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MEANING AND APPROACHES
Structur e
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction: What is Political Theory?
1.2 Normative and Empirical approaches to Political Theory
1.3 Liberal Approach
1.4 Marxist Approach
1.5 Feminist Approach
1.6 Summary/Conclusion
1.7 References
1.0 Objectives
The aim of this unit is to familiarize you with the meaning, significance and
approaches of political theory . After studying this unit, you should be able to:
•Explain what political theory is and how it can be used to observe, understand,
explain and prescribe things about the political space that all of us inhabit.
•Explicate Normative and Empirical Approaches to political theory
•Understand the Liberal, Marxist and Feminist Approaches to Political Theory
1.1 Introduction: What is Political Theory?
A glance around our immediate environment tells us that there are so many
things happening around us that can be called to occupy what is explained as public/
political space. For instance you may hear about protests against the violation of
individual rights, abusive use of power by governments, negligent administrative
institutions or gender based violence. These issues take place in the political or public
space which is nothing but a constant conflictual interaction for sharing of resources/
access to power/demands for entitlements. These issues involve role to be played by
formal institutions of the state such as Legislature , Executive or Judiciary and
non-formal actors such as civil society or voluntary organizations. It also encompasses
people who not only get impacted by the decision making powers of these institutionsChapter 1 : Meaning and Approaches
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but also have the power to impact them. There is an implicit quest to seek answers to
what constitutes political and what is a good political life or political order? It is invariably
a search for an ideal or imagined society . These discussions for political vision are
enveloped by search for a better social order . Thus political theory is fundamentally
and intricately related with political philosophy , political ideology and political science.
According to George Sabine in a broad sense political theory discusses anything that
is relevant to politics. In his opinion political theory in a narrow sense is disciplined
investigation of political problems. On the other hand, David Held defines political
theory as a network of concepts and generalizations about political life involving ideas,
assumptions and statements about the nature, purpose and key features of government,
state, society and about political capabilities of human beings. Rajeev Bhargava draws
our attention to big questions of human life and proposes that political theory aids us
in answering these foundational questions without which human life is impossible and
meaningless. These big questions are: a) What is there/ going on in the world? b) Why
are things going on in the world? c) Will something that is currently going on continue
to go on in the future? d) Is that which is there/going on good or bad, right or wrong?
e) What am I to do? What is to be done? f) Who am I? Who are we? Political theory
helps us in giving order , coherence and meaning to what is termed as political. It is
analytical, expository as well as explanatory .
The growth and evolution of political theory can be broadly divided into three
phases. The classical phase, modern phase and the third phase is contemporary political
theory . The element of science dif ferentiates classical political theory from modern
political theory . Philosophy dominates classical political theory and reason is
characteristic feature of modern political theory . Classical political theory is associated
with the works of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. These thinkers were concerned with
philosophical questions to establish a rational basis for beliefs. They adopted an ethical
perspective to the political life and their thinking was rooted in a moral outlook. Classical
political theory also focused on comparative studies to build comprehensive
understanding of what is political and laid emphasis on order , balance, equilibrium,
stability and harmony . Modern political theory on the other hand, is associated with
myriad approaches such as institutional, structural, behavioral, post-behavioral and
empirical approaches. It lays emphasis on scientific methods, rationality , and objectivity
and is also process oriented. It emerged in fifteenth century and coincided with the
beginning of the phase of enlightenment. The renaissance and reformation in Europe
greatly contributed to the development of enlightenment thought. The works of
Rousseau, Mill and Marx are foundational to the development of modern political
theory . Belief in progress, unwavering faith in reason and rejection of authority over
knowledge are primary tenets of modern political theory . Contemporary political theory
tried to strike a balance between normative dimension of classical political theory andmunotes.in
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3scientific dimension of modern political theory . According to John Rawls contemporary
political theory can seek truth alongside the scientific empirical methods. In Nozicks’
opinion contemporary political theory can solve many political problems by combining
classical ends with empirical means. In the following section we shall explicate in
detail the two broad approaches to political theory i.e. Normative and Empirical political
theory .
1.2 Normative political theory and empirical political theory :
As discussed in the previous section political theory is concerned with both
that is political philosophy and political science. Broadly these two aspects are
associated with normative and empirical approach to political theory . Normative political
theory emerged in ancient Greece and is found majorly in the writings of Socrates,
Plato and Aristotle. According to C. Kukathas, it is necessary to appreciate that there
are two aspects to political theory . It involves the analysis of what is politically feasible
on the one hand and of what is desirable on the other . Isaiah Berlin maintains that
normative political theory is concerned with the discovery and application of moral
notions in the sphere of political relations. In a narrow sense it is concerned with the
foundational moral questions that affect what constitutes the political. On the other
hand broadly it covers all type of political theorizing which is prescriptive or
recommendatory in nature. In a nutshell normative political theorizing is about everything
concerned with what ought to/should be as against what is? It is interested in abstract
moral reasoning and comprehensive discussion of institutions and policies. It attempts
to build moral precepts and also investigate the implications of these moral precepts
in real world. Fundamentally the character of political philosophy and political science
is normative as it seeks to answer a basic question what is a good/ideal political
order? Thus normative political theory is advocacy –oriented. Utilitarianism, Liberalism
and Communitarianism are the major strands associated with normative political theory .
With the emer gence of logical positivism normative political theory received a
major blow . This new kind of theorization focused on facts, verification and rationality
and dismissed the significance of values and prescriptive vocabulary of normative
political theory . Scholars such as Charles Taylor , Hannah Arendt, Leo S trauss and
Michael Oakshoot have actively spoken against this empirical rise in political theorizing
and maintained that values are the substance of political systems and structures for
they lend meaning to them. Therefore political theory is both prescriptive as well as
descriptive. The norms and values act as standards of behavior , regularities or point
of reference and guide our course of action as well as it can aid us in judgements of
what is desirable and undesirable. Thus normative political theory has justificatory
and eva luative functions.Chapter 1 : Meaning and Approaches
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Normative political theory was debunked as statements of preferences and
opinions in the late nineteenth century and twentieth century . This paved way for the
emer gence of empirical political theory . It highlighted the role of observation,
verification, objectivity , experimentation scientific and rational methods and value-
free approach to political theorization. Empirical political theory focused on quantitative
techniques in analysis, denunciation of normative framework, dismissal of history of
ideas, appreciated micro study , promoted specialization instead of generalizations and
pressed for a value-neutral approach. This new lens to view what is political came to
be known as empirical approach or positivism. Various other sub-approaches emer ged
out of the same and one such approach is called Logical positivism. It became a
prominent way of political theorization in the twentieth century which was also inspired
by the early writings of Ludwig Wittegenstein. Wittegenstein rubbished normative ideas
like liberty/justice, ethics, aesthetics and religion as non-sense primarily because they
cannot be materially or sensually experienced. According to him theorization should
restrict itself to factual and descriptive language of natural sciences. Logical positivism,
therefore is interested in telling objective truths about the world and is not interested
in proposing any ideal/utopian paradigm. Auguste Comte is considered as the father
of positivism. He insisted on extension of scientific methods to philosophy and social
sciences. Positivists firmly maintain that the world is governed by certain immutable
laws and they can be derived through empirical observation without the burden of
normative theorization. Logical positivism inspired the behavioral revolution in 1950’ s
in the United S tates of America. The behavioral approach focused observation and
description of political behavior and governmental processes. Empirical political theory
in its various manifestations highlighted scientific world conception generated through
observation and explanation. Nonetheless this empirical or positivist approach received
criticism for it is difficult to claim that science is insulated from social life or even to say
that it can be value-free. Post-positivism emerged to challenge the limitations of
positivism and represented methodological pluralism. It does not replace positivism
and its methods but it strives to produce awareness about the complexity , historical
contingency and fragility of the practices that we invent to discover the truth about
ourselves or political phenomenon. Thomas Kunh in his ‘The structure of Scientific
Revolutions’ made a pioneering contribution in bringing out the limitations and failures
of the positivist theory . Since the publication of John Rawls ‘Theory of Justice’,
normative political theory has seen a revival and contemporary political theory aims
to strike a balance between the normative and empirical lens to view , explain, describe
or prescribe the political.munotes.in
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5Check Your Progress Exer cise 1
Note: i) Use the space given below for your answer .
1)What is political theory ? Explain the normative and empirical approaches
to political theor y.
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1.3 Liberal Appr oach
The liberal approach to political theory attributes primary importance to liberty
as a political value. It’ s commitment to freedom and toleration has helped liberalism
as an ideology , as a way of life and as a political system to not only thrive but also to
take shape and change according to the changing times. Liberal political approach
pins faith in the fact that all humans are in a state of perfect freedom without asking
any leave for their actions. Mill argued that burden of proof to curtail liberty hence
remains with those who wish to constrain man’ s liberty . A logical consequence of such
a stand in liberal political theory is that any external/political authority needs to justified
for it may act as a deterrence to individual freedom. Philosophers associated with
social contract tradition such as Hobbes, Locke , Rousseau and Kant are viewed as
liberal theorist though their actual prescriptions are sometimes conspicuously illiberal.
Hobbes can be considered as one of the earliest theorist to talk about liberty as he
was the first to ask what are the grounds of obligation of citizens to a political sovereign.
In a nutshell liberal political theory is a protest against hierarchical and privileged
authority and monarchy . The entire history of England, Western European America
for last three hundred years has been closely associated with evolution of liberal thought.
It emerged and flourished in the climate of enlightenment, renaissance and reformation
in Europe. Liberal political theory demands individual liberty in each and every field of
human life ranging from social, economic, cultural to political. It strives to expand
man’ s freedom by increasing his area of choice and decision. Harold Laski therefore
maintained that every state is known by the rights it maintains.
Liberal political theory can be broadly divided in to three evolutionary phases.
The first phase is of classical liberalism. Classical liberalism is mainly associated with
negative conception of liberty as absence of restrictions. It questions the restrictions
on individual freedom and extent of political authority . Milton Friedman terms this as
absence of coercion of man by the state, society or his fellowman. With the rise of
modernity emerged a protest against absolute authority and emphasized the need ofChapter 1 : Meaning and Approaches
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individual autonomy . It resulted in demands for secularism, free market, individual
freedom and consent based governments. Liberal Political theory considers any increase
in the powers of the state or any such agency as a danger to individual freedom. State
must merely act as an instrument to safeguard the liberty of all individuals. Such an
explosion on individual liberty paved way for representative politics, agency of law
and minimalist state. However such a minimalistic conception of state was sought to
be revised in the later part of the nineteenth century . This was known as new liberalism
which highlighted the positive conception of liberty and maintained that state has a
definite role to play to promote and protect the individual liberty . Here the focus was
not on absence of restrictions but constructive role of the state to enable individual to
enjoy his liberty . This new liberalism paved way for the creation of a welfare state,
interventionist policies for redistribution of wealth and desire for an egalitarian society .
In the post Washington consensus period particularly classical liberal political theory
has returned which deplores the welfare state and valorizes the role of market. It
speaks of a minimal state which is to be concerned with only enforcing the rules of the
game. Individual right to property is considered as fundamental hence the role of state
is required to be the least. This latest wave is known as New Right Philosophy or
Neo-Liberalism which promotes a market oriented state and despises any restrictions
of individual liberty . Critiques such as Michael Sandel have lamented that such neo-
liberal return has contributed to growth of market economy and gradually it is
transforming our society into a market society where everything is up for sale.
Check Your Progress Exer cise 2
Note: i) Use the space given below for your answer .
1)Explain the main featur es of the liberal appr oach to political theor y.
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1.4 Mar xist Appr oach
The Marxist approach to political theory has left an indelible influence to the
way we theorise some of the foundational and perplexing questions concerning the
‘political’. Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels are primarily credited with the development
of this approach. It emerged in the second half of the twentieth century particularly in
the wittings of Karl Marx (Capital- 1867, Economic and philosophical manuscript –
1844). Marxist approach criticized the German idealism, opposed capitalist mode ofmunotes.in
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7production and suggested a strong role to be played by the proletariat class for social
change. Marxist approach attempted to propose scientific socialism as opposed to
utopian socialism of Robert Owen, Charles Fourier , Luois Blanc, Saint Simon and
Proudhon. This approach used dialectic materialism as a tool of analysis and prescribed
a scientific remedy for the socio-economic evils produced as a result of capitalism.
Marxist approach to politics developed some significant theoretical tools such as class
struggle, contradictions within the capitalist system and role of the working class which
have become foundational today . The working class revolution is a major tool to
uproot the bourgeois class and establish the rule of the proletarian class. This kind of
new society and system will gradually evolve into what Marx dreams as a communist
society where each one will receive not according to his capacity but according to his
needs. This kind of a society , according to Marx will be a state less, class less, property
less and exploitation less society .
Marxist approach to political theory has contributed a very important tool
namely theory of alienation to grasp the dangers of capitalism. George Luckas also
developed it later further in his work. Marx identifies four levels of alienation. In a
capitalist system, a) man is alienated from his own product and his work, b) Man is
alienated from nature, c) Man is alienated from other men and d) Man is alienated
from himself. Marxist approach to the political critiques this alienation and suggests
removing conditions of dehumanization, estrangement and alienation. Thus it is today
hailed as a project of human emancipation from exploitation of man in all it’ s avatar .
In Marxist approach the institution of state is pictured as an agency of the
capitalist class, as an instrument in the hands of the rich/propertied class and essentially
is also seen as a coercive institution. Since state is necessarily a class institution which
is constructed to suppress the dissent of the property less class, it must wither away
as per the prescription of the Marxist theory . To make this happen the long drawn
class struggle between the have (property owing class) and the have nots (property
less class) need to be followed by a swift , short and bloody revolution. This will
establish the rule of the proletariat (true majority) over the exploitative bourgeoisie
class (minority). The dictatorship of the proletariat for a brief period is necessary to
resist a counter revolution by the bour geoisie. According to Marxist approach this
dictatorship of the working class will be gradually replaced by a communist society
which is expected to be premised on the principle of co-operation and not competition.
In such a society the productive forces belong to the community as whole and it will
be an egalitarian society devoid of any contradictions and exploitation. Such a society
is the last stage in the dialectic process of social change hence is a perfect system.Chapter 1 : Meaning and Approaches
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Marxist approach to political theory has been critiqued for not recognizing the
value of human agency . It dismissed the potential of human agency to change the
world by ascribing social change to dialectic historical materialism. It also has failed
to grasp the complexities of the class struggle by over simplifying the class division
into merely two classes. As per the predictions of Marx middle class would gradually
disappear which in actuality has strengthened under the neo-capitalist world. The
conditions of the working class have not deteriorated and capitalism has not been
replaced in reality . The worker ’s revolution also took place in backward Russia against
the predictions of Marx. The coercive institution called state never withered away
rather it became equally repressive under the reigns of so called working class party
in Russia (see S talin’ s period in Russia). Many neo-Marxist theorist have attempted
to address these shortcomings of Marxist political theory by revising the Marxist tools
of analysis. For instance George Lukacs attacked the idea of historical materialism
and emphasized the creative role of the human consciousness in history making. He
also rejected Lenin’ s thesis of role of the communist party as the vanguard of the
proletariat. French neo-Marxist Luois Pierre Althusser also eschews classical Marxism
and proposes the concept of relative autonomy of the superstructure. Antonio Gramsci
developed the notion of hegemony to as means of analysis of the advanced capitalist
societies. His uniqueness lies in his proposition that state does not necessarily rule
through force/coercion rather it continues to rule by way of indoctrination,
manufacturing of the consensus and ideological leadership. The idea of hegemony
redefines the notion of power in modern societies. He also emphasizes the role of
organic intellectuals in any society which have the power to construct counter hegemony
thus pinning faith in human agency . Despite multiple limitations found in the classical
Marxism it remains a powerful socio-political analytical tool which renders voice to
the voiceless and is a powerful philosophy in the hands of poor and oppressed.
Without Marxist approach it is impossible to theories the socio-political issues today
for it is a profoundly humanist approach.
Check Your Progress Exer cise 3
Note: i) Use the space given below for your answer .
1)Elucidate the Mar xist appr oach to political theor y.
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91.5 Feminist Appr oach
Feminist approach to political theory offers a fundamentally unique lens to
revisit traditional way of political theorization which overlooks the feminist and gender
based concerns. It envisions not only to explicate the political through a feminist lens
but also to embrace the Marxist vision to change the way political is conceptualised.
In the most simple terms it strives to achieve equality of both the sexes in all the realms
of human life. The bourgiose democratic revolution of the seventeenth and eighteenth
century promised equality but excluded the women for a very long time. In this context
women emerged as a distinct interest group asking for the same. The post industrial
revolution period witnessed growing presence of the women in public life which aided
in the articulation of the woman question. It also emphasized the fact that women
never received the fruits of the enlightenment. Feminist political theory explicates the
poor representation of concerns of women in history and exposes the fact that it also
is incapable to address them. Gender , patriarchy and oppression are some of the core
theoretical concepts associated with feminist political theorization.
The feminist approach to political theory roughly began with the first wave of
feminism in the western world, particularly English speaking world. It emphasized on
improvement of political, educational and economic conditions of primarily the middle
class white women. It spoke in favour of equal political rights along with the right to
vote. Harriet Taylor in Enfranchisement of women (1851) and Mill in Subjection of
women (1869) defended social, economic, political and sexual liberty . Marry
Wollstonecraft fiercely criticized and questioned the socialization process which tried
to domesticate women and thus turned them into a feathered race (caged in domestic
life). She maintained that virtue of good wife or mother cannot be imposed on women
but it should be freely chosen by them. This requires same education and same rights
for both the sexes. Feminist political theory in this period also demanded economic
independence to ensure their dignity and equality in public life. However this type of
approach to political theorization erroneously tried to achieve masculisation of women
and did not really attempt to change the exisiting structures of institutions which actually
were limiting the freedom of women. Economic independence couldn’t really achieve
independent status for women in society . On the contrary domestic work such as
child crae, care of sick and elderly got devalued as they were mostly unpaid and
considered to require less mental work or less skills. In a nutshell, what was more
important was that men needed to be brought in the private domain to make the
march of women in public domain successful.
The second wave of feminist political theory contributed feminist consciousness
by uncovering prevailing sexist attitudes and obstacles in the society . One of the mostChapter 1 : Meaning and Approaches
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important theoretical contribution of this phase of feminist theorization was separation
between the biological identity of women from their socially constructed identity . The
work of Gayle Rubin and others proved that sex was given but gender was a social construct.
The idea of gender privileges men and divides the sexes. This sex-gender binary helped to
uncover centuries of oppression and also aided to find strategie to fight it universally .
When Simone de Beauvoir declared, “ One is not born, but becomes a women”, in her
acclaimed work the Second Sex, it gave merit to the category of women as a universal
subject as well as an agent of feminist politics. The sexual division of labour was
problematised by the second generation of feminists. They argued against it to uproot it
from the society . Contemporary feminist like Chinnamada Adichie also reiterates the same
theme in her famous lines, “Knowledge of cooking doesn’t come pre-installed in my vagina.”
The feminist theorization of the political in 1960’ s which is known sometimes as radical
feminism made a path-breaking contribution to theory by focusing on the most oppressive
social structure called patriarchy . It believed that equal rights and equal laws are not enough
to stop women’ s oppression as the issues and interests that concern them are heterogeneous
on account of racial, cultural, religious and ethnic dif ferences. Women’ s oppression is a
universal phenomenon and therefore makes a demand for ‘ personal is political’. It asks to
challenge the public-private divide and acknowledges the public as the bastion of the male
power . Thus it critiques patriarchy as a system of male dominance and inequality . Some
radical feminist also maintained that patriarchy makes women sexual slaves and disables
their control over their own bodies Other feminists tried to recover the lost dignity for
feminine qualities which were denigrated by the patriarchal structures. Such feminists argued
that biological differences must not be downplayed; rather they must be revered and
considered valuable. Feminists like Andrea Dworkin, Susan Grif finth and Vandana Shiva
highlight the feminine world view which emer ges due to women’ s unique reproductive
biology and their experiences associated with it. A feminine world view is more sensitive
and respectful of the environment and hence more attuned with the ecology . On the other
hand there are few who believe that a strictly bi-polar model of feminity and masculinity is
a modern and western construct. It does not give any space for a variety of sexual and
gender identities that can exist in between. Ashish Nandy maintains that pre-colonial Indian
culture accorded greater value to the feminity . Post-modern feminism ar gued that the sex-
gender distinction over emphasizes the biological body . Post-modern feminist Judith Butler
maintains that gender does not follow sex rather gender precedes sex. Sex is constructed
by human performance. The category of women does not exist before we think about it.
Gender is constructed through norms and constraints that regulate what will be recognized
as male body and female body . Thus it questions the language structure of two-sexed
model which renders many other fluid sex-gender identities invisible. The invisible are
criminalized, marginalized and normalized to fit into the existing model. It questions hetro-
sexuality as given and also challenges all institutionalized practices such as marriage and
family . Post-Modern feminism also tries to locate gender in the grid of other identities suchmunotes.in
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11as caste, class, race and religion and thus brings inter -sectionality to problematise gender .
Women as a subject cannot be a universal idea for they may want to identify themselves as
Black woman, Muslim woman etc. This opens up a whole vista of other mobilizations that
are require to articulate myriad issues and challenges women face in the contemporary
world. Feminist political theory through its different evolutionary phases has helped us to
view the world though a woman’ s perspective.
Check Your Progress Exer cise 4
Note: i) Use the space given below for your answer .
1)Discuss the contemporary contestations within the feminist approach to
political theor y.
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1.6 Let Us Sum Up
In this module we discussed the meaning, nature and important approaches to
political theory . Political theory is essential to describe, discuss and prescribe what
takes place and what takes shape in what we call the political. The normative approach
to political theory emphasizes what ought to be where as empirical political theory
focuses on what is. The liberal approach to political theory valorizes individual over
society and considers minimum constraints on individual freedom as fundamental.
Marxist approach discusses the idea of class struggle and exposes the exploitation of
the working class within a capitalist system. It also offers a toolkit of revolution to
overthrow the bourgeoisie class and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat to be
followed by a communist society . Feminist approach to political contributed a unique
lense of woman’ s questions, gender , patriarchy and their oppression not only to
conceptualise the political but also to change the same.
1.7 REFERENCES
•Held, D. (2013). Political theory and the modern state. John Wiley & Sons.
•Farrelly , C. (Ed.). (2003). Contemporary political theory: a reader . Sage.
•Hoffman, J., & Graham, P . (2015). Introduction to political theory . Routledge.
•Bhargava, R. (2008). Political theory: An introduction. Pearson Education India.
•Vinod, M. J., & Deshpande, M. (2013). Contemporary political theory . PHI
Learning Pvt. Ltd..
•Dryzek, J. S., Honig, B., & Phillips, A. (Eds.). (2008). The Oxford handbook of
political theory (V ol. 1). Oxford University Press.
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2
DEMOCRACY
(Repr esentative Democracy , Par ticipator y Democracy , Deliberative Democracy)
Structur e
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Meaning And Definition of Democracy
2.3 Definition of Democracy
2.4 Types of Democracy
2.5 Basic Postulates of Representative Democracy
2.6 Paricipatory Democracy
2.7 Deliberative Democracy
2.0 Objectives
•
•
•
2.1 Introduction
Democracy is the most prosperous and effectual form of political organization
in contemporary period. There is a general agreement that democratic institutions are
the most reliable symbol of political development. It is due to this reason that, it is
difficult to find anyone who disagrees with democracy these days. Politicians from the
extreme left to the extreme right insist that the politics which they support is democratic
in character , so it is no wonder that the term is so confusing. Although fundamentalists
may reject the notion of democracy , nobody else will oppose it. Whether the ruler is
a military dictator , a nationalist demagogue or a liberal, they will always treat their
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132.2 Meaning and definition of Democracy
The term democracy is firmly rooted in Ancient Greece. Democracy is derived
from the ancient Greek word kratos, and demos . Literary kratos means power and
demos stands for ‘the many’ or ‘the people’. Democracy therefore means ‘rule by
the demos’, or rule by the people. In contrast to its modern usage, democracy
perceived during ancient period was a negative or pejorative term, denoting not rule
by all, including poor and also uneducated masses. Democracy was therefore thought
to be the enemy of liberty and wisdom. While writers such as Aristotle were prepared
to recognize the virtues of popular participation, they nevertheless feared that
unrestrained democracy would degenerate into a form of ‘mob rule’. Indeed, such
pejorative implications continued to be attached to democracy even today .
•There have been several varieties of democratic government over the centuries.
Perhaps the most fundamental distinction is between democratic systems,
like those in ancient Greece that are based upon direct popular participation
in government and those that operate through some kind of representative
mechanism. This highlights two contrasting models of democracy: direct
democracy and representative democracy . Moreover , the modern understanding
of democracy is dominated by the form of electoral democracy that has developed
in the industrialized West, often called liberal democracy . Despite its undoubted
success, liberal democracy is only one of the preferred models of democracy
in the present world.
•Democracy cannot be described only as a form of government but it is also
an order of society . In addition to being a form of government and a type of
state, democracy is considered as a way of life in which the spirit of quality
and fraternity prevails. Such a society does not necessarily imply a democratic
state or a democratic government. In addition to this democracy is also viewed
as as a moral principle. It means that in democracy every individual has a
moral value. It enshrines the truth that government does not exist for its own
sake, but for the enrichment of personality of an individual. In a nutshell no
government has a right to be called a democracy if it does not bring out the
best in man.
•Thus, to some, democracy ‘is a form of government’; to others, it is ‘a way
of social life’. The essence of democracy as a form of government lies in its
nature of franchise, the character of the electoral system and the relation
between the government and the people existing in a particular nation. Democracy
as a way of life has a different connotation; as for example to the communist,
it means economic equality amongst citizens, to a humanist, it implies theChapter 2 : Democracy
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absence of disparities in rights on the basis of caste, creed or birth. Thus,
democracy comes out to be a complex term and the only way to come out of
this complexity owning to its diversity is to analyze each of the meanings
attached to it and to trace its development and growth according to time,
situation and mental progressive innovations for human betterment.
2.3 Definition of Democracy
I.Democracy as a form of government
Democracy is defined as an important form of government. Democracy as an important
form of government implies two aspects i) who share power in government and ii)
how are those who govern and legislate, acquire their office?. In this way democracy
conceives that people, either directly or through their representatives, shares power
in government. It also means that the representatives actually exercise their power
on behalf of the people.
Following are the definitions of democracy which treats democracy as an important
form of government.
J.R.Lowell - democracy is only an experiment in government.
Lincoln - democracy is government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Dicey -Democracy is that form of government in which the governing body is a
comparatively large fraction of the entire nation.
Lord Bryce - The word Democracy denotes that form of government in which the
ruling power of a State is legally vested, not in any particular class or classes, but in
the members of the community as a whole.
II. Democracy as order of society
Democracy is also defined as an order of the society . This means a democratic
society is one in which the spirit of equality and fraternity prevails. Such a society
does not necessarily imply a democratic state or a democratic government. Democracy
is an order of society wherein the spirit of equality and fraternity prevails. A democracy
may exist in different sections of the society despite its absence when it comes to
the State or government. In the traditional Indian societies, the system of Kinship
prevailed wherein the essential elements of democracy like unity , fraternity , etc.
may exist within the kinship group, that may represent a society , but not between
different kinship groups taken as a part of the State.
III. Democracy as a moral principle
Democracy embodies a moral principle too. It means that each man has a value.
Further , it elucidates the fact that government does not exist for its own sake, but
for the enrichment of individual personality . No government has a right to be called
a democracy if it does not bring out the best in man. Democracy shall serve itsmunotes.in
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15essential feature of bringing out the best in man for the government to be called as
a democratic government. Democracy attempts to reconcile the apparently
contradictory principle of liberty , equality and fraternity , in order to attain the highest
good for all. Democracy in practice is the hypothesis that all men are equal which is
used in order to discover who the best are. Democracy should assure practical
self-realization for attaining common benefits for all.
Types of Democracy
2.4 Representative Democracy
Representative Democracy is considered as the most popular form of
democratic governance. Representative theory of democracy has a greater ascendancy
in several parts of the world, because most countries of the world have accepted
this model as the basic and defining form of their government. It is due to strong
institutional arrangements that representative democracy is distinguished from other
forms of political system. Representative democracy always stands against the
unlimited and unrestrained type of political system.
Representative democracy has a predilection for popular participation and
indirect and limited form of government. It is indirect and limited form of democracy ,
because citizens get an opportunity to indirectly participate in government system
and influence the policy formulation process. It is limited because the government
uses its power in restrained and responsible manner . There is no possibility of
unnecessary government’ s intervention in private life of citizens Its legitimate form
is indirect because the commoners do not assume power by itself, but they elect
their own representatives who secure power by means of popular vote and rule on
people’ s behalf.
Basic Features of Representative Democracy
• Indirect Representation: - In representative democracy the government
is run by representatives of the common people, It is described as a system
of government in which all qualified citizens vote for representatives who
work to pass laws for them. Commoners form their own groups on the
basis of popular consent which is further professionalized into political parties.
These parties after deep deliberation select their own candidates for general
elections. At the time of electoral manifess campaigning the political parties
publicly announce the basic programmes and policies that would be initiated
after coming to power . People either support these parties and their
programmes or oppose them, depending upon their personal affiliation and
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• Crucial role of political parties: - In representative democratic system
role of political parties is always crucial and decisive in nature. Almost all
representatives of people contest elections to garner popular support and
stake claim to political power . Political parties actually are or ganised in a
very systematic way which enables the activists to rally political support
and secure power . Those who remain away from the party politics tend to
contest elections as independent candidates, if they do not wish to join any
political party . It therefore can be said that the role of political parties is
vital in a democratic system. The members of political parties keep the people
informed about important issues by holding public meetings, for either supporting
or opposing the policies of the government. Thus, the political parties help
the people in knowing what they should expect and in turn mould the public
opinion.
• Spirit of Representative democracy goes against direct democracy:
- Representative democracy is formally structured on the principle of elected
people representing a specific group of people, and therefore it stands opposed
to the system of direct democracy . In modern democratic states, people’ s
representatives are voted by common people and they in turn are accountable
to the electorates. Different modes of electing the representatives are eshrined
in the constitution rules on electoral systems of each country . Generally an
aspiring candidate contests election, representing a particular constituency .
A constituency means a specific geographical area which is created for election
purpose. The representatives form an independent ruling body entrusted
with the responsibility formulating the rules and regulations as well as the
legislation for the people’ s interest, with enough authority . The reasonable
restrictions imposed by the authority are aimed to take resolute initiative in
the face of changing circumstances. how represensentative democracy goes
against direct democracy needs to explained here far .
2.5 Basic postulates of Representative Democracy
1. There are free, fair and regular elections and transfer of power takes
place in instantaneous manner . Elections are held on the basis of universal
adult suffrage.
2. There is existence of opposition parties also. The diverse opinion is generally
entertained, which strengthens the democratic fabric of the country . The
existence of multiple ranges of political parties present a competitive electoral
choice for the voters.
3. The subsistent presence of legislation which is subsequently protected by
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174. Ample freedom of dissent and right to freedom to speech and expression is
ensured in this needs to be rewarded democracy .
5. Freedom to record independent opinion about political events and political
decisions
Following are the advantages of Representative Democracy:
• Genuine r epresentative character and nourishment of civic cultur e: the
representative government ensures a true representative form of governance
and enhances a possible growth of civic culture. A civic
culture or civic political culture is a political culture characterized by
“acceptance of the authority of the state” and “a belief in participation
in civic duties”. The term was first used in Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba’ s
book, ‘ The Civic Culture ’. In a representative democracy , the people elect
officials to create and vote on laws, policies, and other matters of government
on their behalf.
• Right to dissent: Dissent is essential in a democracy . If a country has to
grow in a holistic manner where not only the economic rights but also the
civil rights of the citizen are to be protected, dissent and disagreement have
to be permitted, and in fact, should be encouraged. It is only if there is
discussion, disagreement and dialogue that we can arrive at better ways to
run the country . Dissent and democracy in reality are frequently considered
synonymous in a liberal-democratic social order . It is through open debate
and discussion that the diversity of perceptions in a democracy gets exposed.
Only through continuous interactions on critical issues does the real truth
emerge .
• Informed citizenry : In democracy the informed citizenry is a basic requirement.
Collective opinion in democracy plays an important role to keep the
government in check. If the people are aware of the current significant
debate of the day , then there is less possibility of usurpation of public of fices
and corrupt practices.
2.6 Participatory Democracy
Participatory democracy attempts to create opportunities for all members
of a population to make expressive contributions to decision-making, and seeks to
increase the range of people who have access to such opportunities. Since so much
information must be gathered for the overall decision-making process to succeed,
technology may provide important forces leading to the type of empowerment neededChapter 2 : Democracy
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for participatory models, especially those technological tools that enable community
narratives and correspond to the accretion of knowledge.
Participatory democracy is that type of democratic model that accentuates
the participation of common citizens in the functioning and operation of political
systems. Participatory democracy tends to promote the involvement of citizen’ s
participation rather than their representation. Participatory democracy attempts to
generate more opportunities for all members of society . It strives hard t o make
meaningful contributions to masses in the process of decision-making, and aims to
broaden the range of people’ s participation.
1) Insistence on people’ s par ticipation : The theory of participator y democracy
is quite dif ferent from the theory of representative democracy . It puts great
importance on maximising the participation of citizens in the public decisions
that affect their lives.
Active engagement in politics is regarded as beneficial both for the citizen
as an individual and for the system as a whole. Because active participation
of citizens is expected, they do not participate only periodically in elections,
but participation is continuous. Citizens formulate and defend their own interests
through various civic organizations, such as interests groups, political parties,
civic associations, NGOs and grassroots citizens’ lobbies. Participation
transforms individuals into public citizens: political interest, preferences and
abilities for judging public issues that emerge in the process of public
deliberation.
2) Principle of Popular inclusion : - participatory democracy promotes an
active functioning of the public sphere. The model of public sphere1 promoted
by participatory theory is based on popular inclusion wherein the citizens
are expected to be active participants in the public sphere. The media is
considered as an ideal representative model where it represents divergent
interests of society members. It is through the medium of public discussion
and debate that aspirations of common people are made public. Media is
considered as an apogee of popular inclusion and contemplated as a paramount
agent in encouraging empowerment of citizens and communities. In this
way, popular inclusion results in strengthening politically competent and
knowledgeable public sphere.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Combination of dir ect and r epresentative democracy: - Participatory
1 The term public sphere means a public space or an area in social life where people can come
together share their views and freely discuss as well as identify common socio-economic and political
problems. The term was originally coined by German philosopher Jurgen Habermasmunotes.in
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19democracy is that model of democracy which gives impetus to the process
of collective decisions. The process of collective decision making is a unique
combination of direct and representative democracy . Collective decisions
empower the citizens to formulate opinions and pronouncements on policy
proposals and politicians assume the role of policy implementation.
4) Equal sharing of power: One of the key facets of participatory democracy
is that it emphatically promotes equal power sharing principle thereby preventing
any possibility of conflicts and violence. The adherents of participatory
democracy propose that the power be equally shared among all citizens, so
that everyone will get opportunity to participate equally in collective affairs.
The idea of participatory democracy invigorates an aggregate debate about
power , democratic principles, democratic procedures and institutions. In
a nutshell it attempts to maneuver skillful moves to achieve the most equal
distribution of power in society .
5) Self-determination and autonomy: Participatory democracy empowers the
people to assert their self-determination and reinforce the quest for autonomy .
The exponents of this theory argue that only participatory democracy allows
people to be masters of their own lives i.e. to be fully self-determining or
autonomous. Participatory democracy endeavours to achieve such self-
determination at both the individual level and the level of groups or collectives.
In addition to this participatory democracy can be seen as a way of allowing
commoners to ensure that collective decisions will only safeguard individual
freedom. As active members of groups, ranging from households, private clubs,
various workplaces, trade unions, and neighbourhoods, people generally have
an interest in living according to their collective will. Participatory democracy
enables people to enjoy their life according to their collective will.
6) Nourishment of Community life: - P a r t i c i p a t o r y d e m o c r a c y b o o s t s
community life and augments good social relationships in a number of ways.
For example, participatory democracy seeks to strengthen identification with
the community because people feel that they are accepted and that their
voice is being heard. Reasonable involvement in democratic practices like
decision-making process, forces people to listen to others and take their
interests into account. Thus we can say that participatory democracy also
promotes public spirit.
7) Free competition for political power – In participatory democracy there
is free competition for securing political power . Multiple political parties
compete with each other in elections to secure political power . Through
participatory democracy people get an opportunity to consider various
alternative policies, programmes and personalities to exercise their choice.Chapter 2 : Democracy
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2.7 Deliberative democracy
Deliberative democracy is the most important form of democracy in which
there is greater insistence on discussion, debate, deliberation and exchange of
viewpoints. Thus it is best example of engaged form of people’ s participation. The
most important aspect of this democracy is the involvement of citizens reasonable
participation in the decision making process. Popular and public participation can
be described as the deliberative process by which conscientious citizens, civil society
groups, and government actors are involved in actual legislative procedure and
they are responsible for policy-making. In a nutshell, it is assumed that in this form
of democracy crucial legislative actions and important political decision are made
on the basis of fair and rational debate and deliberation among the citizens. Joseph
M. Bessette is considered as the pioneering figure so far as popularity of the concept
of deliberative democracy is concerned. He actually coined the term “deliberative
democracy” in his 1980 work “Deliberative Democracy: The Majority Principle in
Republican Government”.
Definition of deliberative democracy- “ Deliberation is an appr oach to decision-
making that involves an informed public, thinking critically together and
discussing options fr om multiple points of view . It encourages enlar ged
perspectives, opinions, and understandings and can r esult in better decisions
and policies.” (http ://www .deliberative-democracy .net/)
Importantance of deliberation
In deliberation, or discussion the common people and active citizens exchange
their views through a medium of arguments and consider different claims that are
designed to secure the public good. The final outcome of these deliberations and
discussion results in arriving on an agreement about what procedure, action, or
policy will be best suited for the public good. In a nutshell deliberation is a necessary
precondition for the legitimacy of democratic political decisions.
The most important aspect of this democracy is its insistence and belief in
rationality of citizens. It believes that rather than representation the citizens themselves
should arrive at political decisions through reason and the collection of competing
arguments and viewpoints. In other words, citizens’ preferences should be shaped by
deliberation in advance of decision making, rather than by self-interest. With respect
to individual and collective citizen decision making, deliberative democracy shifts the
emphasis from the outcome of the decision to the quality of the process. Basic features
of deliberative democracy are as follows.munotes.in
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21a) Sovereignty of the people:-Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the
people is the doctrine that prescribes that, legitimacy of the state is created
by the will or consent of its people. It rests on the belief that people are the
source of political power . Popular sovereignty expresses a concept and
does not necessarily reflect or describe a political reality . In deliberative
democracy the people are considered as sovereign in nature. This democracy
is premised on the acceptance of the notion of popular sovereignty an d its
institutionalisation in the form of citizens ’ rights. In deliberative democratic
system it is assumed that, within a specified territory people ’s sovereignty is
derived from their collective voice and it is the basis upon which democratic
decision making takes place. Peoples control over the decision making process
is secured through variety of institutions.
b) It recognizes conflict of interest: - Deliberative democracy gives importance
and sincerely recognizes the principle of tolerance and conflict of interest
between the participants in major debates. If there is general debate and
open discussion on securing one’ s own interest then this democracy will
upheld this conflictual debate. The basic objective of this practice is to
accommodate the marginalized, isolated and the ignored groups in the decision
making process. It prefers to extensively tolerate the dissent, grounds for
dissent, and future possibilities of consequences of actions
c) Government based upon consent of the people: - In political theory the
notion of consent of the governed, refers to the idea that
a government’ s legitimacy and moral right to use state power is only justified
and lawful when consented to by the people or society over which that political
power is exercised. Deliberative democracy implies the consent of the governed
which rests implicitly on the recognition of the effective political equality of
the individuals. Rational consent can be obtained by persuasion for which
an atmosphere of free discussion is essential.
d) Protection of minority rights: - Rule of majority is the basic maxim of democratic
form of governance. The postulate of majority rule may jeopardise the rights
of minorities. The promotion and protection of the rights of persons belonging
to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities contribute to the political
and social stability of States in which they live. Deliberative democracy
therefore requires minority rights equally as it does majority rule. Indeed,
as democracy is understood today , the minority’ s rights must be protected
no matter how alienated a minority is from the majority society . The adherents
of deliberative democracy have started developing scholarly arguments in
favour of special rights and safeguards of minorities to enable them to preserve
their distinct identities based on religion, language, culture etc.Chapter 2 : Democracy
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e) Multiculturalism: - Multiculturalism is generally understood as a school of
thought that supports the cultural and religious rights of minority communities.
It upholds the viewpoint that cultures, races, and ethnicities, particularly
those of minority groups, deserves special acknowledgement within a dominant
political culture. One of the most important safeguards of democracies is
demanding greater public recognition of distinctive identities of minorities.
Democracy rests on the greater freedom and opportunity to retain and develop
distinctive cultural practices of minority . Such practice may be called as
multiculturalism which is the strongest precepts of democracy .
f) Due process of law . Due process is a system of legal proceedings wherein
legal rights of individuals are protected. The core of procedural due process
is the idea that government action that deprives the individual of life, liberty
or property must accord with the rule of law . Such action must be non-
arbitrary; hence, individuals must be given notice of the reasons for an impending
deprivation of life, liberty or property and they must be given a fair opportunity
to respond to the allegations made. Today , the requirements of due process
are seen central to the democratic system.
* * * * *
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233
Citizenship: Republican and Liberal; Universal
and
Differentiated; Citizenship and Globalization.
Structur e
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Liberal Democracy
3.3 Three Dimensions of Citizenship
3.4 Social vs Active Citizenship
3.5 Republican and Liberal Citizenship
3.6 Feminist Critique of Citizenship
3.7 Universal and Differentiated Citizenship
3.8 Citizenship and Globalisation
3.9 Borders and Citizens
3.10 Rights: Citizens and non-citizens
3.11Conclusion
3.0 Objectives
In this chapter , we tr y to answer some fundamental questions on citizenship.
What is the concept of citizenship, how did it evolve? What is its meaning ?
What is the r ole of citizenship in a democracy? How do we analyse and update
our understanding about citizenship in a changed society and a globalized
world? What does incr ease migration towar ds developed countries mean
for citizenship? How do we understand the r esponses of countries to such
issues? What does this mean for democracies acr oss the world and how to
reconcile democratic values with pover ty eradication and human rights?
These ar e some of the issues that ar e discussed below . It is expected that as
students of Political Science, the r eaders will be able to grasp some of these
concerns and develop her/his understanding on the topic.munotes.in
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3.1 Introduction
Citizenship implies rights and obligations or duties in exchange of membership
to a political community within a country . It is a reciprocal relationship between
individual and the state. However , the exact nature of relationship remains disputable
and hence needs discussion. It is important to note that there exist differing views
about citizenship. These involve mainly , looking at citizenship as a legal status versus
as an identity . Thus, legality and identity are the chief components of citizenship. The
precise nature of citizen’ s rights and obligations and balance between the two is the
most debatable part. Apart from this, in practice there exists competing views on its
nature, namely , social and active citizenship. The discussion on citizenship remains
incomplete without discussing the emergence of modern multi-cultural societies and
ability of citizenship rights to emancipate disadvantaged groups. Apart from establishing
a rights-based citizenship, the debate also involves a redistributive aspect.
Certain rights endow legality to citizenship but only in a formal manner . And
this in turn, goes against social justice principles. As a result, socially disadvantaged
or racially discriminated ‘second class citizens’ feel alienated from state. Therefore,
citizenship must have a subjective/psychological component. Therefore, political
philosophers have tried to redress this problem by arguing for ‘differential citizenship’.
For the main issues involved in the concept of citizenship, let us first look at the
dimensions and theoretical arguments.
3.2 Liberal Democracy
It is important to note here that discussions on citizenship require a liberal
democratic set-up. In other words, the liberal democratic framework allows discussions
on the various issues involved in citizenship. There has been a growing interest in
discussing philosophical issues involved in citizenship, especially since 1990s. This
was a result of two main challenges, that led to reexamining the concept in the 90s
decade: firstly , it was an outcome of the acknowledgment of the growing diversity of
liberal democracies across the world; secondly , globalization led pressures on territorial
sovereign state also forced rethinking citizenship in order to find answers for the new
challenges that it faced, in a changed world.
3.3 Three Dimensions of Citizenship
The concept of citizenship involves three main aspects, namely:
1) Citiz enship as legal status ;
2) as active participation of individual members in the affairs of the political
community; and
3) as membership of a political community that becomes a significant source of
identity for the individual.munotes.in
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25Identity dimension involves several issues, mainly pertaining to, both individual
and collective identity , and of social integration of members in the political community .
Importantly , it is unavoidable that the citizens sense of belonging has a direct correlation
to the sense of the collective identity of a country . Therefore, social integration of
members is an important goal or problem that citizenship aims to resolve.
In addition, there exists a complex relation between three dimensions. Citizen
rights decide the degree of political participation and also fix the source of their identity
in the community . This in turn leads to strengthening of sense of self-respect and
encourages citizens to participate in civic and political activities actively . In countries
where certain groups have a distinct /separate identity than the larger/dominant political
community , it is necessary to recognize such dif ferences. And, this also means that
such groups are given special rights that recognize such differential requirements.
Four disagreements about different citizenship conceptions:
1) precise definition of each element;
2) their relative importance;
3) causal/conceptual relations between them; and
4) about the appropriate normative standards to regulate citizenship.
3.4 Social Citizenship vs Active Citizenship
T H Marshall’ s ‘Citizenship and Social Class’ (1963) serves as an important
starting point on the philosophical issues involved in citizenship.
Marshall’ s idea of social citizenship involves ‘universality’. It emphasizes
relationship between citizenship and achievement of the democratic goal of achieving
social equality . Citizenship is a social status linked to full participation in community
affairs. Therefore, this was incompatible with class inequality that existed within the
capitalist system. Hence, social citizenship associated with welfare state development
aimed at providing a minimum standard of living for all.
The idea of social citizenship gained wide acceptance and popularity in 20th
century . Civil rights movements, in addition to legal and political demands, also started
to demand social issues. This was seen in the demands made in the United States of
America’ s civil rights movements in 1960s, the movements for socially disadvantaged
groups, the United Nations UDHR included social rights.
The chief way for establishing social citizenship was a welfare-oriented state
and the gradual expansion of its functions. For Marshall, “social rights were crucial to
the working class’ s progressive integration in British society” (Marshall 1950). They
were inextricably bound up with welfare provision and the modern state’ s capacity to
ensure for all “a modicum of economic welfare and security”(Leydet, 2017).Chapter 3 : Citizenship: Republican & Liberal; Universal and Differentiated; Citizenship & Globalization.
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Apart from Marshall, the chief advocates also insisted upon vitality of government
intervention for ‘positive’ alongside ‘negative’ rights. For them, as modern liberals,
the social disadvantages ‘undermine sense of citizenship’. Further , the social democrats
also regarded social and economic rights as civilized life’ s foundation. It was ar gued
that social citizenship gives all citizens “a meaningful stake in society”. It also promotes
material equality .
Marshall’ s (1963) three-fold classification of Rights- was criticized for:
emphasizing social rights; exclusion of economic rights, women’ s rights as well as
global citizenship. It emphasizes rights as well as obligations (duties and responsibilities).
It corresponds to each type of citizenship rights. Critics highlights the need for these
to be underpinned by ‘civic virtue’ (Derek Heater , 1990) that is loyalty to state and
willingness to accept community’ s responsibility . Therefore, ‘education for citizenship’
is important in several countries.
Heater ’s notion of ‘multiple citizenship’ argues that citizens have a broader
range of loyalties and responsibilities over and above the nation state. Therefore,
liberal democracy subscribes to ‘limited citizenship’ vs ‘total citizenship’ of
totalitarian state.
Neoliberal critics challenged the idea and proved to be the most severe critic
of social citizenship. Political right argued that such a view of citizenship was an
unrealistic view of government capacities to ensure welfare; led to relentless growth in
government responsibilities; damaged the possibilities of economic growth; and
undermined enterprise and individual initiative.
This criticism led to the development of ‘active citizenship’ out of the New Right
citizenship model. This was inspired from two faces of contrasting active citizenship’ s
traditions’: one emphasized self-reliance; other focused on duty and responsibilities.
3.5 Active Citizenship based on New Right/Neo-Liberalism
Inspired by the growth of neoliberal ideas about within economics and politics,
active citizenship, was developed as alternative to social citizenship. In this, is included
Samuel Smiles concept of ‘self-help’. It looks at citizenship as based on “enterprise, hard
work and self-reliance”. On the economic front this involves relieving the burden on public
finance and resources of the state that are needed to implement welfare policies. This was
mainly taking away the welfare orientation of the modern state and reorienting it as a
‘regulatory state’. Morally , this meant, the promotion of individual dignity and self-respect
due to its emphasis on ‘self-help’. However , the major flaw in such an understanding was
that it considered private qualities of individuals as equal to citizenship.munotes.in
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27Another approach was the one by neo-conservatives, who focused on civil
duties and refused to acknowledge the idea of rights-based citizenship. They , criticized
Marshall’ s ‘citizenship of entitlement’ which led to the notion of rights bearing citizens
without any corresponding duties or obligations. It was argued, that citizens without
duties leads to “social fragmentation and permissiveness-selfishness, greed and lack
of respect for both social institutions and fellow human beings”
Above arguments led to the growing understanding since the 1980s that civic
engagement had weakened due to citizens’ rights-based claims. This led to several
western governments adopting a ‘third way’ of policies that aimed to adopt “rights
and responsibilities” agenda. One of the ways to implement this kind of citizenship
role was to replace Higher Education grants with student loans system along with
introduction of tuitions fees. This was based on the argument that the “student do not
merely have access to education, but the duty to pay for it.”
Critics of active citizenship, was strongly rejected this and argued that it undermines a
concern for rights and claims. Further , active citizenship based on self-help and
obligations is bound to increase existing inequalities.
In the next section, let us examine the different types of citizenships as discussed
in the syllabus.
Check Your Progress
1. Explain the concept of Citizenship
2. What are the main elements of Citizenship
3. Distinguish between social and active citizenship.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3.6 Republican and Liberal Citizenship
The two models of citizenship based on republican and liberal ideals, serve as
the main source of discussions on the concept.
While the republican model is drawn from works of authors ranging from Aristotle
to Rousseau. It is also based on ideas taken from ancient Greek Athenian democracy to
Italian city states and worker ’s councils. The main idea here is derived from Aristotle’ s
formulation who saw “citizens, as capable of ruling and being ruled in turn”.
Rousseau’ s social contract involving the “general will” also emphasizes citizens
participation in deliberation and decision making. It ensures that individuals remainChapter 3 : Citizenship: Republican & Liberal; Universal and Differentiated; Citizenship & Globalization.
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active and participating citizens and not docile/passive members of the political
community . Therefore, this model also highlights another aspect, that of, political agency
or active participation as inherent to citizenship.
On the other hand, the liberal model has its roots in the Roman empire and
modern interpretations and views on Roman law . The expansion of Roman empire
meant extension of protection to those who were newly conquered. However , this
was only limited to protection by law and did not include any kind of participation in
decision making. In other words, this meant emphasis on only first dimension of
citizenship, namely , as a legal status rather than as an opportunity to participate in the
civic af fairs. Positively speaking, in this manner , the idea of citizenship was inclusive
and limitless in its extent.
Later , in the seventeenth century , the liberal tradition emphasized that political
liberty was important to protect individual freedoms. However , this was to be exercised
by citizens in private and not in the public domain.
Based on above, it is clear that both notions of citizenship, involved different
implications: while republican version involved citizenship as a political office, the liberal
version involved the same as legal status. It is clear , that the liberal democratic model
prevailed in the contemporary constitutional democracies, although representative
critique of passive citizenship remains relevant and robust till date.
Major criticism of republican model comes from those like Benjamin Constant,
1819, (cited in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) who argue that it has become
irrelevant because of the sheer vastness and complexity of the modern state. Further ,
the heterogeneous character of modern states challenges the functioning of republican
institutions (W alzer , 1989). However , republican model continues to serve as an
indicator of the vibrancy of our institutions and functions (Miller 2000, 84).
In sum, both versions can be seen as complementing each other , as political
liberty ensures importance of individual freedom, while participation helps build
collective sense of belonging. Both, political liberty and active participation help protect
individual liberties and the institutions that are needed to preserve liberty under the
modern state.
3.7Feminist Critique: Public vs Private as ‘Socially Constructed’
A strong critique of both the above models comes from feminist thinkers. They
criticize both republican and liberal citizenship models for their shared assumption of
the separation of public and private sphere. Alternatively , feminist propose that themunotes.in
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29rigid division of human life into public versus private is based on myths and perpetuates
inequality in household. This hinders the creation of an egalitarian family that is a
requirement for creating a basis for equality amongst citizens. The liberal model
emphasizes the private sphere and treats wives as subordinate to husbands, and this
strict division has denied women, as members of political community , the access to
public sphere.
Feminist see the public versus private distinction as a deliberate “social
construction” for subjugation of women. They argue that this can be contested and
reformed in a manner that does not rank men and women in a hierarchy or as superior
and inferior . They further claim that such rearrangement of the political sphere would
have a positive impact on private, social and economic spheres. In sum, the feminist
view point helps contextualize and revive the political and has led to alternative thinking
on citizenship based on recognition of differences among members of a state.
Check your progress
1. What are the main elements of Republican Citizenship/Liberal
Citizenship?
2. Briefly discuss the chief criticisms of Republican/Liberal Citizenship.
3. Write a note on the Feminist Critique of Citizenship
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3.8 Universal Citizenship and Diversity
Universal citizenship model, mainly developed by Marshall, acquired
significance in post-world war II liberal democracies. He emphasized that significance
of social rights expansion was important for integration of working class in the British
society as well as the other western democracies. Sceptics ar gues, however , that in
spite of citizenship rights extension, there was no transformation in the integration and
social equality for Afro Americans and Women. They questioned the assumption that
legal status led to civic integration.
The concept of universal citizenship is based on the liberal notion of separation
between public versus private spheres of life. This is portrayed as “difference-blind”
due to its focus for uniform rights for all. This is because it does not take into account
the differences among citizen groups. Its emphasis on universality has given the ideaChapter 3 : Citizenship: Republican & Liberal; Universal and Differentiated; Citizenship & Globalization.
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of citizenship its radical and change oriented character . Thus, the disadvantaged sections
demand replacement of ‘second-class citizenship’ with full citizenship. This is demanded
in terms of right to equal treatment and equal participation.
However , increased awareness of diverse and pluralist nature of modern
societies led to questioning of universal citizenship. Critics alleged the model as
exclusionist because it kept out the particular views to achieve majoritarian goals and
that difference blind laws and policies further increased inequalities for minorities.
Hence, critics advance an alternative conception of citizenship that recognizes the
pluralist nature of democracies and special rights of minorities.
Hence, Iris Young advocated “dif ferentiated” citizenship that included group
differences. It is assumed here that modern pluralistic societies are far from homogenous.
The norms and values of the dominant determine the nature and extent of equal
treatment. This in turn prevents disadvantaged groups from taking full advantage of
their formally equal status. The idea of universal citizenship hides the disadvantages
and unequal participation for weaker sections. Hence, Young calls for recognition of
“special rights” along with universal rights. However , these were demanded only for
specific categories like women, disabled or the elderly .
Multiculturalist justify special rights on the basis of need to conserve the distinct
identities of particular groups. They take into account the pluralistic nature of many
modern societies reflected in growing evidence of communal diversity and identity
related difference. It is usually associated with cultural difference of race, ethnicity or
language and upholds differences and need to be respected and publicly recognized
cause of multiculturalism taken in the USA in form or Black rights movement, 1960;
Australia since 1970 acknowledges ‘Asianization’; New Zealand’ s recognition of Maori
culture towards forming a national identity; Canada’ s reconciliation between French
speaking Quebec and English speaking majority; and recognition of importance of
black and Asian communities in UK and Western Europe.
Multiculturalists and Minority Rights advocates have supported differentiated
citizenship by way of special representation rights; multicultural rights; and self-
government rights. On the other hand, in response to issues of social and civic unity ,
liberal democracies have attempted to integrate immigrants by way of compulsory
requirement of language proficiency test for citizenship eligibility . Measures like banning
religious symbols from public schools, laws that withdraw citizenship from those
involved in terror activities. This has in turn given rise to further issues that involve
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31The minority rights issue, reconciles citizenship with cultural diversity . It goes
on to include group specific efforts to accommodate national and ethnic differences.
Will Kymlicka’ s three kinds of Minority rights are:
1) Self-governing rights for national minorities;
2) Polyethnic rights for ethnic groups and religious minorities; and
3) Special rights to address underrepresentation of disadvantaged groups, taking
the form of reverse or positive discrimination.
Apart from ensuring full and equal participation, it makes sure that public policies
reflect the concerns and interests of all groups and peoples and not merely of those
from traditional dominant groups.
Multiculturalism and minority rights doctrine was criticized on the following grounds:
1) Emphasized division among people rather than unite them;
2) Social stability requires shared values and common culture; and
3) For the leftists, multicultural societies are bound to be welfare oriented and
have low political participation.
Some liberal theorists question such emphasis on intense diversity’ s
aggregability with survival of liberal polity . They find it dif ficult to accept cultural practices
that are illiberal and orthodox. Instead, they replace this with respect for Human Rights
over and above group identity and traditional values. Liberals also support
representation and group rights.
Poly ethnic rights are criticized for their focus on exemption from laws or
regulations that are needed due to cultural distinctiveness. This it is argued comes at
the cost of civic and political values that demand respect from all. For instance, France’ s
ban on all dress and symbols from schools to uphold liberal secularism.
With the spread of globalization, and its related flows of humans and materials, several
new challenges have arisen in thinking about citizenship. It is to this, that we now turn,
in order to grasps some key issues involved in a globalized world.
Check your progress
1. What is Universal/Differentiated Citizenship?
2. Explain the main criticism of Universal/Differentiated Citizenship.
3. Differentiate between Universal and Differentiated Citizenship.
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3.9 Citizenship and Globalization: Is Global Citizenship Possible ?
Developments related to globalization have increasingly brought into question the
‘territorial’ requirement of citizenship. The questions raised in this regard with respect
to citizenship involve three issues :
1) Tighter immigration control amidst growing inequality globally;
2) Questioning of differential rights between citizens and non-citizens within a
state’ s boundaries; and
3) Citizenship’ s need for a democratic nation state
3.10 Citizenship and the issue of borders
As far as moral right of political community to decide who can/cannot acquire
citizenship is concerned, then the answer to this has a direct bearing on the right to
freedom of movement. Based on one’ s understanding of our obligation towards
strangers, immigrants, it is possible to form redistributive policies and mutual aid.
Those who call for ‘open borders’ use three ways to argue in its favor:
1) They argue that freedom of movement is a fundamental right and
requires important changes in the policies of western countries towards
immigrants and refugees.
2) Also, they deny the democratic state’ s right to control its borders without
due consideration for migrants’ issues.
3) The idea of open borders is to be strongly pursued to achieve distributive
justice across the globe.
The above involves the rights of those from poorer countries towards the
developed ones. It is seen as an obligation or duty of advanced countries towards
poverty eradication and achievement of equality .
Michael Walzer points to the fact that state’ s democracy and political integrity
is crucial towards developing a sense of solidarity amongst individuals. However , it is
important to point out here that the modern state’ s pluralist nature go against Walzer ’s
requirement of distributive justice that requires redistribution of resources and
opportunities in an interconnected world.
Habermas highlights the importance of political culture, that should precede
over the background culture or majority’ s culture. In turn migrants should embrace
the liberal democratic principles (that constitutes political culture) of their new country .
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33Liberal nationalists like Will Kymlicka, favor intense cultural integrity as
important for individual interests and also of the state. However , under severe inequality ,
integration policies should not harm, but should be able to enhance liberty to citizens
and aliens equally .
3.11Rights: Citizens and non-citizens
Baubook refers to mismatch in entitlement to citizenships of residents and
immigrants. The stakeholder principle is an alternative to claim permanent citizenship
for those whose “life prospects depend on the country’ s laws and policy choices”.
However , critics question such tight correlation between citizenship, territory and state
authority in a globalization led changes in relations between individuals and states.
As a response, contemporary democracies have begun to extend civil and social rights
to all individuals within their territories. Human Rights has made such a delinking of
rights from territory possible at international level.
The debate over voting rights emphasized that the voting rights are best seen
as territorial while citizenship rights are understood as fluid/do not need membership
of a territorial state.
Voting rights to expatriates (nonresidents of a country , who have moved to
another country . E.g., NRIs in USA or Europe) has been severely criticized for
“re-ethnicization of citizenship” and also pose a danger to the resident citizens right to
self-determination due to non-resident voters.
Check Your Progress
1. Discuss the impact of globalization on the idea of citizenship.
2. Explain the challenges to citizenship in a globalized world.
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3.12 Conclusion :
Citizenship has evolved along with major changes in the states. Modern states
brought to the fore the sheer complexity of dealing with huge populations, often of
mixed nature. The advent of rights-based citizenship corresponded with the idea of a
state that was responsible for the wellbeing of its residents. This led to universal
rights-based citizenship that was based on rightful claims of members of the politicalChapter 3 : Citizenship: Republican & Liberal; Universal and Differentiated; Citizenship & Globalization.
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community within the state. With the sur ge of neoliberal ideas and the growth of a
market led economic policies, the state assumed the role of a regulator . Based on
such neoliberal ideas, citizenship also shed its welfare orientation and theorists claimed
that the citizens had duties towards the state and were supposed to show initiative
and enterprise rather than make right based claims on the state.
While the universal citizenship was a result of liberal democratic values,
multicultural states saw the rise of social movements that demanded recognition of
special and different needs of those who were disadvantaged. This led to the
development of differentiated citizenship, that recognized that citizens had differences
due to social inequality , and that special or minority rights were compatible with the
democratic ideal of social equality .
With the spread of globalization since 1990s, the rise in poverty and immigration
towards western countries became a way to escape suffering and oppression. In this
context, human rights demanded that all persons be given social and civil rights if
democratic values are to achieved. Therefore, the issue of social integration became
necessary in advanced democracies along with the problem of border control. Finally ,
if human rights are to be universalized, it remains the responsibility of each country to
treat its immigrants and refugees in a human manner . These members present a problem
for social integration, and hence liberal democratic government have made policies
that aim to preserve liberal and secular values for all. While, minorities also have
added to the discourse of right to freedom of movement and of the right to culture.
Citizenship debate, thus has acquired new dimensions in the 21st century , and presents
new challenges for liberal democracies who are committed to universal human rights.
3.13 References
1) Heywood, A. (1998). Political Theor y: An Intr oduction . Palgrave
Macmillan.
2) Leydet, D. (2017). Citizenship (S tanfor d Encyclopedia of Philosophy) .
The S tanford Encyclope dia of Philosophy . https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/
citizenship/
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MODERNITY AND POST -MODERNISM
Structur e
4.1 Introduction to modernity
4.1.1 Modernism
4.1.2 The Age of Revolutions
4.1.3 Challenges to Modernism
4.2 Introduction to Postmodernism
4.2.1 Postmodernism
4.2.2 Postmodernism as a critique of Positivism
4.2.3 The Criticism against postmodernism
4.2.4 Conclusion
4.3 Deconstructionism
4.3.1 Contribution in deconstructionism
4.3.2 Phenomenology v/s Structuralism
4.4 Post-structuralism
4.4.1 Post-structuralism and structuralism
4.5 Critical Theory
4.5.1 Important scholars of Critical Theory
4.5.2 Postmodern critical social theory
4.5.3 Criticism
4.6 Summary
4.7 References
4.0 Objectives
•To understand the institutions and ways of living characteristic of Modernity
have been replaced by Post-modernism
•To understand Post-S tructuralism and critical theory in context of Post
modernism
4.1 Introduction to Modernity
The history of the Western Political thought is full of twists and turns depending
upon which era we are referring to. It all began with classical thinkers like Plato and
Aristotle of the BC era. Then from the 4th century AD, the Christian Thought dominated
for nearly a thousand years, from S t Augustine [354 AD-430 AD] to S t Thomas Aquinas
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Modernism .
It is interesting to note that the movement of Modernism began initially in the
field of art. In the history of art, the term ‘modern’ refers to period through 1860s to
1970s. The scholars of western political thought argue that the roots of modernism go
back to the middle of the 19th century . This has been a debatable issue among the
scholars as for some historians; the modern period actually began in the 16th century ,
which is normally called the ‘Early Modern Period’. They also regarded that this
period in turns extends up to the 18th century . The intellectual foundation of modernism
was laid during the Renaissance period when the study of art, poetry , philosophy and
science of ancient Greece and Rome began in earnest. Basis this study the scholars
focussed on the notion that man is the measures of all things. This study also promoted
the idea of citizenship and civic consciousness. The period gave rise to ‘utopian’ visions
of a more perfect society , beginning with Sir Thomas More’ s Utopia , written in 1516.
Here more had described a fictional island community with seemingly perfect social,
political and legal customs.
In retrospect we can recognize in Renaissance humanism an expression of
that confidence in the potential of humans to shape their own individual destinies and
the future of the world. Also present here is the belief that humans can learn to
understand nature and natural forces, and even grasp the nature of the Universe.
The modernist approach that emerged in the Renaissance began to take shape as a
larger pattern of thought in the 18th century . This era also saw a battle between the
traditional values versus modern ideas. Modern thinkers felt suffocated under the
restrictions imposed by religion, traditions and customs. This conflict introduced an
important dichotomy that became fundamental to the modernist question: the battle
between the tradition and the modern.
Enlightenment thinkers had pictured the human race as striving towards universal
moral and intellectual self-realization. It was believed that reason allowed access to
truth, and knowledge of the truth would better humankind. The vision that began to
take shape in the 18th century was of a new world, a better world. In 1762, Jean-
Jacques Rousseau, in his Inquir y into the Natur e of the Social Contract , proposed
that a new social system should rest on ‘an equality that is moral and legitimate, and
that men, who may be unequal in strength or intelligence, become every one equal by
convention and legal right.’ By joining together into civil society through the social
contract, individuals could both preserve themselves and attain freedom. These tenets
were fundamental to the notion of modernism.
The Age of Revolutions
The first great experiment in creating a new and better society was undertaken
in what was literally the new world and the new ideals were first expressed in
the Declaration of Independence of the newly founded United States in 1776. The
Declaration mentioned ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident’ and which underpins
the notion ‘that all men are created equal.’ The document further spoke of concern for
man’ s right to pursue happiness in his lifetime, which signalled a shift away from amunotes.in
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37God-centred, Christian concentration on the afterlife. Fundamental to this Declaration
was the notion of freedom; liberty which were regarded as man’ s inalienable rights.
After the American Revolution came French Revolution, 1789. It also attempted
to create a new society . Its aim was to supplant an oppressive absolute monarchy
with an aristocracy with feudal privileges, and a powerful Catholic cler gy, with new
Enlightenment principles of citizenship, nationalism, and inalienable rights. No wonder
the revolutionaries rallied to the cry of equality , fraternity , and liberty .
Unfortunately , the French Revolution failed to bring about a radically new society in
France. Several changes of regime quickly followed culminating in Napoleon’ s military
dictatorship, the establishment of the Napoleonic Empire, and finally the restoration
of the monarchy in 1814. Revolutionary activity continued, though, in 1830 and again
in 1848. Mention can be made here of a third major attempt to create a new society
along fundamentally Enlightenment lines that took place at the beginning of the 20th
century . The Russian Revolution, 1917, perhaps the most idealistic and utopian of all,
also failed.
It is in the ideals of the Enlightenment that the roots of Modernism, and the
new role of art and the artist, are to be found. Simply put, the overarching goal of
Modernism, of modern art, has been the creation of a better society .
What were the means by which this goal was to be reached? If the desire of
the 18th century was to produce a better society , how was this to be brought about?
How does one go about perfecting humankind and creating a better world?
Until recently , this concept of the role of education has remained fundamental to western
modernist thinking. Enlightened thinkers, and here might be mentioned for example
Thomas Jefferson, constantly pursued knowledge, sifting out the truth by subjecting
all they learned to reasoned analysis. Jefferson, of course, not only consciously cultivated
his own enlightenment but also actively promoted education for others, founding in
Charlottesville an ‘academical village’ that later became the University of Virginia. He
believed that the search for truth should be conducted without prejudice, and, mindful
of the Enlightenment suspicion of the Church, deliberately did not include a campus
chapel in his plans. The Church and its narrow-minded influences, he felt, should be
kept separate not only from the State but also from education.
Jefferson, like many other Enlightenment thinkers, saw a clear role for art and
architecture. Art and architecture could serve in this process of enlightenment education
by providing examples of those qualities and virtues that it was felt should guide the
enlightened mind.
In the latter half of the 18th century , the model for the ideals of the new society
was the world of ancient Rome and Greece. The Athens of Pericles and Rome of the
Republican period offered fine examples of emerging democratic principles in
government, and of heroism and virtuous action, self-sacrifice and civic dedication in
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The Moderns envisioned a world conceived anew , not one that merely imitated
ancient models. The problem for the Moderns, however , was that their new world
was something of an unknown quantity . The nature of ‘truth’ was problematical from
the outset, and their dilemma over the nature of humans who possessed not only a
rational mind open to reason but also an emotional life which had to be taken into
account.
In the 18th century , the Enlightenment witnessed the intellectual maturation of
the humanist belief in ‘reason’ as the primary guiding principle in the affairs of humans.
Through reason the mind achieved enlightenment, and for the enlightened mind, a
whole new and exciting world opened up.
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement for which the most immediate
stimulus was the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th-centuries. Scientists like
Johannes Kepler , Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton, through the application of reason
to the study of the natural world, discovered many scientific truths. More often than
not, these newfound truths based on science flew in the face of conventional beliefs,
especially those held by the Church. For example, contrary to what the Church had
maintained for centuries, the ‘truth’ was that the Earth revolved around the Sun. The
idea that ‘truth’ could be discovered through the application of reason based on the
study was quite exciting and challenged many conventional beliefs.
The open-minded 18th-century thinker believed that virtually everything could
be submitted to reason: tradition, customs, morals, and even art. But, more than this,
it was felt that the ‘truth’ revealed thereby could be applied in the political and social
spheres to ‘correct’ problems and ‘improve’ the political and social condition of
humankind. This kind of thinking quickly gave rise to the exciting possibility of creating
a new and better society .
The ‘truth’ discovered through reason would free people from the shackles of
corrupt institutions such as the Church and the monarchy whose traditional thinking
and old ideas had kept people subjugated in ignorance and superstition. The concept
of ‘freedom’ became central to the vision of a new society . Through truth and freedom,
the world would be made into a better place.
Progressive 18th-century thinkers believed that a lot of humankind would be
greatly improved through the process of enlightenment, from being shown the truth.
With reason and truth in hand, the individual would no longer be at the mercy of
religious authorities, which had constructed their own truths and manipulated them to
their own self-serving ends. At the root of this thinking was the belief in the perfectibility
of humankind. This was hailed as a triumph of modernism.
Challenges to Modernism
After the Second World War ended in 1945, the triumphalist perspective on
modernism had to face serious challenges. It was felt that the modernist had failed themunotes.in
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39world. The principles on which modernism stood, its belief in progress, human freedom,
liberty and equality came to be questioned. The frontal question was: what had been
achieved?
Though this was a pertinent question in the context of the destruction witnessed
during the Second World War, it cannot be denied that modernism had a lot to show
in terms of scientific progress, advances in education and medicine, voting rights,
inclusive politics and physical comforts. But despite this, the world had to suffer two
World wars in the early decades of the 20th century . Hence it was ar gued that modernism
has not been able to create a better world. And in the post-second world war world,
the answer was a big ‘no’.
Inter war Years
In the period between World War One [1914-1918] and World War Two
[1939-1945] progressive modernism continued to its onwards March, but now often
in association with other forces. It should be recalled how progressive artists like
Pablo Picasso actively supported the political revolution. Picasso had joined the
communist party in 1944. He was followed by many other artists. For these progressive
artists, the Russian Revolution, 1917 was a ‘dream come true event.
The Russian Revolution was perhaps the boldest attempt to create a better
society , adopting not a political democracy but an economic democracy that aimed at
achieving economic equality . Communism of fered the vision of universal freedom
predicated on the freedom of ideas.
In 1932 under Josef Stalin, this freedom was sharply curtailed and modern art
was forced to adopt a more conservative form, known as Socialist Realism. On the
other side of the political spectrum, the suppression of modernist art in favour of
propagandistic Socialist Realism also occurred in Adolf Hitler ’s Nazi Germany . Hitler ,
too, had wanted to create a new and better society , but his method [Final Solution] of
achieving it horrified the world. Whereas progressive modernism sought to improve a
lot of all humankind, the Nazis, utilizing ideas derived from social Darwinism, aimed at
establishing a superior and racially pure ‘master race’. Under this project, humans
who were considered racially inferior or were deemed medically , mentally , or physically
defective, disabled, weak, or impure, were initially targeted for euthanasia or
sterilization, but later were simply killed.
The Second World War and the Nazi Holocaust dealt a mortal blow to
modernism. It shattered the modernist dream and defiled the impulse that sustained
modern art. After the Second World War, optimism in the future was dif ficult to live
with. To make matters worse, with the advent of the Cold War and the mindless
nuclear arms race, any sort of future looked doubtful.
4.2 Introduction to Postmodernism
Scholars like Terry Eagleton summed up postmodernism as a style of thought
which is suspicious of classical notions of truth, reason, identity and objectivity , ofChapter 4 : Modernity and Post-Modernism
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single frameworks, grand narratives or ultimate grounds of explanation’ However ,
there is no one unified theory of postmodernism. Instead, it should be regarded as a
mode of interrogation that seeks to question assumptions and notions of rationality
that characterise much of social science.
At the same time, it must be understood that while postmodernism has been
highly influential in areas such as literary criticism and the study of international relations,
it has not made a huge impact on the discipline of political science. In fact, many
authors have dismissed postmodernism as irrelevant, despite the serious challenges it
poses. Nevertheless, postmodernism should not be ignored. It has questioned the
notions of progress and emancipation, attacked the philosophical position of traditional
political science and denied the possibility of objective research and emphasised the
socially constructed nature of reality . These are important contributions to a critical
approach to political science. The challenges posed by the postmodernists to orthodoxy
should not simply be dismissed.
The critique of positivism is one of the important contributions of
postmodernism. Postmodern social theorists have argued that claims to ‘objectivity
are misleading and dangerous. Their work has exposed some of the assumptions and
bias underlying supposedly objective studies. Postmodern critiques also highlight the
huge limitation of modernism: the exclusion of marginalized from traditional political
theory such as women, ethnic minorities, etc. This is why postmodernism becomes a
potent tool for feminists and others wishing to empower their own social groups.
The method of deconstruction is a final significant contribution to political
science. Deconstruction is certainly in line with postmodernism’ s suspicion of claims
of truth and objectivity .
Postmodernism emerged from the existentialist and phenomenologist
philosophies of Nietzsche, Heidegger , Husserl, etc. It is not surprising that it has many
features in common with social phenomenology and ethnomethodology , which share
some of the same philosophical precursors. Many of these aspects of phenomenology
and ethnomethodology are reflected today in postmodernist texts: the rejection of
Universalist theories, the emphasis on subjectivity , and the focus on uncovering
concealed assumptions. However , they have been developed by postmodernists in
order to interrogate language, history and culture and to question the validity of claims
to have discovered a universal ‘truth’.
A central feature of postmodern writing is scepticism towards ‘meta’ or ‘grand’
narratives, including liberalism, Marxism and other attempts to formulate a universal
political theory . These theories overlook the diversity of the social world and hold a
sceptical view of meta-narrative. This scepticism is reflected in the works of authors
such as Jacques Derrida, who criticised the totalising effect of structuralism and queried
whether meaning could really only be said to have importance within the totality of a
unified system or narrative. This critique of metanarratives is fundamental to
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41Postmodernism
The beginning can be traced to Kant’ s “Copernican revolution,” that is, his
assumption that we cannot know things in themselves and that objects of knowledge
must conform to our faculties of representation. Ideas such as God, freedom,
immortality , the world, the first beginning, and final end have only a regulative function
for knowledge since they cannot find fulfilling instances among objects of experience.
The later nineteenth century is the age of modernity as an achieved reality ,
where science and technology , including networks of mass communication and
transportation, reshape human perceptions. There is no clear distinction, then, between
the natural and the artificial experience . Indeed, many proponents of postmodernism
challenge the viability of such a distinction. A consequence of achieved modernism is
what postmodernists might refer to as de-realization. De-realization affects both the
subject and the objects of experience, such that their sense of identity , constancy , and
substance is upset or dissolved.
The term “postmodernism” first entered the philosophical lexicon in 1979,
with the publication of The Postmodern Condition by Jean-François L yotard.
Normally scholars cite the events of May 1968 [popularly known as ‘Paris Uprising’]
as a watershed moment for modern thought and its institutions, especially the
universities. There has been a very serious debate on postmodernism. Nobody suggests
that postmodernism is an attack upon modernity or a complete departure from it.
Rather , its dif ferences lie within modernity itself, and postmodernism is a continuation
of modern thinking in another mode.
The computer age has transformed knowledge into information, that is, coded
messages within a system of transmission and communication? Analysis of this
knowledge calls for pragmatics of communication insofar as the phrasing of messages,
their transmission and reception, must follow rules in order to be accepted by those
who judge them. However , as scholars have pointed out, the position of judge or
legislator is also a position within a language game, and this raises the question of
legitimation. As he insists, “there is a strict interlinkage between the kind of language
called science and the kind called ethics and politics”, and this interlinkage constitutes
the cultural perspective of the West. Science is therefore tightly interwoven with
government and administration, especially in the information age, where enormous
amounts of capital and large installations are needed for research.
Postmodernism as a critique of Positivism
Postmodernism’ s critique of positivism is a potentially important contribution
to political analysis. While most political scientists do not label themselves positivists,
they often rely implicitly upon the positivist tenets that experience is the basis of
knowledge and it is possible to reflect the world objectively , without relying upon
philosophical and theoretical assumptions
Postmodernism has done much to challenge this positivistic attitude in the social
sciences. Michel Foucault, a key postmodern thinker (although he rejected the label),
is noted for his appraisal of the social sciences. He dismissed social scientists’ claims
to objectivity and neutrality by showing how they conflated moral and legal norms intoChapter 4 : Modernity and Post-Modernism
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scientific truth. For example, Foucault asserted that crime was judged against a scientific
‘knowledge of what was normal and that punishment had come to be legitimated as
much by social science as by the legal system. Deviations from the law came to be
seen as offences against ‘objectively’ known human nature.
Specifically , Foucault expanded Nietzschean historic philosophy in order to
question beliefs and aspects of everyday life – such as madness or sexuality – thought
to be timeless. For example, in his first major work Madness and Civilization ,
Foucault argues that the modern experience of madness, rather than being grounded
in unchanging scientific fact, has its roots in the ‘Great Confinement’ of the seventeenth
century when ‘unreasonable’ members of society were placed in asylums.
Jacques Derrida advanced an equally significant critique of positivism. To
Derrida, all discourses, including supposedly scientific reports, rely on concealed
assumptions and cannot be understood without them. As with Foucault, these texts
also present a certain view of the world as objective truth. Thus, traditional status-
attainment research which defined social mobility in terms of the occupational status
of one’ s father was far from neutral: it presented a view of the social world where only
men worked or should work, and in fact misrepresented reality by ignoring women
who worked. Derrida pioneered the technique of ‘deconstruction’ in order to expose
the hidden assumptions of texts.
These critiques are valuable ways in which to interrogate the positivistic attitude
underlying much of political theory and research. Foucault and Derrida’ s contributions
to political analysis have shown that ideas, institutions and language conceal
assumptions and presuppositions about the social world, and provided methods for
exposing these assumptions. In uncovering the values and assumptions underlying
supposedly neutral research and political theory , postmodernists have greatly aided
critical analysis of political science.
Postmodernist critiques often lead to the conclusion that absolute truths cannot
be attained because all theory and research are based on subjective norms, and all
theory and research present a view of the world that is far from neutral. As above,
however , the conclusion that claims to truth are always flawed is internally inconsistent.
Rather , we should conclude from these critiques of the positivistic attitude that objective
truth is difficult to access – though not necessarily impossible – and that self-reflection
is essential if it is to be obtained.
Postmodernism condemns the exclusion of the weaker groups and seeks to
shift political science’ s focus to them. As it emphasises what a lar ge amount of political
thought takes for granted or even views as ‘common sense’ (e.g. issues of gender ,
race or sexuality), this approach has a great deal to offer critical analysis. Thus, the
postmodernist critique of the status-attainment research cited above reveals the
dominance of a male viewpoint and the mar ginalised status of women in political inquiry .
This approach has clear utility for those wishing to critique and transform the
existing political order . All critical theory is keen to tackle inequality , and it is clear thatmunotes.in
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43political research and other discourses have a part to play in making unequal power
relations seem natural. It is possible to confront these discourses within a
foundationalism framework that allows for some truths to be known about the world.
In fact, the contradictions inherent in postmodernism show that this is the only way
this task can meaningfully be undertaken. Critical analysts can learn a lot from
postmodernism’ s attempt to ‘[allow] the other to speak’.
The Criticism against postmodernism
This approach was famously dismissed by Habermas in 1981. Habermas was
concerned that postmodernism’ s rejection of modernity undermined the modern project
of emancipation. Habermas connected the postmodern rejection of grand narratives
with neoconservative attempts to link progressive ideology to extremism.
Postmodernism can thus be interpreted as a rejection of progressive politics. In
emphasising diversity , a plurality of experiences and the decline of the metanarrative,
postmodernism also reject the notion that the social sciences can provide universal,
solid foundations on which to ground political theory and action. Since this argument
has some merit, Habermas dismissal of postmodernism as a neoconservative project
has some justification.
A further criticism of this approach to grand narratives points out that the
postmodern critique of metanarratives is itself a metanarrative, and therefore ‘silenced
by the very voice that expresses it’. Postmodernism’ s suspicion of claims to truth is
founded on a similar contradiction. As Habermas has demonstrated, all communication
relies on the concept of truth, even if the speaker knows what they are saying to be
untrue. In other words, claims to truth are a necessary condition of communication
and as such, postmodern texts rely on the very condition of truth they try to deny .
However , scepticism towards metanarratives and truth claims does not have
to lead to their rejection. This element of postmodernism can be of use to critical
analysis if reasserted properly . The postmodernist approach may be seen as a way to
interrogate narrative forms of knowledge and to give voices to those who have been
excluded.
Conclusion
Postmodernism is, on the whole, problematic. What is more, postmodernism’ s
insistence on the lack of validity of truth claims is a contradiction. The critique of the
metanarrative is itself a metanarrative; the critique of notions of ‘truth’ is itself a claim
to truth. In short, postmodernism’ s scepticism makes it inconsistent and unreliable.
This does not mean that postmodernism has not made any useful contributions to
political science as a discipline. While its input has largely been ignored or dismissed,
it has the potential to greatly aid critical theory and analysis.
Postmodernism’ s first great contribution to the discipline has been its appraisal
of positivism. Postmodern theorists have exposed the hidden values, assumptions and
generalisations underpinning supposedly objective, value-free research. Theorists such
as Derrida and Foucault have shown social and political theory and research to beChapter 4 : Modernity and Post-Modernism
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founded upon subjective principles, and that this research, in turn, helps to legitimate
the existing political order . As such, postmodernist work is a valuable resource for
those wishing to critique and challenge power relations in society . Postmodernism has
also brought attention to the ‘other ’: those who are mar ginalised, ignored or repressed.
By emphasising what political theory and discourse excludes the postmodern approach
shows how unequal power relations are created and provides a way of tackling them.
This is an especially important contribution for feminists, minority groups and anyone
desiring to confront social exclusion and mar ginalisation. Finally , the postmodern
method of deconstruction has an important role to play in critique. While it does not
offer a sound basis for political action, it can aid political theory by forcing a rethink of
what the ‘political’ is and by uncovering the hidden values and assumptions mentioned
above.
To conclude, it may be said that while postmodernism may not have had a
huge impact on the discipline of political science, it has certainly made some positive
contributions. These contributions should not simply be dismissed because of the flaws
inherent in the postmodern perspective. Rather , they have much to of fer critical political
analysis, and postmodernism can teach critical theorists a great deal.
Check your progress
1. Discuss the post-modernist theory and its characteristics
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________
2.Write about positivism in critical view of Post-modernists
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________
4.3Deconstructionism
Jacques Derrida [1930-2004] is best known for developing a form of semiotic
analysis known as ‘deconstruction’. He had analysed numerous texts and developed
them in the context of phenomenology . He is one of the important scholars associated
with ‘post-structuralism’ and ‘postmodern philosophy’. During his career , Derrida
published more than 40 books and more than hundreds of essays. Derrida had
addressed ethical and political themes in his work. Some scholars consider ‘Speech
and Phenomena’ [1967] to be his most important work. His other books are ‘Of
Grammatology’ [1967], ‘W riting and Dif ference’ [1967] and ‘Mar gins of Philosophy’
[1972]. These books impacted various activists and political movements.
Derrida was born on July 15, 1930, in Algeria in a Mizrahi Jew family . He
moved to Paris in 1949. In earlier years, he was influenced by Rousseau, Nietzsche,
Gide, Camus and Sartre. In 1956 he received a scholarship to study at Harvard
University , USA. In 1966 he wrote ‘S tructure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the
Human Sciences. This gained him recognition in international circles. The same year
he published the three books mentioned above. In 1986 Derrida became Professor
of the Humanities at the University of California, Irvine, where he taught until shortlymunotes.in
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45before his death in 2004. He was a regular visiting professor at several other major
American and European universities like John Hopkins University , Yale University .
He died in a hospital in Paris on 9th October 2004.
A deconstruction is an approach to understanding the relationship between
text and meaning. It was brought into discussion by the philosopher Jacques Derrida,
a 20th-century French philosopher who wrote the book ‘Of Grammatology’ in 1967.
Derrida’ s original use of the word “deconstruction” was a translation of ‘Destruktion’,
a concept from the work of Martin Heidegger that Derrida sought to apply to textual
reading. Heidegger ’s term referred to a process of exploring the categories and
concepts that tradition has imposed on a word and the history behind them.
In its simplest form, it can be regarded as a criticism of Platonism and the idea
of true forms, or essences, which take precedence over appearances. Deconstruction
instead places the emphasis on appearance, or suggests, at least, that essence is to be
found in appearance. Deconstruction argues that language, especially ideal concepts
such as truth and justice, is quite complex and impossible to determine. To this end,
Derrida follows a long line of modern philosophers, who look backwards to Plato
and his influence on the Western metaphysical tradition. Like Nietzsche, Derrida
suspects Plato of dissimulation in the service of a political project, namely the education,
through critical reflections, of a class of citizens more strategically positioned to
influence the polis. However , like Nietzsche, Derrida is not satisfied merely with such
a political interpretation of Plato, because of the particular dilemma modern humans
find themselves in. His Platonic reflections are inseparably part of his critique of
modernity .
In his book ‘Of Grammatology’, he had spoken of the majority of ideas
influential within deconstruction. According to Derrida, language as a system of signs
and words only has meaning because of the contrast between these signs. W ords
have meaning only because of contrast ef fects with other words. A concept, then,
must be understood in the context of its opposite. For example, the word “being”
does not have meaning without contrast with the word “nothing”. It also means, meaning
is never present, but rather is deferred to other signs. Derrida refers to this as
‘metaphysic of presence. When one of the two terms governs the other or has the
upper hand, for example, ‘signified’ over ‘signifier ’, ’intelligible’ over ‘sensible’,
‘speech’ over ‘writing’, etc. The first task of deconstruction is to find and overturn
these oppositions inside text. But the final objective of deconstruction is not to surpass
all oppositions, because it is assumed they are structurally necessary to produce sense-
the oppositions simply cannot be suspended once and for all, as the hierarchy of dual
oppositions always re-establishes itself as it is necessary to mean. Deconstruction
only points to the necessity of an unending analysis that can make explicit the decisions
and hierarchies intrinsic to all texts.
Derrida further argues that it is not enough to expose and deconstruct the way
oppositions work and then stop there in a nihilistic or cynical position. T o be ef fective,
deconstruction needs to create new terms, not to synthesize the concepts in opposition,Chapter 4 : Modernity and Post-Modernism
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but to mark their dif ference and eternal interplay . This explains why Derrida always
proposes new terms in his deconstruction, not as a free play but from the necessity of
analysis. Derrida called these ‘undecidable’ as they are “false verbal properties” that
can no longer be included within philosophical binary opposition. Instead, they inhabit
philosophical oppositions, resisting and organizing them, without ever constituting a
third term or leaving room for a solution in the form of a ‘Hegelian Dialectic’.
Contribution in deconstructionism:
Derrida referred to himself as a historian. He questioned assumptions of
the W estern philosophical tradition and also Western culture. He called his challenge
to the assumptions of Western culture ”Deconstruction” On some occasions, Derrida
referred to deconstruction as a radicalization of a certain spirit of Marxism.
With his detailed readings of classical western philosophy , Derrida frequently
argued that Western philosophy has uncritically allowed metaphorical depth models] to
govern its conception of language and consciousness. He sees these unacknowledged
assumptions as part of a “metaphysics of presence” to which philosophy has bound
itself. Derrida argues, this creates “marked” or hierarchized binary oppositions that
have an ef fect on everything from our conception of speech’ s relation to writing to our
understanding of racial difference. Deconstruction is an attempt to expose and undermine
such “metaphysics.”
Derrida approaches texts as constructed around binary oppositions which all
speech has to articulate if it intends to make any sense. This approach to the text is, in
a broad sense, influenced by the semiology of Ferdinand de Saussure who is considered
to be one of the fathers of ‘structuralism’, posited that term, get their meaning in
reciprocal determination with other terms inside language.
Phenomenology v/s S tructuralism
In the early 1960s, Derrida began speaking and writing publicly . One of the
subjects on which he spoke was the new and increasingly fashionable movement of
structuralism, which was being widely favoured as the successor to the
phenomenology approach, which had been started by Husserl sixty years earlier .
Phenomenology , as envisioned by Husserl, is a method of philosophical inquiry that
rejects the rationalist bias that has dominated Western thought since Plato in favour of
a method of reflective attentiveness that discloses the individual’ s “lived experience”.
Derrida’ s method consisted of demonstrating the forms and varieties of this ordinary
complexity , and their multiple consequences in many fields. He achieved this by
conducting thorough, careful, sensitive, and yet transformational readings of
philosophical and literary texts, to determine what aspects of those texts run counter
to their apparent systematicity or intended sense. Derrida hoped to show the infinitely
subtle ways in which this originary complexity , which by definition cannot ever be
completely known, works its structuring and de-structuring effects.
On several occasions, Derrida has acknowledged his debt to Husserl and
Heidegger and stated that without them he would not have said a single word. Amongmunotes.in
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47the questions asked in various essays are “What is ‘meaning’, what are its historical
relationships to what is purportedly identified under the rubric ‘voice’ as a value of
presence, presence of the object, presence of meaning to consciousness, self-presence
in so-called living speech and in self-consciousness?
The collection of three books published in 1967 elaborated Derrida’ s theoretical
framework. Derrida approached the very heart of the W estern intellectual tradition,
characterizing this tradition as “a search for a transcendental being that serves as the
origin of meaning”. He contributed to “the understanding of certain deeply hidden
philosophical presuppositions and prejudices in W estern Culture, ar guing that the whole
philosophical tradition rests on arbitrary dichotomous categories such as sacred/
profane, mind/body . Any text contains implicit hierarchies, “by which an order is
imposed on reality and by which a subtle repression is exercised, as these hierarchies
exclude, subordinate, and hide the various potential meanings.”
Some scholars ar gued that in the 1990s Derrida’ s work took a political turn.
To support this observation, ‘Force of Law’ [1990], ‘Spectres of Marx’ [1994] and
‘Politics of Friendship’ [1994] are quoted.
Check your progress
1. Write about deconstruction theory and its contribution?
___________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4.4Post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical, theoretical and literary forms of
theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism. Though
there are many critiques of structuralism, common themes among them include the
rejection of the self-sufficiency of structuralism, as well as an interrogation of the binary
oppositions that constitute its structures. Accordingly , post-structuralism discards the
idea of interpreting media (or the world) within pre-established, socially constructed
structures.
Structuralism proposes that one may understand human culture by means of
a structure modelled on ‘language’, and this understanding differs from
concrete ‘reality’ and from abstract ‘ideas’ by proposing, instead, a “ third-order ” that
mediates between the two. On the other hand, a post-Structuralist critique might suggest
that to build meaning out of such an interpretation, one must (falsely) assume that the
definitions of these signs are both valid and fixed and that the author employing
structuralist theory is somehow above and apart from these structures they are
describing so as to be able to wholly appreciate them. The rigidity , tendency to
categorize, and intimation of universal truths found in structuralist thinking is then a
common target of post-structuralist thought, while also building upon structuralist
conceptions of reality mediated by the interrelationship between signs.Chapter 4 : Modernity and Post-Modernism
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Writers whose works are often characterised as Post-S tructuralist are Roland
Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Judith Butler , Jean
Baudrillard and Julia Kristeva. Though many theorists who have been called ‘ post-
structuralist later rejected this label.
Background
Post-structuralism emerged in France during the 1960s as a movement
critiquing structuralism. According to J G Mer guior , a love-hate relationship with
structuralism developed among many leading thinkers in the 1960s. The period was
marked by the rebellion of students and workers against the state on 2nd May 1968,
which in popularly known as the ‘Paris Uprising’. In a 1966 lecture titled ‘Structure,
Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences’, Derrida presented a thesis on
an apparent rupture in intellectual life. Derrida interpreted this event as a “decentering”
of the former intellectual cosmos. Instead of progress or divergence from an identified
centre, Derrida described this “event” as a kind of “play .”
A year later , Roland Barthes published ‘The Death of the Author”, in which he
announced a metaphorical event: the “death” of the author as an authentic source of
meaning for a given text. Barthes argued that any literary text has multiple meanings
and that the author was not the prime source of the work’ s semantic content. The
“Death of the Author ,” Barthes maintained, was the “Birth of the Reader ,” as the
source of the proliferation of meanings of the text.
Poststructuralism encourages a way of looking at the world that challenges
what comes to be accepted as ‘truth’ and ‘knowledge’. Poststructuralists always call
into question how certain accepted ‘facts’ and ‘beliefs’ actually work to reinforce the
dominance and power of particular actors within international relations. The post-
structuralists believe that language is key when seeking to explain the social world.
They argue that there is no reality external to the language we use.
Post-structuralism and structuralism
Structuralism is an intellectual movement in France in the 1950s and 1960s. It
studied underlying structures in cultural products [such as texts] and used analytical
concepts from linguistics, psychology , anthropology and other fields to interpret those
structures. Structuralism posits the concept of binary opposition, in which frequently-
used pairs of opposite but related words (concepts) are often arranged in a hierarchy .
For example: enlightenment/Romantic, male/female, speech/writing, rational/emotional,
signified/signifier , symbolic/imaginary .
Post-structuralism rejects the structuralist notion that the dominant word in a
pair is dependent on its subservient counterpart. Poststructuralism argues that founding
knowledge either on pure experience [phenomenology] or on systematic structures
(structuralism) is impossible. This is because history and culture condition the study of
underlying structures and these are subject to biases and misinterpretations. Gilles
Deleuze and others saw this impossibility not as a failure or loss, but rather as a cause
for “celebration and liberation.” A post-structuralist approach argues that to understand
an object (a text, for example), one must study both the object itself and the systems of
knowledge that produced the object. The uncertain boundaries between structuralismmunotes.in
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49and post-structuralism become further blurred by the fact that scholars rarely label
themselves as post-structuralists. Some scholars associated with structuralism, such
as Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault also became noteworthy in post-structuralism.
Criticism
Many scholars raised serious objections to post-structuralism. Some observers
from outside the post-structuralist camp have questioned the rigour and legitimacy of
the field. American philosopher John Searle suggested in 1990: “The spread of
‘poststructuralist’ literacy theory is perhaps the best-known example of a silly but
non-catastrophic phenomenon.” Similarly , physicist Alan Sokar in 1997 criticized “the
postmodernist/poststructuralist gibberish that is now hegemonic in some sectors of
the American academy .”
Literature scholar Norman Holland in 1992 saw post-structuralism as flawed due to
reliance on Saussure’ s linguistic model, which was seriously challenged by the 1950s
and was soon abandoned by linguists. David Foster Wallace wrote “The
deconstructionists (“deconstructionist” and “poststructuralist” mean the same thing,
by the way: “poststructuralist” is what you call a deconstructionist who doesn’t want
to be called a deconstructionist) ... see the debate over the ownership of meaning as
a skirmish in a lar ger war in Western philosophy over the idea that presence and unity
are ontologically prior to expression. There’ s been this longstanding deluded
presumption, they think, that if there is an utterance then there must exist a unified,
efficacious presence that causes and owns that utterance. The poststructuralists attack
what they see as a post-Platonic prejudice in favour of presence over absence and
speech over writing. We tend to trust speech over writing because of the immediacy
of the speaker: he’ s right there, and we can grab him by the lapels and look into his
face and figure out just exactly what one single thing he means. But the reason why
poststructuralists are in the literary theory business at all is that they see writing, not
speech, as more faithful to the metaphysics of true expression. For Barthes, Derrida,
and Foucault, writing is a better animal than speech because it is iterable; it is iterable
because it is abstract , and it is abstract because it is a function not of presence but of
absence: the reader ’s absent when the writer ’s writing and the writer ’s absent when
the reader ’s reading.
Check your progress
1.Discuss the Post-structural theory comparing structuralism?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________
4.5 Critical Theory
Critical theory is a Marxist approach to social philosophy that focuses on
reflective assessment and critique of society and culture in order to reveal and challenge
the power structures. It is a social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing
society as a whole. It aims to dig beneath the surface of social life and uncover the
assumptions that keep human beings from a full and true understanding of how theChapter 4 : Modernity and Post-Modernism
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world works. It teaches that knowledge is power . This means that understanding the
ways one is oppressed enables one to take action to change oppressive
forces. Critical social science makes a conscious attempt to fuse theory and action.
Easily identifiable examples of critical approaches are Marxism, postmodernism, and
feminism. These critical theories expose and challenge the communication of dominant
social, economic, and political structures.
Critical theory has origins in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that
social problems are influenced and created more by social structures and cultural
assumptions than by individual and psychological factors. It further maintains
that ideology is the principal obstacle to human liberation. The critical theory was
established as a school thought primarily by the Frankfurt school theoreticians like
Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, and Max
Horkheimer . Horkheimer described a theory as critical as it seeks “to liberate human
beings from the circumstances that enslave them.”
In sociology and political philosophy , “Critical Theory” means the Western-Marxist
philosophy of the Frankfurt school, developed in Germany in the 1930s and drawing
on the ideas of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud.
Modern critical theory has also been influenced by Gyor gv Lukacs and Antonio
Gramsci as well as second-generation Frankfurt School scholars, notably Jurgen
Habermas. In Habermas’ s work, critical theory transcended its theoretical roots
in German idealism and progressed closer to American pragmatism. Concern for social
“ base and superstructure” is one of the remaining Marxist philosophical concepts in
much contemporary critical theory .
Postmodern critical theory analyses the fragmentation of cultural identities in order to
challenge modernist-era constructs such as metanarratives, rationality and universal
truths, while politicizing social problems “by situating them in historical and cultural
contexts, to implicate themselves in the process of collecting and analysing data, and
to relativize their findings.”
Overview
Max Horkheimer first defined critical theory in his 1937 essay “T raditional
and Critical Theory”, as a social theory oriented toward critiquing and
changing society as a whole. This was in contrast to traditional theory oriented only
toward understanding or explaining it. Wanting to distinguish critical theory as a radical,
emancipatory form of Marxist philosophy , Horkheimer critiqued both the model of
science put forward by logical positivism and what he and his colleagues saw as covert
positivism and authoritarian of orthodox Marxism and Communism. The critical theory
involves a normative dimension, either by criticizing society in terms of some general
theory of values or norms or by criticizing society in terms of its own espoused values.
Kant and Marx
This version of “critical” theory derives from the use of the
term ‘critique’ by Immanuel Kant in his ‘Critique of Pure Reason and from Marx, on
the premise that Das Kapital is a “critique of political economy”.Chapter 4 : Modernity and Post-Modernism
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51In Kant’ s transcendental idealism, ‘critique’ means examining and establishing
the limits of the validity of a faculty , type, or body of knowledge, especially by
accounting for the limitations of that knowledge system’ s fundamental, irreducible
concepts. Kant’ s notion of critique has been associated with the overturning of false,
unprovable, or dogmatic philosophical, social, and political beliefs. His critique of
reason involved the critique of dogmatic theological and metaphysical ideas and was
intertwined with the enhancement of ethical autonomy and the Enlightenment critique
of superstition and irrational authority . Ignored by many in “critical realist” circles is
that Kant’ s immediate impetus for writing Critique of Pur e Reason was to address
problems raised by David Hume’ s sceptical empiricism which, in attacking metaphysics,
employed reason and logic to argue against the wisdom of the world and common
notions of causation. On the other hand, Kant pushed the employment of ‘a
priori’ metaphysical claims as requisite, for if anything is to be said to be knowable, it
would have to be established upon abstractions distinct from perceivable phenomena.
Marx explicitly developed the notion of critique into the ‘critique of ideology’,
linking it with the practice of social revolution, as stated in the 1 1th section of his ‘Theses
on Feuerbach’: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways;
the point is to change it.”
Important scholars of Critical Theory:
Adorno and Horkheimer
One of the distinguishing characteristics of critical theory , as Theodor W Adorno
and Max Horkheimer , elaborated in their ‘Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), is an
ambivalence about the ultimate source or foundation of social domination, an ambivalence
that gave rise to the “pessimism” of the new critical theory about the possibility of human
emancipation and freedom. This ambivalence was rooted in the historical circumstances
in which the work was originally produced, particularly the rise of Nazism, state capitalism
and culture industry as entirely new forms of social domination that could not be adequately
explained in the terms of traditional Marxist sociology .
For Adorno and Horkheimer , ‘state intervention’ in the economy had ef fectively
abolished the traditional tension between Marxism’ s “relations of production” and
“material productive forces” of society . The market had been replaced by centralized
planning.
Contrary to Marx’ s prediction in the Preface to a Contribution to the Critique
of Political Economy , this shift did not lead to “an era of social revolution” but to
fascism and totalitarianism. As such, critical theory was left, in Habermas’ s words,
without “anything in reserve to which it might appeal, and when the forces of production
enter into a baneful symbiosis with the relations of production that they were supposed
to blow wide open, there is no longer any dynamism upon which critique could base
its hope.” For Adorno and Horkheimer , this posed the problem of how to account for
the apparent persistence of domination in the absence of the very contradiction that,
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Habermas
In the 1960s, Habermas, a proponent of critical social theory raised
the epistemological discussion to a new level in his ‘Knowledge and Human Interests’
(1968), by identifying critical knowledge as based on principles that differentiated it
either from the natural sciences or the humanities, through its orientation to self-
reflection and emancipation. Although unsatisfied with Adorno and Horkheimer ’s
thought in ‘Dialectic of Enlightenment , Habermas shares the view that, in the form
of instrumental rationality , the era of modernity marks a move away from the liberation
of enlightenment and toward a new form of enslavement. In Habermas’ s work, critical
theory transcended its theoretical roots in German Idealism and progressed closer to
American pragmatism.
Habermas’ s ideas about the relationship between modernity
and rationalization are in this sense strongly influenced by Max Weber. He further
dissolved the elements of critical theory derived from Hegelian German Idealism, though
his epistemology remains broadly Marxist. Perhaps his two most influential ideas are
the concepts of the public sphere and communicative action, the latter arriving partly
as a reaction to new post-structural or so-called “postmodern” challenges to the
discourse of modernity . Habermas engaged in regular correspondence with Richard
Rorty , and a strong sense of philosophical pragmatism may be felt in his thought, which
frequently traverses the boundaries between sociology and philosophy .
Postmodern critical social theory
Focusing on language, symbolism, communication, and social construction,
critical theory has been applied in the social sciences as a critique of social construction
and postmodern society .
While modernist critical theory concerns itself with “forms of authority and
injustice that accompanied the evolution of industrial and corporate capitalism as
a political-economic system”, postmodern critical theory politicizes social problems
“by situating them in historical and cultural contexts, to implicate themselves in the
process of collecting and analysing data, and to relativize their findings.” Meaning
itself is seen as unstable due to social structures’ rapid transformation. As a result,
research focuses on local manifestations rather than broad generalizations.
Postmodern critical research is also characterized by the crisis of
representation , which rejects the idea that a researcher ’s work is an “objective
depiction of a stable other .” Instead, many postmodern scholars have adopted
“alternatives that encourage reflection about the ‘politics and poetics’ of their work.
In these accounts, the embodied, collaborative, dialogic, and improvisational aspects
of qualitative research are clarified.”
The term critical theory is often appropriated when an author works in
sociological terms, yet attacks the social or human sciences, thus attempting to remain
“outside” those frames of inquiry . Michel Foucault has been described as one such
author . Jean Baudrillard has also been described as a critical theorist to the extent that
he was an unconventional and critical sociologist; this appropriation is similarly casual,Chapter 4 : Modernity and Post-Modernism
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53holding little or no relation to the Frankfurt School. In contrast, Habermas is one of
the key critics of postmodernism.
Communication studies
From the 1960s and 1970s onward, language, symbolism, text, and meaning
came to be seen as the theoretical foundation for the humanities, through the influence
of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ferdinand de Saussure, Geor ge Herbert Mead, Noam
Chomsky , Ronald Barthes, Jacques Derrida and other thinkers in linguistic and analytic
philosophy , structural linguistics, symbolic interactionism, hermeneutics, semiology ,
linguistically oriented psychoanalysis and deconstruction.
When, in the 1970s and 1980s, Habermas redefined critical social theory as
a study of communication, with communicative competence and communicative
rationality on the one hand, and distorted communication on the other , the two versions
of critical theory began to overlap to a much greater degree than before.
Pedagogy
Critical theorists have widely credited Paulo Freire for the first applications of
critical theory to education/pedagogy , considering his best-known work to
be ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, a seminal text is now known as the philosophy and
social movement of ‘critical pedagogy . Dedicated to the oppressed and based on
their experiences helping Brazilian adults learn to read and write, Freire includes a
detailed Marxist class analysis in his exploration of the relationship between the
colonizer and the colonized. In the book, he calls traditional pedagogy the “banking
model of education”, because it treats the student as an empty vessel to be filled with
knowledge. He argues that pedagogy should instead treat the learner as a co-creator
of knowledge.
In contrast to the banking model, the teacher in the critical-theory model is
not the dispenser of all knowledge, but a participant who learns with and from the
students—in conversation with them, even as they learn from the teacher . The goal is
to liberate the learner from an oppressive construct of teacher versus student, a
dichotomy analogous to the colonizer and colonized. It is not enough for the student
to analyse societal power structures and hierarchies, to merely recognize imbalance
and inequity; critical theory pedagogy must also empower the learner to reflect and
act on that reflection to challenge an oppressive status quo.
4.6Criticism
While critical theorists have often been called Marxist intellectuals, their
tendency to denounce some Marxist concepts and to combine Marxian analysis with
other sociological and philosophical traditions has resulted in accusations of
revisionism by classical, orthodox and analytical Marxists and by Marxist-
Leninist philosophers. Martin Jay has said that the first generation of critical theory is
best understood not as promoting a specific philosophical agenda or ideology , but as
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54POLITICAL THEOR Y
Critical theory has been criticized for not offering any clear road map to political action,
often explicitly repudiating any solutions. A primary criticism of the theory is that it is anti-
scientific, both for its lack of the use of the scientific method and for its assertion that
science is a tool used for the oppression of marginalized groups of people.
Check your progress
1.Discuss the Critical theory in view of Kant and Marx
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4.7 Summary
Modernity is the term used by sociologists to describe the “modern” period
which began in Europe several hundred years ago. Some of the key features of
modern societies are:
Economic production is industrial and capitalist, with social class as the main form of
social division.
The growth of cities, or urbanisation. During the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries
thousands of people moved to cities to find work and make their homes.
A powerful central government and administration, known as a bureaucratic state. Local
and central government have played an ever-increasing part in our lives, the
development of compulsory education, public housing and the welfare state for example.
People’ s knowledge is derived from scientific and rational thinking rather than religious
faith, magic or superstition.
Post-modernism is a term that refers to new ways of thinking about thought. Post-
modernists believe that knowledge itself needs to be understood in a different way to
modernist’ s sociologists such as Functionalists and Marxists.
Critical theory has origins in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social
problems are influenced and created more by social structures and cultural
assumptions than by individual and psychological factors.
References
• turner , B. (1990). Theories of Modernity and Postmodernity . London: SAGE
Publications.
• Rush, Fred, The Cambridge Companion to Critical Theory , Cambridge
University Press,
• Cambridge, 2004.
• Lyon, David, Postmodernity , Second Edition, Open University , Buckingham,
1999.
• Hoy, David Couzens, and McCarthy , Thomas, Critical Theory , Blackwell,
Oxford, 1995.
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