Garantie de satisfaction à 100% Disponible immédiatement après paiement En ligne et en PDF Tu n'es attaché à rien
logo-home
Samenvatting Political Thought 2020-21 €6,99   Ajouter au panier

Resume

Samenvatting Political Thought 2020-21

2 revues
 233 vues  9 fois vendu

Omvat lesnotities + powerpoints (alle te kennen leerstof) Prof: Eric Fabri

Aperçu 4 sur 98  pages

  • 17 décembre 2020
  • 98
  • 2020/2021
  • Resume
Tous les documents sur ce sujet (2)

2  revues

review-writer-avatar

Par: bc06 • 3 année de cela

review-writer-avatar

Par: julesliekens • 3 année de cela

Traduit par Google

This is not a real summary, rather the slides in one beautiful document. The bold words in the quotes were useful.

avatar-seller
janathys
Introduction
Political thought= a compromise between political theory and political philosophy

Political philosophy= traditional name for the branch of philosophy that deals with politics

 Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Grotius, Locke, Rousseau, …
 Traditional question: legitimation of authority and best political organisation
 Can there be a “best” political organisation?
o According to the “true” human nature?

Political theory= reaction to the (too) wide perspective of political philosophy

 After WWII: need for thinking what happened and perplexity of classical philosophy
 Hannah Arendt (among others) decided to call herself a political theorist
 Why?  Political theory …
o Is made by an individual in a definite social context
o Is context dependant: we ask different questions at different times
 Example: Arendt and the Holocaust, question of slavery, feminism, black lives
matter, …
o Bears political stakes: political theory is political (it makes an argument)

To sum up:

 Same object, but different perspectives
 Theoria (political philosophy) VS Praxis (political theory)
 Department of philosophy VS department of political science?
 Goal: make an argument in a definite social context VS understanding the political dimension
of being?

 Political thought= an englobing compromise referring to the corpus of writings on the political

 Active relation to this corpus
 Goal: an exercise of philosophy on the political
 Philosophy…
o As a set of beliefs
o As “boring” books
o As an activity of interrogation

 Intrinsically critical: why are things/representations as they are? The need to question
“evidence”




1

,How do we define “democracy”?

 Problem: this term is used in very different contexts

 As a descriptor
 As an indicator of political legitimacy: very strong link democracy – legitimacy
 As a decision-making model

 But the expectations are not the same at all levels

 We defend democracy in politics and accept tyranny in the workplace

 So how do we define “democracy”?

1. DEMOS-KRATOS

 Demos= the people
 Kratos= the force, the power
 Abraham Lincoln famous definition: “Government of the people, for the people, and by the
people”  remarks:
o On who can the people exercise the power other than themselves?
o The idea is that people A have power over people A, not people B
o “For the people”: obviously they wouldn’t govern over themselves in the interest of
another people
 Problem: once we have said that, we haven’t said anything  multiple questions left:
o Who is the demos?
 Only people with Belgian nationality
 No people under 18 years old
 For long: no women
 Why these restrictions?
o How does he use his authority?
 Delegates, representatives
o Over whom? The non-citizens? The non-humans? Children?
 Why do humans have the right to exercise power over animals, nature, … ?
 Right to destroy?
 Limit right to vote to a certain age? Exclude seniors from voting?
 Why is it important everybody can vote? Who is “everybody”?
o Why is he sovereign?
o Is it a good form of government?
o Can the majority impose its rule on minorities?

2. DEMOCRACY AS SOVEREING WILL?

 Democracy= regime in which the people decide of their laws (direct, indirect or referendum)
o Direct connection between what people want and laws
o Is this enough to define “democracy”?
 Is what people want right?  The question of limits and hubris
o Example: majority vote to ban religious freedom
o What about other liberties? Referendum SWTZ: question comes from the people
 General question: “Are there things that the sovereign people cannot do?”
o Is there an antidemocratic use of democratic power?


2

,3. DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

 Solution: add the guarantee of human rights and basic liberties

 Is this enough to define “democracy”?
o Example Classical England: king with vast powers but a bill of right (limited power)
o Republicans and neo-republicans: freedom as non-domination
o Another sense of the idea of people sovereignty: there is no authority superior to the
people who can veto one of his decisions

 It’s not enough to have rights and liberties, the idea of democracy also calls for a form of popular
sovereignty



PROVISIONAL DEFINITION

Democracy= sovereign power vested in people & individual liberties and human rights

 Negative and positive aspects
 What are the institutions of a democracy?
o Many different variations and conflicting democratic principles
o Direct democracy “more democratic” than indirect democracy?
o Consequences for electoral system? (US president election: popular vote vs winner)
o Referendum?

 To answer these questions, we need a definition of democracy

Accurate definition of democracy?

 Observation of actual regimes:
o “Actual democracies” aren’t necessarily labelled with the term
o Authoritarian regimes call themselves democratic
o Western democracies?

Democracy as a contested concept:

 Representative or indirect
 Partocratic (seems more oligarchic)
 Deliberative
 Participatory
 Direct
 Open
 …

(In)equality

 Wealth inequality (inheritance) vs income inequality
 Are all men really born equal?
 Merit vs luck (sometimes working hard doesn’t mean you get paid more)
 “Is inequality a problem for democracy?”
 What kind of equality matters for democracy? & Which inequalities threaten democracy?
o Equality  identity


3

, Kinds of (in)equality:

 RIGHTS
o In theory vs in practice
o Right to have rights  no nationality means no rights
o Right to defend rights  justice can be expensive (money, time)
 GENDER
o Equal pay  not yet
 MINORITIES
o Discrimination
 OPPORTUNITIES
o Should we all have the same opportunities?
 PRIVILEGES
o Blue blood doesn’t mean much now, but it used to
o Caste system India
 HONOUR
 ECONOMIC
o We underestimate the proportion of economic inequalities!
 Big difference between million and billion




o How to measure economic inequalities?
 Include debt?
 Actual vs virtual wealth?
o Income vs wealth
o Transmission of wealth: does inheritance fragment fortunes?
 Yes: intuitive evidence vs No: snowball effect
 Imagine you have a capital of 1000 euros and an average rate of 4%. Each
year you have 40 euros of dividend that you reinvest immediately.
 After 10 years: 1480.24 euros
 After 30 years: 3243 euros
 After 60 years: 10 519 euros
 Imagine you receive a million euros at age 18 and you die at age 78 (4%
interest rate)  10.5 million euros
 Corrections: inflation, spending, taxation




4

Les avantages d'acheter des résumés chez Stuvia:

Qualité garantie par les avis des clients

Qualité garantie par les avis des clients

Les clients de Stuvia ont évalués plus de 700 000 résumés. C'est comme ça que vous savez que vous achetez les meilleurs documents.

L’achat facile et rapide

L’achat facile et rapide

Vous pouvez payer rapidement avec iDeal, carte de crédit ou Stuvia-crédit pour les résumés. Il n'y a pas d'adhésion nécessaire.

Focus sur l’essentiel

Focus sur l’essentiel

Vos camarades écrivent eux-mêmes les notes d’étude, c’est pourquoi les documents sont toujours fiables et à jour. Cela garantit que vous arrivez rapidement au coeur du matériel.

Foire aux questions

Qu'est-ce que j'obtiens en achetant ce document ?

Vous obtenez un PDF, disponible immédiatement après votre achat. Le document acheté est accessible à tout moment, n'importe où et indéfiniment via votre profil.

Garantie de remboursement : comment ça marche ?

Notre garantie de satisfaction garantit que vous trouverez toujours un document d'étude qui vous convient. Vous remplissez un formulaire et notre équipe du service client s'occupe du reste.

Auprès de qui est-ce que j'achète ce résumé ?

Stuvia est une place de marché. Alors, vous n'achetez donc pas ce document chez nous, mais auprès du vendeur janathys. Stuvia facilite les paiements au vendeur.

Est-ce que j'aurai un abonnement?

Non, vous n'achetez ce résumé que pour €6,99. Vous n'êtes lié à rien après votre achat.

Peut-on faire confiance à Stuvia ?

4.6 étoiles sur Google & Trustpilot (+1000 avis)

80364 résumés ont été vendus ces 30 derniers jours

Fondée en 2010, la référence pour acheter des résumés depuis déjà 14 ans

Commencez à vendre!
€6,99  9x  vendu
  • (2)
  Ajouter