From “Holocaust” to “Rational Choice”: Generational Change in Political Science

Abstract

David Walsh has demonstrated a unique gift for reading modernity sympathetically, for discerning within it a certain luminosity, in fact a distinctly Christian luminosity, without losing sight of modernity's darkest possibilities. In the magisterial concluding volume of his trilogy, he seeks to elaborate a “coherence” of modernity that is revealed not in concepts but only “through existence itself.” Finally, though, Walsh's enthusiasm for a purely open and therefore purely formal understanding of practical existence, articulated through brilliant, original, and remarkably comprehensive readings of the greatest authors of the continental tradition, seems to me to draw him very far away indeed from actual moral and political practice, and thus from the reality of our human condition. A truer and more truly “performative” attention to “the nature of practice itself” would be less inclined to praise pure freedom or openness and more solicitous of the actual horizons of common worlds, including implicit metaphysical and hierarchical elements.     

Feature Reviews

Abstract

Rosanvallon, Pierre; trans. Barbara Harshav The New Social Question: Rethinking the Welfare State Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 139 pp. + xii. $22.95, ISBN 0-691-01640-2. Publication Date: 2000

UNITED STATES. Politics and Public Policy: Perry, Michael J. We the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court. New York: Oxford University Press. 288 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-19-512362-X

Bamberger, Michael A. Reckless Legislation: How Lawmakers Ignore the Constitution. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 233 pp., $32.00, ISBN 0-8135-2732-5 Publication Date: January 2000

Wolbrecht, Christina. The Politics of Women's Rights. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 241 pp., $55.00 cloth, $17.95 paper ISBN 0-691-04856-8 cloth ISBN 0-691-04857-6 paper Publication Date: September 2000

Ledeen, Michael A. Tocqueville on American Character. New York: St. Martin's Press. 229 pp., $23.95, ISBN 0-312-25231-5 Publication Date: July 2000

Shaiko, Ronald G. Voices and Echoes for the Environment: Public Interest Representation in the 1990s and Beyond. New York: Columbia University Press. 300 pp., $49.50 cloth, $21.00 paper ISBN 0-231-11354-4 cloth ISBN 0-231-11355-2 paper Publication Date: January 1999

Burke, Sheila; Eric R. Kingson; and Uwe E. Reinhardt, eds. Social Security and Medicare: Individual versus Collective Risk and Responsibility. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 218 pp., $20.95 paper ISBN 0-8157-1283-9 paper Publication Date: April 2000

Karabell, Zachary. The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 308 pp., $27.50, ISBN 0-375-40086-9 Publication Date: April 2000

Pratt, Richard C., with Zachary Smith. Hawai'i Politics and Government: An American State in a Pacific World. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 310 pp., $57.50 cloth, $27.50 paper ISBN 0-8032-3724-3 cloth ISBN 0-8032-8750-X paper Publication Date: February 2000

Thurber, James A.; Candice J. Nelson; and David A. Dulio, eds. Crowded Airwaves: Campaign Advertising in Elections. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 187 pp., $39.95 cloth, $16.95 paper ISBN 0-8157-8456-2 cloth ISBN 0-8157-8455-4 paper Publication Date: July 2000

Stephenson, Donald Grier, Jr. Campaigns and the Court: The U.S. Supreme Court in Presidential Elections. New York: Columbia University Press. 363 pp., $49.50 cloth, $19.50 paper ISBN 0-231-10034-5 cloth ISBN 0-231-10035-3 paper Publication Date: May 1999

Craycraft, Kenneth R. The American Myth of Religious Freedom. Dallas, TX: Spence Publishing Company. 202 pp., $27.95, ISBN 1-890626-13-9 Publication Date: May 1999

Lammers, William W., and Michael A. Genovese. The Presidency and Domestic Policy: Comparing Leadership Styles, FDR to Clinton. Washington, DC: CQ Press. 383 pp., $38.95 cloth, $28.95 paper ISBN 1-56802-125-9 cloth ISBN 1-56802-124-0 paper Publication Date: 2000

Dollinger, Marc. Quest for Inclusion: Jews and Liberalism in Modern America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 288 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-691-00509-5 Publication Date: July 2000

Spitzer, Robert J., ed. Politics and Constitutionalism: The Louis Fisher Connection. Albany: SUNY Press. 285 pp., $57.59 cloth, $18.95 paper ISBN 0-7914-4639-5 cloth ISBN 0-7914-4640-9 paper Publication Date: June 2000

Powe, Lucas A., Jr. The Warren Court and American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press/Belknap Press. 566 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-674-00095-1 Publication Date: March 2000

Popkin, William D. Statutes in Court: The History and Theory of Statutory Interpretation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 340 pp., $54.95, ISBN 0-8223-2328-1 Publication Date: September 1999

UNITED STATES. Foreign Policy and National Security: Haass, Richard N., and Meghan L. O'Sullivan, eds. Honey and Vinegar: Incentives, Sanctions, and Foreign Policy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 212 pp., $39.95 cloth, $16.95 paper ISBN 0-8157-3356-9 cloth ISBN 0-0157-3355-0 paper Publication Date: September 2000

O'Hanlon, Michael. Technological Change and the Future of Warfare. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 208 pp., $42.95 cloth, $17.05 paper ISBN 0-8157-6440-5 cloth ISBN 0-8157-6439-1 paper Publication Date: 2000

Deitchman, Seymour J. On Being a Superpower: And Not Knowing What to Do about It. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 350 pp., $32.00, ISBN 0-8133-6775-1 Publication Date: February 2000

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA: Frieden, Jeffrey; Manuel Pastor Jr.; and Michael Tornz, eds. Modern Political Economy and Latin America: Theory and Policy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 348 pp., $65.00 cloth, $24.00 paper ISBN 0-8133-2417-3 cloth ISBN 0-8133-2418-1 paper Publication Date: May 2000

Crisp, Brian F. Democratic Institutional Design: The Powers and Incentives of Venezuelan Politicians and Interest Groups. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 274 pp., $55.00, ISBN 0-8047-3370-0 cloth Publication Date: July 2000

López-Alves, Fernando. State Formation and Democracy in Latin America, 1810-1900. Durham, NC; Duke University Press. 295 pp., $49.45 cloth, $17.95 paper ISBN 0-8223-2450-4 cloth ISBN 0-8223-2474-1 paper Publication Date: March 2000

EUROPE/COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES: Mayer, Arno J. The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 705 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-691-04897-5 Publication Date: May 2000

Deák, Istvan; Jan T. Gross; and Tony Judt, eds. The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 337 pp. + xii, $65.00 cloth, $19.95 paper ISBN 0-691-00953-8 cloth ISBN 0-691-00954-6 paper Publication Date: May 2000

Tiersky, Ronald. Europe Today: National Politics, European Integration, and European Security. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield 492 pp. + x, $25.95 paper ISBN 0-8476-8591-8 paper Publication Date: 1999

AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST: Cobban, Helena. The Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks: 1991-1996 and Beyond. Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press. 235 pp., + xiii, $19.95 paper ISBN 1-878379-98-4 paper Publication Date: December 1999

Hartman, David. Israelis and the Jewish Tradition: An Ancient People Debating Its Future. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 192 pp., $18.50, ISBN 0-300-08378-5 Publication Date: October 2000

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: Dittmer, Lowell; Haruhiro Fukui; and Peter N. S. Lee, eds. Informal Politics in East Asia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 308 pp., $59.95 cloth, $19.95 paper ISBN 0-521-64232-9 cloth ISBN 0-521-64538-7 paper Publication Date: July 2000

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, LAW AND ORGANIZATION: Boyle, Francis Anthony. Foundations of World Order: The Legalist Approach to International Relations, 1898-1922. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 220 pp., $54.95 cloth, $18.95 paper ISBN 0-8223-2327-3 cloth ISBN 0-8223-2364-8 paper Publication Date: August 1999

THEORY AND METHODOLOGY: Anderson, John C. Why Lawyers Derail Justice: Probing the Roots of Legal Injustices. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 236 pp. + xii, $40.00 cloth, $18.95 paper ISBN 0-271-01842-9 cloth ISBN 0-271-01843-7 paper Publication Date: January 1999

Engeman, Thomas S., ed. Thomas Jefferson and the Politics of Nature. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. 218 pp., $17.00 paper ISBN 0-268-04211-X paper Publication Date: June 2000: Browning, Gary K. Hegel and the History of Political Philosophy. New York: St. Martin's Press. 185 pp., $59.95, ISBN 0-312-22023-5 Publication Date: May 1999

Voegelin, Eric; ed. Gilbert Weiss; trans. Ruth Hein. Collected Works, Vol. 4: The Authoritarian State: An Essay on the Problem of the Austrian State. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. 396 pp., $39.95, ISBN 0-8262-1235-2 Publication Date: May 1999

Cliffe, Lionel; Maureen Ramsey; and David Bartlett. The Politics of Lying: Implications for Democracy. New York: St. Martin's Press 236 pp., $45.00, ISBN 0-312-23139-3 Publication Date: May 2000

Slomp, Gabriella. Thomas Hobbes and the Political Philosophy of Glory. New York: St. Martin's Press. 194 pp., $65.00, ISBN 0-312-23419-8 Publication Date: March 2000

Eisenstadt, S. N. Paradoxes of Democracy: Fragility, Continuity, and Change. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center. Press/Johns Hopkins University Press 120 pp., $29.95, ISBN 0-8018-6309-0 Publication Date: September 1999

Newell, Waller R. Ruling Passion: The Erotics of Statecraft in Platonic Political Philosophy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield 288 pp., $70.00 cloth, $24.95 paper ISBN 0-8476-9726-6 cloth ISBN 0-8476-9727-4 paper Publication Date: June 2000

GENERAL: Becker, Ted, and Christa Daryl Slaton. The Future of Teledemocracy. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. 230 pp., $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper ISBN 0-275-96632-1 cloth ISBN 0-275-97090-6 paper Publication Date: June 2000

Sparrow, Malcolm K. The Regulatory Craft: Controlling Risks, Solving Problems, and Managing Compliance. Washington, DC: Council for Excellence in Government/Brookings Institution Press. 314 pp., $20.95 paper ISBN 0-8157-8065-6 paper Publication Date: July 2000

Dunn, Seth. Micropower: The Next Electrical Era. Washington, DC: World Watch Institute. 94 pp., $5.00 paper ISBN 1-878071-53-X paper Publication Date: July 2000

Morton, F. L., and Rainer Knopff. The Charter Revolution and the Court Party. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press. 227 pp., $19.95 paper ISBN 1-55111-089-X paper Publication Date: January 2000     

东亚大城市的大饭店历史沿革、现代发展及其城市功能

本文叙述了东亚大城市中的大饭店的历史沿革和现代化发展过程,着重分析了大饭店在城市中的表现形态和功能特色,并进一步探讨现代大饭店与城市现代化发展的相互适应和相互促进的紧密关系。文章着重介绍中国大陆的大饭店,并同日本,南韩的大饭店进行了对比研究。     

都市现代性的性别地理——女性主义地理学的史前史与未来方向

运用历史地理唯物主义和女性主义地理学视角,建立奥斯曼在19世纪巴黎“创造性破坏”的城市规划和空间生产,与第一波女权运动的知识联结,推导女性主义地理学的史前史及其未来方向。研究发现,巴黎都市现代性的形成,使性别问题一开始就与阶级问题构成交叉关系;表现为“城-郊”二元结构及其在家庭私人空间、城市公共空间、拱廊街为代表的阈限空间等展现出来的有关资产阶级沙龙女性、工人阶级贫困女性和都市漫游者的三种不同形态的性别地理,以及表征主义和革命行动的两种性别政治。都市现代性的性别地理研究,为反思生物本质主义的性别体制、关注“后人类”未来基于赛博格、数字媒介城市和星球城市化的人地关系的性别研究,提供了未来方向。     

自我的觉醒:彼特拉克与现代性

自布克哈特在《意大利文艺复兴时期的文化》中首次提出彼特拉克是"第一个现代人"后,引发学术界关于彼特拉克是"现代人"抑或中世纪人的激烈争论。身处中世纪与文艺复兴新旧交替以及"现代人"与旧有传统矛盾的历史时期,作为文艺复兴之父的彼特拉克首当其冲地经历了这场巨变。在经历青年、中年和老年的三场觉醒后,彼特拉克意识到自己需要摆脱过去与未来之纠缠,在新旧的断裂带中寻找突破时间限制的夹缝,让自己的作品在时间的洪流中保持永恒的鲜活。     

Yaḥyā Dawlatābādī’s Contribution to Persian Poetic Modernity

In 1912, Ya?yā Dawlatābādī composed two poems, the form of which diverged greatly from the canonical rules of tradition. Both poems were based on syllabic meters. Critics and historians of modern Persian literature have given these poems little consideration, and discussed them merely from the point of view of metrics. When compared to the great modernist endeavors in the poetry of the time, these pieces were judged severely, or altogether disavowed. This paper aims to show that, beyond mere metrical audacity, Ya?yā Dawlatābādī’s syllabic poems were in fact innovative. As the article argues, they were born out of the same quest for fresh poetic forms that induced contemporaneous modernists to create new, individualized poetic patterns.     

4. REASON,AGENCY, AND HISTORY: REMARKS ON KANT AND BENJAMIN

This essay begins by determining the nature of Richard Eldridge's project. Referring mainly to writings by Immanuel Kant and Walter Benjamin, I view his attempt as considering what it involves to be an agent in a historical setting. According to Eldridge, the correct answer will have to involve the right combination of Kant's emphasis on rational self‐determination and Benjamin's account of spontaneous (yet nonrational) self‐transformation. In response to this answer, I suggest that Benjamin's view may not easily lend itself to being made compatible with Kantian thinking. In particular, Benjamin's effort to think experience in terms that do not make any reference to rational self‐determination must be viewed as deeply foreign to Kant's project. I also argue that Kant's third Critique, in particular its conception of reflective judgment, could have provided Eldridge with a view of agency and experience that does not deviate substantially from Kant's project elsewhere. At the end of the essay, I argue that the duality we find in Eldridge's exposition should be viewed as not only related to individuals but to society in general. An attempt to resolve it must involve reflection on how historically constituted social forms create such stark oppositions between reason and its other.     

‘The final decision is with the patient’: reproductive modernity and preferences for non-hormonal and non-biomedical contraceptives among postpartum middle class women in Yogyakarta,Indonesia

In Indonesia fertility has plateaued for more than a decade. Over the same period Indonesian women have increasingly accessed contraception via the private sector. Our qualitative inquiry into the contraceptive preferences of middle class women in urban Yogyakarta revealed limited interest in and intent to use biomedical and hormonal contraceptive methods. Women’s justifications for their contraceptive choices were complex and manifold: most had concerns about safety and the side effects associated with hormonal and biomedical contraceptives; others were ideologically opposed to fertility control. We conclude that contraceptive choices were an embodiment of women’s reproductive modernity, which in turn underpinned their reproductive agency. We also problematise the extent to which women’s contraceptive choices were comprehensively informed. Women’s reproductive modernity was shaped by their socioeconomic status; access to modern communication technologies; understandings of their right to health and contraceptive choice; pious yet pragmatic religious identities; and negotiations within their marital relationships.     

Apollinaire,Poetry, and Fashion

Conceived as a satirical poem in the best French tradition, “1909” contrasts a beautiful woman dressed in the latest fashion with the “atrocious women” who work in factories. That Apollinaire finds the latter more appealing has important ramifications for modern poetry. The present article examines the previous studies, synthesizes their findings, and analyzes the poem in detail.     

What Sort of Geographical Education for the Anthropocene?

As the Anthropocene concept gains in prominence, there is opportunity to explore it as a social and cultural process, not merely as a matter of scientific definition and debate. This paper seeks to sketch some of the social dimensions of the Anthropocene, in terms of anxiety about the human future, about risk, and about environmental limits. It considers how the term encapsulates a prophetic sense of concern and unease about people's place in nature, the very thing that the embrace of industrial capitalism was supposed to remove. It then explores four open‐ended attributes of a geographical education for the Anthropocene. These are: first, engaging critically with digital technologies; second, countering grand narratives with local encounters; third, setting hope alongside gloom; and fourth, remembering the past as well as the future. The purpose of such attributes is to prepare students for creative encounters with the uncertainties of the Anthropocene. The implications for educational practice are then considered, including the role of active and community‐based learning strategies within a university conceived of as a place of classrooms without borders.