Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| State: In political philosophy, the state (polity) is a centralized political organization with authority over a defined territory and population. It enforces laws, maintains order, and exercises governance through various institutions. See also Society, Nations, Governance, Institutions, Power, Law, Laws, Rights, Jurisdiction, Legislation._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Noberto Bobbio on State (Polity) - Dictionary of Arguments
Gaus I 406 State/Democrcy/Bobbio/Bellamy/Jennings/Lassman: With post-war Italian politics dominated by the two 'religions' represented by the Catholic Christian Democrats (DC) and the Gramsci- inspired Italian Communist Party, political theorists continued to address the tensions between the two Romes, particularly the difficulties of reconciling the pragmatic concessions of politics with a broader cultural and moral aspiration for social unity. Unsurprisingly, dissenters on both sides typically accused their parties of sacrificing the latter to the former. Significantly, the main political thinker to emerge in this period, Norberto Bobbio (1909-[2004]), though aligned to neither camp as a member of the 'lay' Italian Socialist Party (PSI), led a return to the neo-Machiavellian tradition of Pareto and Mosca (Bobbio, 1977)(1). Bobbio started out as a legal theorist, and his earliest writings were inspired by the legal positivist tradition of Hans Kelsen - a distinctive position in the Italian context that proved highly influential. Bobbio shared Kelsen's deep commitment to the liberal ideal of the Rechtsstaat, sharply criticizing the right and especially the Marxist left for overlooking the importance of the rule of law for the defence of individual liberty. >Freedom/Kelsen. Law/BobbioVsKelsen: However, he had a more realist view of the nature of law than Kelsen, regarding it as institutionalized power. This approach led him to a series of path-breaking studies of Hobbes and ultimately to political theory. In 1972 he exchanged his chair in law at Turin University for one in the newly created politics faculty. He now embarked on a series of essays exploring the nature of the state and democracy. These pieces were often motivated by his own engagement with the peace movement (Bobbio, 1979)(2) on the one hand, and his critique of the radical new left (Bobbio, 1987a)(3) on the other. Cosmopolitanism: Deeply opposed to nuclear weapons, he became a pioneering advocate of some form of cosmopolitan democracy as the only plausible way to institutionalize international law. Yet he remained deeply sceptical of radical schemes for participatory democracy at any level. Democracy: Returning to Pareto and especially Mosca, Bobbio (1987b)(4) defined democracy as simply a means for formalizing the rules whereby elites compete for and exercise power. Though modest by comparison with the hopes of radical democrats, it offers the only available mechanism whereby 'force' can be limited by "consent'. 1. Bobbio, N. (1977) Saggi sulla scienza politica in Italia. Bari: Laterza. 2. Bobbio, N. (1979) Il problema della guerra e le vie della pace. Bologna: Il Mulino. 3. Bobbio, N. (1987a) Which Socialism? Marxism, Socialism and Democracy, ed. Richard Bellamy. Cambridge: Polity (first Italian edn 1976). 4. Bobbio, N. (1987b): The Future of Democracy. A Defence of the Rules of Game. Minneapolis Bellamy, Richard, Jennings, Jeremy and Lassman, Peter 2004. „Political Thought in Continental Europe during the Twentieth Century“. In: Gaus, Gerald F. & Kukathas, Chandran 2004. Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE Publications_____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Bobbio, Noberto Gaus I Gerald F. Gaus Chandran Kukathas Handbook of Political Theory London 2004 |
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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-28