications for his position.

Breuilly challenges the conventional view that nationalism emerges from a sense of cultural identity. Rather, he shows how elites, social groups, and foreign governments use nationalist appeals to mobilize popular support against the state. Nationalism, then, is a means of creating a sense of identity. This provocative argument is supported with a wide-ranging analysis of pertinent examples—national opposition in early modern Europe; the unification movement in Germany, Italy, and Poland; separatism under the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires; fascism in Germany, Italy, and Romania; post-war anti-colonialism and the nationalist resurgence following the breakdown of Soviet power.

Still the most comprehensive and systematic historical comparison of nationalist politics, Nationalism and the State is an indispensable book for anyone seeking to understand modern politics.

Labor of Dionysus: A Critique of the State-Form (Theory Out of Bounds)

Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri

Amazon Price: $27.00 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of Minnesota Press Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $25.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Constitutions

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Early stages on the development of a brilliant thinking 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This book is the beginning of a colossal critique on late capitalism, its logic and the dismay of the state form. It announces what would later become the theory and book of Empire, one of the most relevant perspectives to understand the world today, in terms of postmodernism, inmaterial production, globalisation, war, democracy and the new sovereignty. It is highly recomended for anyone looking for thought stimulation and provocation, as well as a penetrating account of actuality inside our philosophical and political traditions.

LIMITS OF STATE ACTION, THE

WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT

Amazon Price: $18.00 List Price: $18.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Liberty Fund Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $15.73

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Law -> General
Subjects -> Law -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> Poverty -> Social Services & Welfare

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Humboldt and Mill: Classical Liberalism 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 20 people found this review helpful.

I feel a sense of responsibility and urgency to write this review in regards to what the only other reviewer of the Liberty edition has submitted: Wilhelm von Humboldt has nothing to do with "Libertarian socialism" - that statement is simply oxymoronic. Here is what Humboldt speaks to in this particular volume:

1.) The development of classical liberalism in Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century.
2.) The role of liberty in the development of the individual.
3.) The necessary criteria to be met in allowing the state to limit individual actions.
4.) The manner in which it is prudent to confine the state to its proper role.

F.A. Hayek, who utterly rejected socialism, considered Humboldt to be Germany's greatest philosopher of freedom. Humboldt's purpose was to juxtapose the ancient ideals of a pursuit for excellence with the concept of negative liberty - which was later elucidated by Isaiah Berlin. If you are interested in the foundations of classical liberalism, I would suggest reading the works of Hayek, Humboldt, Hobhouse, Collingwood, Berlin, Oakeshott, and Mill. However, if you are interested in socialism I would recommend reading Marx, Proudhon, Feuerbach, Hegel, Rousseau, Richard Pipes' "Property and Freedom," Joshua Muravchik's "Heaven on Earth," and especially, "News from Nowhere," by William Morris.

Editorial Review:

The Limits of State Action, by "Germany's greatest philosopher of freedom," as F. A. Hayek called him, has an exuberance and attention to principle that make it a valuable introduction to classical liberal political thought. It is also crucial for an understanding of liberalism as it developed in Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century. Humboldt explores the role that liberty plays in individual development, discusses criteria for permitting the state to limit individual actions, and suggests ways of confining the state to its proper bounds. In so doing, he uniquely combines the ancient concern for human excellence and the modern concern for what has come to be known as negative liberty.

The Making of the Modern State: A Theoretical Evolution

Brian Nelson

Amazon Price: $31.95 List Price: $31.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Palgrave Macmillan Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $25.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> History & Theory
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General AAS

Editorial Review:

Nelson provides a historical overview of the theoretical and ideological evolution of the modern state, from pre-state and pre-modern state formations to the present. Major themes and key thinkers are treated in some depth and specificity. At the same time, structural changes, both socio-economic and political, underlying shifts in state consciousness are emphasized. The link between state ideologies of legitimation and forms of political consciousness is stressed, including those theoretical forms of consciousness characteristic of modern social and political science. A major theme of the book is the need to understand the modern state holistically, as a totality of social, political, and ideological factors.

Hobhouse: Liberalism and Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

L. T. Hobhouse

Amazon Price: $75.00 List Price: $75.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $20.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Constitutions
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Reference
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A message as powerful today as when it was written 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Hobhouse loses out on two fronts. To the academic political philosopher he is not to be taken seriously because 'Liberalism' is an insignificant book written for a mass audience. For others he was writing in a different age with different problems, so how can he be relevant. To deal firstly with the readibility of 'Liberalism', it is a distillation of his thoughts in an accessible format - GREAT! If you want more; read some more of his books, simple as that. This a wonderful book that gets under your skin planting ideas that itch away forever more. To style Hobhouse a father of modern liberalism is to diminish his worth and miss the point. Reading Hobhouse is not a second best to reading Rawls. He is more coherent, better argued, and simply smarter and more on the ball than all the so called liberals ever since (maybe that's a bit strong, but you see what I'm getting at). It's very simple really; what we want is maximum individual freedom, yet we all live in a society. The only way we can maximize our freedom as individuals is within that society, and in order for it to survive we must tolerate limits on those individual freedoms. Hmm; sounds a lot better the way he puts it! If you want your perceptions challenged, this is an excellent place to start.

Editorial Review:

L.T. Hobhouse was the most sophisticated intellectual exponent of liberal social reform in the early years of the twentieth century. This edition of his classic Liberalism, which includes a number of his other contemporaneous writings, will be of interest to a broad range of students and scholars in politics and the history of political thought.