SUNY series in Political Theory: Contemporary Issues

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Disenchanted Realists, Second Edition

New edition of the provocative history of the tenuous relationship between the scientific study of politics and the real world of American democracy.

Performing Marx

Draws upon Marx, Western Marxism, and poststructuralist theory to constructively engage contemporary issues.

Coping in Politics with Indeterminate Norms

Argues that social equity and legal justice are possible even in the absence of universal political norms.

Democracy Growing Up

The first sustained feminist interpretation of Tocqueville’s classic, Democracy in America.

Education and Democratic Theory

A ground-breaking look at how access to decision making in the public schools can be extended to all, even previously excluded segments of the community.

Political Theory and Partisan Politics

Renowned theorists address the interconnections between those who engage in political struggle and those who study it.

Marx and Engels

Presents the first major study of Marx and Engels in two decades and the only study since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the recognized crisis of global capitalism.

Theorizing Nationalism

Presents some of the best work by political theorists on themes concerning citizenship, national identity, and the philosophical meaning of political membership.

The Political Consequences of Thinking

Applies the perspectives of gender and ethnicity in a feminist analysis of the Eichmann controversy and offers a wholly new interpretation of Arendt's work, from Eichmann in Jerusalem to The Life of the Mind.

Politics and Truth

Considers the contested concept of truth in contemporary politics in light of the postmodernist challenge to Enlightenment ideals and examines the treatment of truth in an unusual lineup of thinkers ranging from Plato and Hobbes to Weber, Foucault, and Arendt.

Creative Individualism

Constructs a cohesive picture of political theorist C. B. Macpherson's democratic vision, arguing that Macpherson's central message regarding the economic prerequisites of democracy is just as relevant today as when he first presented it.

Recent Marxian Theory

Brings together prominent recent analyses within the Marxist tradition that bear on class formation and social conflict in contemporary capitalism and concludes that class relations continue to be important for analyzing the historical trajectory of, and challenges to, capitalism, although not in the way Marx imagined.

Putting Choice Before Democracy

Shows how rational choice theory's critique and justification of democracy fails in its project to recast democratic theory.

Reconstructing Political Pluralism

A reappraisal of the pluralist tradition that explores the accounts offered by James, Dewey, Figgis, Cole, Laski, Follett, and Dahl and extracts from them the resources with which to reconstruct a democratic theory of political pluralism.

Theorizing Citizenship

This is an anthology of essays on citizenship by such well-known theorists as Habermas, Walzer, Flathman, Iris Marion Young, MacIntyre, Ignatieff, and George Armstrong Kelly.

Democracy and Possessive Individualism

C. B. Macpherson was one of the leading political theorists in North America and perhaps the most influential voice on the left for a view of liberal democracy that was simultaneously sympathetic to its ...

Hermeneutics, Citizenship, and the Public Sphere

This book sheds new light on the question of democratic politics by proposing a hermeneutic conception of citizenship and the public sphere. At the same time, it presents a critique of the postmodern ...

Critical Theory, Public Policy, and Planning Practice

Too often attacked as hopelessly abstract, contemporary critical social theory can help us to understand both public policy and its analysis. In this book, John Forester shows how policy analysis, planning, ...

A Discourse on Disenchantment

This book is the first full-length study of the ongoing debate over the status of our "disenchanted" world—a world stripped of mysterious and supernatural forces by the demythologizing power of reason ...

National Service, Citizenship, and Political Education

This book analyzes the issues surrounding civilian national service policy from a fresh and original perspective. The author connects national service programs to the political theories of civic republicanism ...

Political Obligation in a Liberal State

The tension between the individualist view and the communalist view dominates current debate about liberal politics. DeLue establishes a basis for political discourse in a liberal society—an enlarged ...

Margins of Political Discourse

"Margins of political discourse" are those border zones where paradigms intersect and where issues of order and disorder, meaning and non-meaning must be continually renegotiated.

Our age is marked by ...

Idioms of Inquiry

Idioms of Inquiry reflects the most recent and creative thinking in the field of political theory. The contributors agree that the old orthodox political theory is no longer viable, arguing instead for ...

Socrates and the Political Community

This book takes a fresh look at Socrates as he appeared to three ancient writers: Aristophanes, who attacked him for his theoretical studies; Plato, who immortalized him in his dialogues; and Aristotle, ...

The Crisis of Liberal Democracy

Explores Strauss’s teaching on natural right and the tradition of political philosophy and how his perspectives have influenced European and American liberal theory.