Summary
Contents
Subject index
This major new Handbook provides a definitive state-of-the-art review to political theory, past and present. It offers a complete guide to all the main areas and fields of political and philosophical inquiry today by the world's leading theorists. The Handbook is divided into five parts which together serve to illustrate: - the diversity of political theorizing - the substantive theories that provide an over-aching analysis of the nature/or justification of the state and political life - the political theories that have been either formulated or resurgent in recent years - the current state of the central debates within contemporary political theory - the history of western political thought and its interpretations - traditions in political thought outside a western perspective. The Handbook of Political Theory marks a benchmark publication at the cutting edge of its field. It is essential reading for all students and academics of political theory and political philosophy around the world.
The Modern State
The Modern State
Modern political philosophy takes its principal object of study to be the state. How to understand it? How should it be organized? What is its justification? It is hard to teach a course in modern political philosophy that does not focus on the state – it is what preoccupies Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Hegel – and a discussion of contemporary political theory cannot ignore it. While few political thinkers today go so far as to accept Hegel's conception of political science which would have us ‘attempt to comprehend and portray the state as an inherently rational entity’ (1821: 21), most take the state to be the central feature of the political landscape and the task of determining its justification ...
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