Polity articles from April 2005

Polity archives from April 2005

Of Hobbes and hospitality in Diderot's supplement to the voyage of Bougainville.
April 1, 2005... Weep, wretched natives of Tahiti, weep. But let it be for the coming and not the leaving of these ambitious, wicked men. --Denis Diderot, Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville No one ever speaks of Diderotian international relations...

John Dewey's social aesthetics *.
April 1, 2005... Introduction Recent interpretations of John Dewey's critique of actually existing democracy have emphasized what is seen as his belief in the ability of civil society to inculcate democratic characteristics in citizens. These...

Two epistemic accounts of democratic legitimacy *.
April 1, 2005... After a vote has been taken, why should the minority acquiesce to the will of the majority? Of course, there is always the threat of great instability or even force if they don't, but the type of answer sought here is one that provides a...

The very order of things: Rousseau's tutorial republicanism *.
April 1, 2005... Anyone who dares to institute a people must feel capable of, so to speak, changing human nature; of transforming each individual who by himself is a perfect and solitary whole into part of a larger whole.... In a word, he must...

Wilsonian crisis leadership, the organic state, and the modern presidency.
April 1, 2005... In the first weeks after September 11, 2001, the presidency of George W. Bush was transformed from one of dubious legitimacy into an apparent model of confident leadership with strong public support. While Bush's poise immediately after the...

Individualism, Emersonian style.
April 1, 2005... In 2003 we marked the bicentennial of the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), who was arguably America's first and perhaps most influential public or democratic intellectual. Emerson was, in his day, one of the most popular lecturers and...