Political science and theory

Socialism has made a dramatic comeback in the 21st century.

We are inclined to see terrorist attacks as an aberration, a violent incursion into our lives that bears no intrinsic relation to the fundamental features of modern societies.

Is democracy the best form of government?

In recent times, US-Russia relations have deteriorated to what both sides acknowledge is an all time low.

Islamophobia is a term that has existed since the nineteenth century.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution energy has been a key driver of world politics.

How do Americans think about foundational political questions?

All political communities must make decisions about how to regulate the treatment of animals.

In an era of accelerating technology and increasing complexity, how should we reimagine the emancipatory potential of feminism?

Modern political revolutions since the 18th century have swept away traditional systems of domination by declaring that all men are created equal .

The pace of modern life is undoubtedly speeding up, yet this acceleration does not seem to have made us any happier or more content.

Amartya Sen is one of the world s best-known voices for the poor, the destitute and the downtrodden and an inspiration for policy makers and activists across the globe.

The essence of libertarianism is the view that coercive political institutions, such as the state, are justified only insofar as they function to protect each person s liberty to pursue their own goals and well-being in their own way.

Few political ideas are as divisive and controversial for some and yet taken for granted by others as the ownership of private property.

Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat paradoxically famous for his insights into democracy and equality, is one of history s greatest analysts of American society and politics.

From flag-waving to the singing of national anthems, the practices and symbols ofpatriotism are inescapable, and modern politics is increasingly full of appeals topatriotic fervour.

From citizens paying taxes to employees following their bosses' orders and kids obeying their parents, we take it for granted that a whole range of authorities have the power to impose duties on others.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of the most controversial philosophers of the eighteenth century, and his groundbreaking work still provokes heated debate in contemporary political theory.

Leo Strauss s lifelong intellectual mission was to recover classical rationalism , a pursuit that has made him a controversial figure to this day.

For most Western governments, defending against the threat of infectious disease is now an accepted security priority.

It is now conventional wisdom to see the great policy challenges of the 21st century as inherently transnational.

We have long since lost our faith in the idea that human beings could achieve human happiness in some future ideal state a state that Thomas More, writing five centuries ago, tied to a topos, a fixed place, a land, an island, a sovereign state under a wise and benevolent ruler.

Social capital is a principal concept across the social sciences and has readily entered into mainstream discourse.

Should African and Muslim-majority countries be obliged to protect LGBT rights, or do such rights violate their cultures?

Republicanism is a centuries-old political tradition, yet its precise meaning has long been contested.

Claims to self-determination are rife in world politics today.

The election of an unabashedly patriarchal man as US President was a shock for many despite decades of activism on gender inequalities and equal rights, how could it come to this?

We are living in a period of great uncertainty.

Recently there has been an extraordinary international revival of interest in Hannah Arendt.

Shocks, from natural disasters to military catastrophes, have long been exploited by the state to impose privatization, cuts and rampant free markets.

God is dead, but his presence lives on in politics.

Over the past century alone, Russia has lived through great achievements and deepest misery; mass heroism and mass crime; over-blown ambition and near-hopeless despair always emerging with its sovereignty and its fiercely independent spirit intact.

Today Syria is a country known for all the wrong reasons: civil war, vicious sectarianism, and major humanitarian crisis.

Introduction to any complex international conflict is enriched when the voices of the adversaries are heard.

People so often focus on the negative aspects of politics, like greed and corruption, but without politics we would be lost.

Conservatism is often labelled as a disposition , tradition , or even a set of knee-jerk reactions, rather than an ideology, and its suspicion of grand theorising has lent itself to this characterization.

Frantz Fanon was a French psychiatrist turned Algerian revolutionary of Martinican origin, and one of the most important and controversial thinkers of the postwar period.

With the collapse of traditional parties around the world and with many pundits predicting a "e;crisis of democracy"e;, the value of elections as a method for selecting by whom and how we are governed is being questioned.

The idea that war is sometimes justified is deeply embedded in public consciousness.

Freedom of speech is never very far away from political controversy.

Michael Walzer is one of the world s most important political thinkers, whose major works, such as Spheres of Justice and Just and Unjust Wars, have transformed many central debates in contemporary political philosophy.

Western political theory typically incorporates certain assumptions about sex and gender as natural, unvarying and pre-political.

Human societies have always been deeply interconnected with our ecosystems, but today those relationships are witnessing greater frictions, tensions, and harms than ever before.

In this important new book, Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi take a fresh look at the big questions surrounding the peculiar social form known as capitalism, upending many of our commonly held assumptions about what capitalism is and how to subject it to critique.

In a world that continues to be riven by armed conflict, the fundamental moral and political questions raised by warfare are as important as ever.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) is one of the great political forces of modern times.

Russia is back as a major force in global politics, but what does this mean?

Idiots burn books for the same reason philosophers write them they matter.

Millions passionately desire a viable alternative to austerity and neoliberalism, but they are sceptical of traditional leftist top-down state solutions.

Today, deliberative democracy is the most widely discussed theory of democracy.