Columbia International Affairs Online

CIAO DATE: 10/07

Theoria

Vol. 51, No. 1, Issue 103 (June 2004)

Articles

• Modest Reflections on Hegemony and Global Democracy
  Iris Marion Young

  The world did not need the war against Iraq to understand that the United States of America stands alone among states in the magnitude of its military might. The blatant manner in which the U.S. flaunted that power in the face of fierce opposition from global civil society and nearly all states, however, demonstrates that the U.S. will use its power in ways that it judges right, without the approval or consent of other agents.

• Can War Transform Iraq into a Democracy?
  Tom Rockmore

  Now that the war in Iraq is over, or at least mainly finished, we can ask ourselves if it already has, or is likely later to meet its announced aims. It will be useful to introduce a distinction between reasons, which can be cited for the war, and its goals, which naturally tend to follow from announced (and unannounced) justifications for this conflict. We can begin with some of the reasons leading to the war in Iraq. No country goes to war without some kind of justification, some aims to be accomplished. As concerns Iraq, the decision to go to war seems to have been over-determined by a series of motives. Four stand out as particularly important: internal United States' pressures, oil, weapons of mass destruction, and democracy.

• The Political and Legal Dilemmas of Globalisation
  Danilo Zolo

  Over and above the reasons or the wrongs of the apologists and the critics of globalisation, it seems impossible to deny the development, during these last few decades, of a global network of social connections and functional interdependences that link individuals and nations - no one is excluded. As Tony Spybey and Roland Robertson remind us, even the deepest meanings of existence, the most intimate of personal experiences and daily behaviour are involved in this radical change of cognitive and symbolic reference points: the world as a whole.

• Individual Autonomy and Global Democracy
  Michael Pendlebury

  There are significant overlaps between the concerns of this article and those of Darrel Moellendorf's Cosmopolitan Justice, which is a wide-ranging and valuable contribution to the literature on global justice. The article is not, however, a study of the book, and the main substance of what follows does not presuppose any-thing in the book. I will, however, draw on the book when this serves my purposes, and will also call attention to some important points of agreement and disagreement between the article and the book. Thus the article will contain an implicit critique of certain aspects of the book. Some preliminary remarks on the main differences between Moellendorf's approach and mine may, therefore, be opposite.

• Phenomenology, Structuralism and History: Merleau-Ponty's Social Theory
  Nick Crossley

  The work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty has enjoyed a marginal presence within Anglo-American sociology and social theory for many years, particularly within the phenomenological and interactionist camps. In more recent years, however, his profile has grown. This is due largely to the growth of sociological interest in embodiment, a theme which Merleau-Ponty's work addresses at length, and perhaps also to the rise to prominence within sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, whose work is influenced by that of Merleau-Ponty, particularly in relation to themes of embodiment and habit. Loic Wacquant has described Bourdieu as the 'sociological heir' of Merleau-Ponty and many other writers have identified the connection between the two thinkers as pivotal in their attempts to elucidate the nature and contribution of Bourdieu's thought.

• Review Article - Return to the Organic: Onions, Artichokes and 'The Debate' on the Nation and Modernity
  Laurence Piper

  Nationalism and Modernism, by Anthony D. Smith. London & New York: Routledge, 1998. ISBN 0415063418

  Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Introduction, by Umut Özkrimili. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000. ISBN 0333777123

  Undertanding Nationalism, edited by Monserrat Guibernau & John Hutchinson. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 0745624022

  There exist in intellectual history periods where, following intense deliberation on a question, something like a consensus emerges. Typically the consensus amounts to a refinement of the competing views on the question rather than some final resolution. These refined views are then presented as the official 'debate', and faithfully reproduced in university courses world-wide. Something of this sort has happened with theories of nationalism, or to be more accurate, with theories of the modernity of the nation. Indeed, the issue of the modernity of the nation looms large in the Smith, Özkrimili and Guibernau & Hutchinson texts.

• Reviews

  Imagining the Possible: Radical Politics for Conservative Times, by Stephen Eric Bronner. London: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0415932610
  Review by Duncan S.A. Bell

  Stranger Shores: Essays, 1986-1999, by J.M. Coetzee. London: Vintage, 2002. ISBN 009942262X
  Review by Derek Hook

  History and Illusion in Politics, by Raymond Geuss. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0521805961
  Review by Patrick Lenta

  Happiness: Personhood, Community, Purpose, by Pedro Alexis Tabensky. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003. ISBN 0754607348
  Review by Lorenzo Fioramonti

  The Philosophy of Social Practices: A Collective Acceptance View, by Raimo Tuolmela. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0521818605
  Review by Deborah Tollefsen

• Experiential Sociology
  Arpad Szakolczai

  Since its birth, but especially since its academic institutionalization, sociology has been plagued by a series of dualisms and dichotomies that seriously diminish the relevance of much of sociological work. To start with, there is the opposition of theoretical and empirical sociology; an opposition that should have been stillborn, as it is commonplace that theoretical work without empirical evidence is arid, while empirical research without theory is spiritless and boring, but continues to survive and even thrive. There is also the division between substantive and methodological issues, creating the impression of two separate realms and the illusion of a 'free choice' of method. One can continue with the contrast between methodological individualism and collectivism that in our days culminates in the various debates around rational choice theory, but which is just the old debate between (neo-classical) economics and classical (Durkheimian) social theory, in new clothes.