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Presenting a discussion of the political culture of Iran that has been largely overlooked in the West, this volume seeks to analyse a 'fragmented self' refracted through the institutions, market forces & modern thought of Iran.
Given the rise of globalization and coinciding increase in cultural clashes among diverse nations, it has become eminently clear to scholars of political thought that there exists a critical gap in the knowledge of non-Western philosophies and how Western thought has been influenced by them. This gap has led to a severely diminished capacity of both state and nonstate actors to communicate effectively on a global scale. The political theorists, area scholars, and intellectual historians gathered here by Takashi Shogimen and Cary J. Nederman examine the exchange of political ideas between Europe and Asia from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. They establish the need for comparative political thought, showing that in order to fully grasp the origins and achievements of the West, historians of political thought must incorporate Asian political discourse and ideas into their understanding. By engaging in comparative studies, this volume proves the necessity of a cross-disciplinary approach in guiding the study of the global history of political thought.
Comparative political theory is at best an embryonic and marginalized endeavor. As practiced in most Western universities, the study of political theory generally involves a rehearsal of the canon of Western political thought from Plato to Marx. Only rarely are practitioners of political thought willing (and professionally encouraged) to transgress the canon and thereby the cultural boundaries of North America and Europe in the direction of genuine comparative investigation. Border Crossings presents an effort to remedy this situation, fully launching a new era in political theory. Thirteen scholars from around the world examine the various political traditions of West, South, and East Asia and engage in a reflective cross-cultural discussion that belies the assumptions of an Asian 'essence' and of an unbridgeable gulf between West and non-West. The denial of essential differences does not, however, amount to an endorsement of essential sameness. As viewed and as practiced by contributors to this ground-breaking volume, comparative political theorizing must steer a course between uniformity and radical separation--this is the path of 'border crossings.'
Postcolonialism and Political Theory explores the intersection between the political and the postcolonial through an engagement with, critique of, and challenge to some of the prevalent, restrictive tenets and frameworks of Western political and social thought. It is a response to the call by postcolonial studies, as well as to the urgent need within world politics, to turn towards a multiplicity--largely excluded from globally dominant discourses of community, subjectivity, power and prosperity--constituted by otherness, radical alterity, or subordination to the newly reconsolidated West. The book offers a diverse range of essays that re-examine and open the boundaries of political and cult...
The field of comparative politics traditionally has been divided into two camps: on the one hand, quantitatively driven work on a broad scale; on the other, more qualitative area studies. This edited collection promotes a new approach to comparative politics that transcends the debate about the future of the discipline. The contributors' essays are innovative in their interweaving of case studies of the political situations in particular regions with the project of political theorizing. The chapters take as their points of departure such diverse topics as the liberal tradition in United States politics, the impact of drug-related violence on democratic stability in Colombia, and the relationship between poverty reduction and support for democracy in Mali, thereby resoundingly demonstrating the broad relevance of the volume's unifying theme: theoretically informed comparative analysis. Students of politics, from advanced undergraduates to practicing scholars, will find this volume useful in assessing, analyzing, and uniting the fields of comparative politics and political theory.
In this timely, informative edited volume, major Iranian scholars and civic actors address some of the most pressing questions about Iranian civil society and the process of democratization in Iran. They describe the role of Iranian civil society in the process of transition to democracy in Iran and offer insight about the enduring legacy of previous social and political movements—starting with the Constitutional Revolution of 1906— in the struggle for democracy in Iran. Each contributor looks at different aspects of Iranian civil society to address the complex nature of the political order in Iran and the possibilities for secularization and democratization of the Iranian government. Va...
This Lexington Books edition of Comparative Political Philosophy brings back into print a volume that was one of the first to move beyond a Eurocentric bias in the study of political philosophy and provide a well-balanced critique of the perilous transition from tradition to modernity. The book is evidence of the benefits to be reaped from comparison, from a reading of Aristotle together with the Arthashastra, of Mahatma Gandhi with Eric Voegelin, of Voltaire with Confucius. Focusing on key texts from Chinese, Indian, Western and Islamic political philosophy, chapter authors both describe the very different contexts from which philosophic traditions arose and discover basic tenets they have in common. In a new introduction, editors Anthony J. Parel and Ronald C. Keith discuss the changes in political contexts since the book's first publication, and they underscore the increasing importance of the comparative approach.
Imagining Brazil provides a comprehensive and multifaceted picture of Brazil in the age of globalization. Privileging diversity in relation to the authors as well as the manner in which Brazil is perceived, JessZ Souza and Valter Sinder have assembled historians, political scientists, sociologists, literary critics, and scholars of culture in an attempt to understand a complex society in all its richness and diversity. Rising from one of the worldOs poorest societies in the 1930s to the eighth largest world economy in the 1980s, Brazil is used as an example of globalizationOs impact on peripheral societies, exploring in new contexts the serious social problems that have always characterized this society. Imagining Brazil explores the connections between society and politics and culture and literature, creating an encompassing volume of interest to scholars of Latin American studies as well as those interested in how globalization impacts the varied aspects of a country.
The notable contributors to Democratization and Identity introduce the experiences of East and Southeast Asia into the study of democratization in ethnically (including religiously) diverse societies. This collection suggests that the risk of ethnicized conflict, exclusion, or hierarchy during democratization depends in large part on the nature of the ethnic identities and relations constituted during authoritarian rule. This volume's theoretical breakthroughs and its country case studies shed light on the prospects for ethnically inclusive and non-hierarchical democratization across East and Southeast Asia and beyond.
This volume presents an original account of Mahatma Gandhi's four meanings of freedom: as sovereign national independence, as the political freedom of the individual, as freedom from poverty, and as the capacity for self-rule or spiritual freedom. In this volume, seven leading Gandhi scholars write on these four meanings, engaging the reader in the ongoing debates in the East and the West and contributing to a new comparative political theory.