What Should Political Theory Be Now?

Edited by John S. Nelson

Subjects: Political Theory
Series: SUNY series in Political Theory: Contemporary Issues
Paperback : 9780873956956, 607 pages, June 1984
Hardcover : 9780873956949, 607 pages, June 1984

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Table of contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART ONE: METHOD AND MYTH

1. Natures and Futures for Political Theory
John S. Nelson

2. In Search of the Political Object: Beyond Methodology and Transcendentalism
John G. Gunnell

PART TWO: ALIENATION AND ACTION

3. Political Philosophy and Political Action
Ira L. Strauber

4. Philosophy and Democracy
Michael Walzer

PART THREE: CRITICISM AND CONTRADICTION

5. Political Theorizing in the Late Twentieth Century: Foci, Loci, and Agendas
Paul F. Kress

6. Contradiction and Critique in Political Theory
Terence Ball

PART FOUR: PERSONS AND PUBLICS

7. What Should Political Theory Be Now?
Glenn Tinder

8. Political Theory as Political Rhetoric
John S. Nelson

PART FIVE: HIATUS AND HISTORY

9. Nihilism and Political Theory
Tracey B. Strong

10. Martin Heidegger and the Metapolitics of Crisis
Allan Megill

PART SIX: CONCEALMENT AND CONTROL

11. The Dilemma of Legitimacy
William E. Connolly

12. Political Theory and the Internal Structures of the Self: Reflections on Where Political Theory Should Be Now
James M. Glass

PART SEVEN: POWER AND PRAGMATISM

13. Questions of Power in Political Theory
Richard W. Miller

14. Political Theory and Political Science: The Rediscovery and Reinterpretation of the Pragmatic Tradition
Charles W. Anderson

PART EIGHT: PRACTICES AND PRINCIPLES

15. Education for Politics: Rethinking Research on Political Socialization
John S. Nelson

16. What Does It Take to Have a Theory? Principles in Political Science
William H. Panning

PART NINE: SUMMARY AND SUMMONS

17. One Step Backward, Two Steps Forward: Reflections upon Contemporary Political Theory
Richard Ashcraft

18. Does Political Theory Have a Future?
Robert Booth Fowler

Index

Description

Confronted with the alienation of political theory from the practice of politics, prominent theorists respond in this book to the growing question: What should political theory be now? New and original contributions by such thinkers as Charles Anderson, John Gunnell, Terence Ball, Paul Kress, Ira Strauber, and William Connolly analyze the current malaise in the field and offer remedies for it. Each contribution is at once an argument about what is to be done in political theory and an exemplar of how to do it.

Spurred by the Shambaugh Conference on Political Theory, this cross-disciplinary effort addresses two major issues: What is the proper stance for theorizing about politics? What are the priority projects for current political theory? The contributions encompass many of the major themes concerning political theorists today, including criticism as a project for current political theory, dangers in the latter-day disengagement of political theory from politics, theorists' perplexity within and about history, issues of reason, and the relationships among science, theory, and politics. The viewpoints presented are diverse, yet the contributors to this volume are typical of political theorists generally. Almost all share inklings of actual or incipient disasters reaching from politics into theory and vice versa.

John S. Nelson is associate professor of political science at the University of Iowa. He has published widely on contemporary issues in political science and political theory.