Political Theory and the Politics of Comparison

Idris, Murad

doi:10.1177/0090591716659812

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…I situate this article within the emerging subfield of CPT, which has sought to “deparochialise” political thought within the globally privileged Western canon, by including thinkers, positions, methods, and knowledges from “non-Western” places and cultures, or from marginalised perspectives within the Western tradition. 1 Discussion among CPT scholars is often characterised by hyper-reflexivity, and most of the terms used in the previous sentence (Western, non-Western, tradition, culture) are the subject of active critique and debate, as participants seek to avoid generalising, essentialising, and reifying, even while recognising and contesting the power dynamics that continue to govern the practice and teaching of political theory in academic institutions, dynamics that privilege the thought and views of predominantly white, male, heterosexual individuals from Europe or North America (Godrej, 2009; Idris, 2016; Williams and Warren, 2014).…”

Section: Methods and Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Containing the Self-Interested Individual: Moral Scepticism of Political Parties in Myanmar

Walton

2019

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, I examine a persistent set of concerns regarding the political party system in Myanmar that I read as emerging in response to a Theravāda Buddhist-grounded conception of human nature as inherently self-centred, biased, and morally ignorant. Although these critiques come from political actors anchored in different ideologies and situated in different historical periods (including the early twentieth-century politician U Ba Khaing, contemporary military leaders, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy), I argue that the resonance of their critiques with this understanding of human beings has imparted a consistent disciplining and delegitimising effect on opposition and minority parties. However, the same conception of human nature has led other Burmese political commentators (including the independence hero General Aung San and the nineteenth-century minister U Hpo Hlaing) to construct opposing arguments that present collective, participatory political action or engagement as the necessary response to human moral deficiencies. Putting these arguments in conversation helps to reveal the disciplining aspects of the critiques of parties and offer alternative justification – still in accordance with this conception of human nature – for a robust and inclusive party system.

show abstract

Section: Methods and Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Containing the Self-Interested Individual: Moral Scepticism of Political Parties in Myanmar

Walton

2019

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Authors have argued, for example, whether the NI power-sharing arrangements, policing reform, or inclusive negotiations rules should be “exported” to places such as Iraq or the Basque Country (Dixon, 2015; Ellison, 2007; McGarry and O’leary, 2006; O’Kane, 2010). In this article, however, I eschew such debates and instead adopt the research approach of the “politics of comparison” (Idris, 2016; Stoler, 2001). This approach treats comparison not as a methodological tool but as the object of inquiry.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Lessons from Northern Ireland” in Israeli Public Discourse: The Politics of Analogies in Conflicted Societies

Dudai

2022

Political Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Northern Ireland 1998 Good Friday Agreement has generated a global industry of “lessons from Northern Ireland” to other conflict situations. While a lively polemical literature has been debating what exactly should these lessons be and whether they could be validly exported, this article adopts the prism of the “politics of comparison”: examining why and how certain actors appeal to analogies with other societies, and the causes and functions of such appeals. The article explores the case-study of the resonance of the Northern Ireland analogy in Israeli public discourse. It identifies and analyses four themes: the analogy with Northern Ireland is used as an argument for hope; as a source of peacemaking models; as self-justification, to deflect blame; and to legitimize narrow local interventions. The article contributes to literatures on the politics of comparisons, and political dynamics in the context of intractable conflicts.

show abstract

“…160 Forrester offers an archivally informed explanation for Rawls's seeming early disinterest in Keynes, arguing that the early Rawls was to the right of Keynes and that it was only by the late 1950s that he had moved his views in line with what were then Keynesian commonplaces. 161 Drawing on both Rawls's and Buchanan's archives, extension when they were about to be eroded by a neoliberal revolution." 171 With TJ, Rawls made a monument to a world that, if ever really in reach, was swiftly slipping from view.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Historicizing Rawls

Smith

2021

Mod. Intell. Hist.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The opening, in 2004, of John Rawls's personal archive prompted a new wave of Rawls scholarship. This work has deepened our understanding of the development and impact of Rawls's ideas and of the broader contours of twentieth-century analytical political philosophy. This article places these recent archival histories, for the first time, in the context of the longer history of attempts to historicize Rawls, beginning with the publication of A Theory of Justice fifty years ago. Doing so does three things. First, it shows that early readers were more interested in how to think historically about Rawls than is sometimes assumed. Second, it reveals that partisan accounts of Rawls's place in history, popularized by those close to him, have sometimes made their way into the archival studies. Third and finally, it offers an opportunity to rethink how the twentieth-century history of political philosophy and political theory is often told.

show abstract

Political Theory and the Politics of Comparison

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Containing the Self-Interested Individual: Moral Scepticism of Political Parties in Myanmar

Containing the Self-Interested Individual: Moral Scepticism of Political Parties in Myanmar

“Lessons from Northern Ireland” in Israeli Public Discourse: The Politics of Analogies in Conflicted Societies

Historicizing Rawls

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About