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The article comments on basic problems connected with the process of communication between participants in the political dialogue - politicians and audience (populus). The author emphasizes the functions of their interrelations, thus revealing the attitude and the approach of the speaker toward the audience.A subsequent purpose is to stimulate participants in the process of communication - speaking politicians and listening audience - in the direction of reflection and reappraisal with regard to remembering and re-estimating the meaning of the things that we do when we speak. The present text contains some of the conclusions made in the autor’s research-based bachelor thesis “Politicians - Language - Populus as a Fragment of the Political Verbal Register”.
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In the ‘problematization’ that I am proposing to your attention, the concept of ‘intellectual shortage’ is to designate a thinking (measured by key evaluations and governing decisions) that is under the level and/or the capacities of the science of the contemporary era. ‘Lie’, which the unforgettable Bernard Muntian defined as the global problem No. 1 in the survival of the species of Homo sapiens, is, in this context, a private case of deliberate and malicious production of intellectual shortage. I will use an example. The ‘double standards’ in the international politics of nowadays contain deliberate deception but – in the mass cases – they become acceptable to the public opinion in the developed countries because they correspond to a traditional and increasingly less adequate West-centric perception of the world. To get out of the illusory situation, one must expand the limits of imagination and of understanding, i.e. overcome a certain intellectual shortage.
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Balkan Studies came into focus along with post- structuralist approaches in humanities. „The image of the Balkans”; „The Image of Serbia”, „The Representations of the Others”, are just some of the common titles of constructivist papers. During the disintegration of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, one could testify the emergence of the first scientific articles which draw attention to the practice of the orientalization and self- orientalizing. However, until the end of the twentieth century, these papers were still on the border between essentialism and the fi rst attempts of deconstruction. The first academic texts which were shifting in the new frameworks rely on so called Balkanist paradigm of Maria Todorova. While drawing attention on the stereotypes on the Balkans, they fall into the trap of self- exoticism and exaggeration of the political importance of the region. Milica Bakic Heyden became the first to turn towards „orientalist” paradigm while using the concept of reproduction of orientalism. Her concept leads to the framework in which Serbia and the Balkans are placed. Despite this, the postcolonial approaches, which grows out of Orientalism are still regarded suspicious and theoretically unexploited. The selective use of this theory or its rejection, led to scientific slwodown comapring to the other academic environments which openly analyse political and cultural state in which they found themselves. In Serbia, the postcolonialism did not get the deserved place. The reason is the ambivalent attitude towards it, especially in academic circles. The refusal to accept, analyse and change the position of periphery testify the subaltern position of social sciences in Serbia. While other peripheries exploit advanced theories like postmodern geography or a concept of semi- periphery, Serbia stays on a margin once again. That margin is not only social, ecnonomic, but it is scientific. It is a result of the anxiety and a fear of colonialism, a proof of the unwillingness to confront with own failures and marginality.
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In the following text the categories of subjectivity and identity and their relation with the concept of difference which can be perceived as one of the key concepts for understanding and rethinking the issue of Otherness are analysed. The dominant discourse classifies and categorizes the subjects based on the perceived/imagined normative which places certain types of subjectivity in a field of Otherness hence marginalizing and discriminating them. The positioning of the subject within the societal structures and the establishment of inequality in the society is the product of specific manners of reading and interpretation of difference which represents the basis for the creation of cultural meanings which is embedded in body and identity of a subject in such way. Hence, the problem of differencing societal groups is unalienable from the issues of identity and difference that are as the products of discursive practices fundamental for the categorization and classification of the subjects within a society.
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This paper interprets the philosophy of Jean-Francois Lyotard as a postmodernist political theory. Referring to the Lyotard’s Postmodern Condition (1979), postmodernity is marked as the moment when the modernist metanarratives – e.g. Christianity, Enlightenment, Marxism – lose their legitimizing power. A multitude of diverse, mutually irreducible micronaratives weaken the universalistic- oriented project of modernity, and a worldwide fragmentation eradicates any presumption or the possibility to establish social, cultural or any other totality. Lyotard derives his explanation of this world of pluralism from the notion of the language games, a concept introduced by Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations, 1953). According to the Austrian thinker there are many language games but in their respective heterogeneity it is not possible to reduce all of them to the common set of rules. Similarly, Lyotard’s politics of postmodernism – unimaginable without the influence of Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language – describes the state of our world in relation to unlimited number of disparate language games. At the same time Wittgenstein’s concept informs Lyotard’s theory of different: a conflict between two opposing sides which cannot be ultimately resolved since there is no universal criterion of evaluation. Injustice, in this context, is the result of the forceful imposition of particular framework incapable to recognize specific position and stance of each of the parties involved. Finally, this paper questions the very justification of the present examination of the philosophy of postmodernity. After recent emerging of various theoretical discourses which offer an alternative to postmodernism, the latter approach is recognized as one among many philosophical options within an interdisciplinary field of contemporary humanities. However, Lyotard’s philosophy of postmodernism – interpreted as a political theory – proves to be a relevant theoretical discourse still capable of explaining pluralism, heterogeneity and incommensurability of modern language games in our – post- postmodern – world.
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U čemu je suštiina Marxovih kritičkiih refleksija naznačenog pitanja? Da li i u kojoj mjerli suvremena marksistička misao slijedi svjetonazor osiniivača znanstvenog socijializma? Ako ne slijedi, zašto to ne čioi? Ta i druga, njlitoa slična pitanja, nameću se svakom ozbiljnom istraživaču ne samo ovog problema, nego i drugih. Naša niamjera je da naznačimo osnovtne teze pliitanja ove rasprave. Pri tiota polazimo od jedne tačne konstataoije da o ovom pitanju raspravljaju ne samo filosofi, nego i sociolozi i ekonomisti, ono je prisutno i u svaikidašnjoj stvamoslti »običnog« čovjeka. Zadataik Mosioifijli da se bavi i istiraživanjem odnosa društva i politike (ili obratino), kao »otkrivačkoj snazi mišljenja«, potcrtava Volkmalnn Schluck u svom djelu Politicka filosofija, koji naglašava razldku iztaeđu filosofije i »poliitologije«. Pomenuta razlika tiče se toga što filosofija ispiltuje bit političkoga.
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The topic of this work is to analyze the text of Samuel Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations” which was published twenty years ago on the pages of the famous magazine “Foreign Affairs”. The aim is to distinguish which trends has Huntington predicted in his idea correctly and which incorrectly, and to simultaneously estimate the importance of this contribution to the consideration of the key features of the post- Cold War world. In addition to basic Huntington’s stand points, most well- known criticism of the text are presented, with special attention paid to civilizations as factors and possible main actors of world politics in the future, with emphasis on the issues of their identity. Although state is under attack from “the top and bottom”, it survives as the main actor of world politics and the possibility that in the future civilizations and other factors and actors temporarily or permanently jeopardize the place and role of the state in the international system and globalized world politics should not be excluded. The paper consists of three parts. In the first part we will say something more about the article “The Clash of Civilizations” and introduce basic points that Samuel Huntington presents in it. The second part will examine the key criticisms that can be addressed to the text. The third and concluding part of the paper deals with the impact the text had on the Science of International Relations after the Cold War. As for the key Huntington’s views presented in the above mentioned article, he thought that after the end of the Cold War a major change in world politics occurred. According to him, the key source of conflict in the future will not be of ideological or economic nature, but of cultural, in which case the „principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations.“ In other words, instead of the two superpowers of the Cold War competition, we will have conflict and competition of different civilizations, with the „fault lines“ between civilizations actually being the key hot spots for future conflicts. While not denying that states remain the key actors in the world a politics, Huntington believes that civilization will be the main „player“ on the world stage in the future. For him the basic units of the structure of world order are civilizations and consequently, as Toynbee and other philosophers of history before and after him gathered, the States are inadequate analytical units in research and understanding of International Relations and the World Order after the Cold War. In a multipolar world side by side there will exist, cooperate and probably clash more often, the eight power centers or civilizations: Western, Latin American, African, Islamic, Chinese, Hindu, Orthodox, Buddhist and Japanese. Immediately upon publication, this article met harsh criticism from both the professional and the general public. The main blade of criticism was directed at the thesis on clash of civilizations, namely on the inevitability of conflict and impossibility of cooperation. There are of course conflicts within civilizations and not just between them. Also, sometimes the state within one civilization guided by its national interests can work together perfectly with countries from other civilizations. Thus, the „kin country syndrome“ in which the state gather around the cultural similarities, sometimes works and sometimes does not. Furthermore, Huntington does not distinguish civilization and culture; he does not make sufficient terminological distinction between the two terms. In similar way Huntington does not pay adequate attention to the impact that religion has in the emergence and development of civilizations. However, despite all the criticism that can be addressed to Huntington’s thesis about the world after the Cold War as the world featured with „the clash of civilizations“, it should be noted that his text was a very brave attempt to look at a particular time whose final form was little known of at the time. In that sense, this was an attempt to intellectually round up and contemplate the upcoming time or offer form of interpretation of the new world that was emerging after the Cold War. From intellectual height from which the Huntington observed the International Relations, his attention focused primarily on main streams and processes, key stakeholders and actors, and not the entire spectra of details of possible individual aberrations to the main process. Because, today when you look at his work from a time distance, it should be recognized that he was able to identify some of the main features of the post- Cold War world and that, as Richard Bets claimed in his article „Conflict or Cooperation - The Visions Revisited“: together with Francis Fukuyama and his „the End of History“ and John Mearsheimer and „the Tragedy of Great Power Politics”, he remains one of the three key thinkers without whom the age in which we live cannot be understood. If the last twenty years have somehow been the test of Huntington’s views, it is no exaggeration to say that they have withstood the test of time.
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Rasprava o prethodnim pitanjima tematski pripada jednim delom i onom o čemu će ovde biti reči. Jer, Heidegger pod tubitkom podrazumeva ono jedino između različitih bića u kojem se otvara pitanje bitka, te da ukoliko se ono otvara, tj. odnosi prema bitku, Heidegger takav tubitak naziva ek-sistencijom. Tubitak se bitno konstituira u egzistenciju na temelju svoje odlučnosti (Entschlossenheit). Neodluč(e)ni tubitak naziva Heidegger se (das Man). Oba modusa bitka, autentičnost i neautentičnost, temelje se u tome da se tubitak određuje kao prisebnost (Jemeinigkeit). To znači da ovo određenje proizilazi iz temelja (načina) bitka bića, a ne iz opšteg načina bitka. Zato će Heidegger na samom početku S + Z, gl. 9, zapisati: »Das Seiende, dessen Analyse zur Aufgabe steht, sind wir je selbst. Das Sein dieses Seienden ist je meines.« Bit tubitka leži u njegovoj egzistenciji (gl. 9). Od toga treba razlikovati da je bitak tubitka egzistencija, što Heidegger ne tvrdi. Kako je odlučnost autentična istina tubitka, to je tubitak u autentičnoj egzistenciji samo onda kada se ova konstituira kao prethodna odlučnost. Odlučnost je pokazani (odlikovani) (ausgezeichneter) modus otključenosti tubitka (Erschlossenheit des Daseins). Heidegger čak kaže da je tubitak zapravo njegova otključenost (Das Dasein ist seine Erschlossenheit, gl. 28, 177, 133), a ona se artikuliše kroz izvorne načine onoga tu: raspoloženje i razumevanje koji se određuju kroz govor.
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In this paper the author is dealing with the complexity of relation between democracy and value pluralism. If we start from the fact of the existence of different, even irreconcilable, moral and religious beliefs within contemporary political communities, the question of crucial importance arises: how to create a ,,public” and loyal citizen in a society of deep doctrinal divisions? Afterwards it will be discussed plausibility of John Rawls’s solution to this relevant problem: his ideas of political liberalism and overlapping consensus, as well as notions of reasonableness and rationality. Liberalism will be examined as a comprehensive doctrine, as well as a political conception. Relying on previous research, the author will analyze significance of democratic political culture and liberal political conception for the sustainability of democracy and value pluralism.
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In this article the author deals with a number of shortcomings of the dominant definition of extremism. First, the definition of extremism is dependent on the definition of democracy. This does not say what extremism is but what is not, actually, a vague concept (extremism) is depending on another vague concept (democracy). Also, in this way constituted conception of extremism serves to maintain the status quo, so any alternative to the established system is defined as more or less extremist. This is the most important complaint to this concept. It would also mean that the concept of extremism can be expanded to the point when extremism absorbs all opponents of the current state of affairs. On the other hand, so defined extremism does not take into account the historical context or the conditions in which this term is used. Also ambiguous attitude towards the phenomena of bureaucratic dictatorship, the student rebellions of the sixties and the New Left, then the new positioning of the right wing, religious fundamentalism or radical animal rights activists is also problematic. Extremism, as defined above, leaves too many and too large “gray zones” between democracy and extremism. However, this does not have to be anything wrong, but those “gray zones” must have a name, and there must be some kind of explanation for them. The same “gray zones” leave too much room for the ideological bias of the classification extremists. Also, among the authors who deal with extremism there is no clear position on the divisions within the extremism. While some speak of left and right extremism, others mention radical center, radical middle or radical centrism, while the third group of authors reject the division into left and right. So, is there only one extremism as a whole, two or even three different types of extremism? Having that in mind, we do not have to be astonished by often critiques of the concept of extremism. However, even opponents of the dominant understanding have no common position that could oppose to dominant definition. All in all, the term extremism is not very far from stigmatizing words and labels and which is used by those who have the social power to define these terms.
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In this article the author demonstrates that the relation between federalism and democracy in Switzerland goes beyond the logic of modern statehood. On one hand, the article enlightens link between today’s Swiss federation and political philosophy of Johannes Althusius, thinker whose theory questions the very basic premises of modern statehood. On the other hand, the article demonstrates that Swiss constitutional history resides on essentially different understanding of democracy in comparison to classical modern liberal states. In contrast to today’s widespread instrumental understanding of democracy, conceived as an institutional tool which produces effective majorities, democracy in Switzerland is aimed at enabling as much self- determination of citizens as possible. Swiss constitutional experience, which testifies of inherent connection between federalism and democracy, inspired some scholars to introduce “federalized democracy” concept into theoretical discourse. Realization of federalized democracy concept in Switzerland has proven to be a rather efficient toll for preserving national unity and political autonomy of historically existing communities. In today’s politico- historical reality, however, federalized democracy concept has proven to be extremely rigid and closed for all other kinds of diversity that don’t follow historical lines of separation.
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This paper presents the basic assumptions and the results of rational choice theory on the individual and group level, as well as the inherent problems the theory faces. If we understand democracy as a procedure (or method of aggregation of given individual preferences), which has to meet certain requirements of rationality and morality, it turns out that we can not formulate such a method of group choice. Relying on this concept of aggregative democracy, Kenneth Arrow performs deductive proof of the impossibility of social democratic choice. Afterwards, we point out some difficulties faced by this concept of democracy, as well as possible ways to overcome them. The last part is dedicated to the concept of deliberative democracy, which occurs as a response to the problems of aggregative concept.
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In this article the author deals with the conception of a nation by the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder. In this paper is pointed out Herder’s conception of language as the main feature of the nation. In addition, special attention was paid to Herder’s notion of “national spirit”. According to Herder, every distinctive characteristic of a nation is essentially a product and a manifestation of a “national spirit”. In the third part the author deals with German philosophers view upon the question of relations between different cultures. Thus the fundamental features of Herder’s cultural nationalism are indicated as well as his relationship with enlightment’s cosmopolitism. The purpose of this work is to emphasize the roots and the beginnings of the modern considerations of nation, nationalism and national identity.
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The starting point of this paper - that the social phenomena of nations and national identity can not be reduced without unacceptable reduction in the form of ideology or policy, but that they should be viewed broadly, in the anthropological and cultural lines and always in socio-cultural context, so they fully understand, was developed through consideration of cultural level of national identity, understood as a social construct, connecting ideas of Benedict Anderson, Anthony Smith and Jean-Francois Bajar. Central line problematization in this paper was given, the route / duration / distinctness: konstruisanost / volatility / fluidity, has been developed through two conceptual connections: the establishment of links between ethnic and national identity considerations from the perspective of their common “cultural configuration” which is the basis offered Smith, along with that, as opposed to form his views, taken, and observations of the interactive dynamics of establishing and changing ethnic boundaries, with a focus on ideas of Frederich Barth. Another direction thematization of durability and volatility led through rethinking the concept of cultural identity through the presentation of the basic controversy in the interpretation of its relationship with national identity on the line essentialisation - relativism. Concluding remarks led to a partial acceptance of the thesis that the construction of difference, as the basis for collective self-identification, subject to changing product design, but only to the extent that it respects the cultural mechanisms and processes of signification that give character to a specific continuity of national identifications, through the establishment of a symbolic-axiological structure as a form of life within the dynamics of change immanent to society and culture in general.
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Author starts from the fact that in Serbian language we still do not possess basic academic article intended to present phenomenon of conservative revolution in Weimar Germany. Hence he tries to expose one work of that kind with proper ideas, subjects and works. He also clarifies political, social and international context in which this tradition was created and developed and then special attention is brought to controversial relation of these thinkers with Nazism. The article is especially focused on Ernst Jünger as key figure for connecting different streams within conservative revolution and finally his Der Arbiter (Worker) is being presented as some kind of synthesis of intellectual trends operating within this “movement”.
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That political philosophy and political theory as such, appeared in Classical Greece and not before or elsewhere, is a hard and indisputable fact of modern scholarship. But to acknowledge and perceive a fact is one thing, to explain it quite another. Why were the ancestors of modern scientific and philosophical disciplines created in Ancient Greece and not somewhere else is a difficult question that was tackled by many capable researchers from various fields, in the last two centuries. Philosophers, historians, archaeologists, philologists and students of politics, to name but a few of these fields, approached the problem from different angles, and gave many answers to it, both valid and unsound. Many of the more simplistic explanations, especially those that seek to connect the “Greek miracle” with a single factor, are now considered obsolete and are no longer taken seriously. But this difficult and intriguing problem remains. The question can be rephrased in several different ways, some of which could potentially open new approaches to the problem. For example, we could ask why didn’t the cultures of the Ancient Near East, with their grand achievements in many fields of creativity, produce science, philosophy or political theory, in the ways the Greeks did. The answer can be obtained by a deeper analysis of social and cultural conditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, and other ancient Eastern cultures. Once we understand that these are hierarchical and bureaucratic societies, dominated by the two pivotal institutions - the ruler’s court and the temple - where the world view was shaped predominantly by the religious and mythical concepts, and where the individuality of any single person (apart from the king himself and his immediate surroundings) was subordinated to a collective mentality, identity and interests, the question seems much easier to answer. But what about the Ancient Greece?
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In this paper we consider the question of freedom in social context. Therefore, we will not deal here with the philosophical problem of free will, we will rather assume along with Immanuel Kant – and almost all other classical liberal philosophers, that man is basically a free being, so the main preoccupation of this paper will be freedom in society, freedom as a social phenomenon. It will be shown that its valid theoretical definition presuppose that it cannot be thought neither within the paradigm of any sort of collectivity (nation, class, gender, etc.), nor in terms of individual subjectivity (psychological, specific philosophical, theological, or other subjective motives and considerations, foreign to the social aspect of freedom). The main thesis of this paper is that the issue of freedom can be contextualized and positioned only on the individual level, and with the help of theoretical and methodo logical apparatus of natural law theory – that is, from the perspective of a hypothetical state of nature. In this sense, a structural theoretical deficit of all ideologies and political theories that treat the issue of freedom on different grounds will be exposed. We will, also, explain that usual misinterpretations of the social notion of freedom are due to the fact that its semantic sphere is often being filled with the elements not essentially connected with the concept of freedom as sociological one.
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