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This paper aims to understand the ways in which Montesquieu's liberalism modifies that of Locke, particularly with a view to his abandonment of the social contract, and his emphasis on moderation and piece-meal reform. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, liberal polities have seen a marked rise in group-based claims. Given that liberalism is a political theory which traditionally prioritizes the individual over groups, there has been much discussion about how liberalism might respond to multicultural demands. In this paper, I discuss what I take to be the four ways liberalism might respond, showing that liberals cannot be multiculturalists unless they embrace a libertarian form of liberalism. This is an unhappy consequence because it misses that some form of recognition is at the heart of group-based claims. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of political thought, there is a discernible tradition that has long made a distinction between the form and spirit of government. This decisively European (particularly French) tradition is best represented by Montesquieu, but also includes the likes of Hegel, Rousseau and Tocqueville. The central claim of this tradition is that types of governments have both a universal and a particular form. The constitutional (institutional and procedural forms) should be particular to contexts, but should still embody the universal principles that define the form, as that designates the type of government—e.g. a democracy as opposed to a monarchy. Yet, they suggest that for the constitutional form or type to be meaningful and descriptive of the society/country, it is necessary that the principles that underlie this type of government be evident in the mores, manners, and behavior (the spirit) of its people. In other words, the forms are a) only as meaningful and accurate as a description and, more importantly, b) only likely to be successful to the extent that they become embodied in the spirit of the people. In this paper, I will first fully develop the core arguments of this tradition in political thought. As I reconstruct the core content of this tradition, I will trace it through each of theorists cited above. Then, I will argue that this tradition has its orgins in Aristotle, who argued that the legislator should model the educative process after the fact that the sociological evolution of the individual is based first on nature, then on habit, and finally on reason. After having reconstructed this tradition and demonstrated its connection to Aristotelian thought, I will then suggest that the spirit/form tradition is a valuable theoretical tool. I argue that the spirit/form tradition establishes criteria by which a political scientist can: a) Evaluate the stability of a regime type within a country b) Evaluate the legitimacy of a government within a country and c) Suggest what alternative types of government might be better suited for a country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the relevance of Aristotle's political philosophy for liberalism? The paper explores the limited ways in which Aristotle's ancient philosophy of politics directs reform for modern democratic liberalism. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the Adornian non-identical and the Lacanian Real, to propose a “theoretical outline of the subject.” Although we cannot completely grasp the subject, it argues we need a subject to advance changes in the socio-political sphere. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the increasing diversity of the advanced degrees of faculty who teach political science. The author notes strengths and weaknesses, particularly placing this into the context of the integration of political science programs. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers recent reinterpretations of Thomas Aquinas that advance a principled distinction between public and private acts. Aquinas's divergence from Aristotle and compatibility with modern political theory are considered. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores possible alternative uses for the role of luck in theorizing democracy and explores how the potentially fortune friendly use of probability theory in the social sciences has been misrepresented to highlight an imaginary predictability of political life that leads many theorists to shy away from its use. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines ICP's political history and its ideological changes. It also examines the trends that contributed to the shifts in the party's political path from an anti-colonialist, independent political organization that earned it the support ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the challenge to contemporary liberal thought posed by a scientific progress that threatens core liberal concepts such as freedom and equality as well as traditional assumptions about human nature. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the evolution in John Rawls's theory of justice from A THEORY OF JUSTICE to POLITICAL LIBERALISM can be usefully understood by focusing on Kant's discussion of the categorical imperative and unsocial sociability. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore the normative essence of transparency embedded in the history of political thought and conduct a critical analysis of the logic of transparency in its political form/forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses agent-based modeling to assess the effects of institutional variation in mixed electoral systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing Berlin’s notion of objective pluralism is necessary to understanding the contemporary dilemmas of liberalism. This requires examining both values held to be illiberal and liberal values held by those who do not ascribe to liberalism. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of Gobetti's thought and practice and an evaluation of his 'revolutionary liberalism'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ending of the Cold War the study of Edmund Burke’s political thought has been freed from simply describing his conservatism. Stephen K. White has begun to chart one of the more promising directions in his 1994 book Edmund Burke: Modernity, Politics and Aesthetics, by paying close attention to the “affective-aesthetic” dimension of Burke’s political thought. This study proposes to begin from White’s short study and to further the articulation of the link between affective experience and political ideas, with particular attention to the role of the sublime. In a critical passage of the Reflections Burke wrote that those who hold power must defer to “sublime principles” and “they should not look to the paltry pelf of the moment nor to the temporary and transient praise of the vulgar, but to a solid, permanent existence in the permanent part of their nature.” Given the extraordinary attention Burke gave to the topic of sublimity in his only philosophical tract, the Enquiry into Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, we must be alert to Burke’s meaning when he refers us to the sublime in the Reflections and when he adverts to affective experiences throughout his writings. The sublime evokes “Vastness” and “Infinity,” and “Obscurity,” “Uniformity,” “Magnitude,” and “Magnificence” also create in the mind an experience of sublimity. An experience of sublimity “so entirely fill[s the mind] with its object, that it cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it.” Such affectivity, this study will demonstrate, ruled Burke’s view of the world and his understanding of politics, and the application of his understanding of the sublime alerts us to how he perceived the limits of politics and human competence. More than a rhetorical flourish or an inconsequential reference to the immortality of the soul and the prospect of eternal reward, his linkage of sublimity to the “permanent” part of our nature hints at a larger understanding of the full participation of human beings in something outside themselves. Politics, for Burke, cannot be reduced to rationality or the individuality of any one human being. Instead politics – and all reality – is built on relations, to which affective experiences alert us in a way that reason cannot. Drawing on a number of Burke texts from throughout his life (some familiar, some rarely cited), this study will claim Burke as more than a conservative, but a critic of modernity offering an intriguing alternative to all-encompassing rationality that is as much rooted in tradition as it is dedicated to substantial political freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the determinants of the president's issue liberalism using time series methods. It finds the president unresponsive to mass preferences, but driven more by partisan appeals and constraints from the alignment of institutional forces.s. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although most have focused on the dyadic democratic peace, some have argued that democracies are peaceful in general, not just in their relations with one another. We examine support for the claim that thedemocratic peace is a monadic phenomenon. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its reputation for consolidated democracy and successful human development, over the past few years Costa Rica has been declining in numerous international rankings of governance and competitiveness. This decline stems from the country's appa ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been renewed interest in placing political ideas in the context of political conflict in which these ideas are fought out (Freeden). I suggest three ways of conceptualizing this field of political struggle: the existential, the p ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indices of democracy produce an institutional fallacy in measuring democratic quality, because they ignore the respective (societal, institutional) context. We develop and test a new contextualized measurement. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An exploration of Woodrow Wilson's ambivalent, even hostile, view of the genre of political philosophy, of his preference for Burke and a Burkean "organicism," and of certain exceptions he made for particular political authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]