Crisis And Renewal In The History Of European Political Thought

This volume advances a better, more historical and contextual, manner to consider not only the present, but also the future of ‘crisis’ and ‘renewal’ as key concepts of our political language as well as fundamental categories of interpretation.

Since 1914, the French state has faced a succession of daunting and at times almost insurmountable crises. The turbulent decades from 1914 to 1969 witnessed near-defeat in 1914, economic and political crisis in 1926, radical political polarization in the 1930s, military conquest in 1940, the deep division of France during the Nazi Occupation, political reconstruction after 1944, de-colonization (with threatening civil war provoked by the Algerian crisis), and dramatic postwar modernization. However, this tumultuous period was not marked just by crises but also by tremendous change. Economic, social and political "modernization" transformed France in the twentieth century, restoring its confidence and its influence as a leader in global economic and political affairs. This combination of crises and renewal has received surprisingly little attention in recent years. The present collection show-cases significant new scholarship, reflecting greater access to French archival sources, and focuses on the role of crises in fostering modernization in areas covering politics, economics, women, diplomacy and war.

A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe, Volume II Part II examines the defeat of the vision of 'socialism with a human face' in 1968 and the political discourses produced by the various 'consolidation' or 'normalization' regimes. It closes with pertinent questions about the fragility of the democratic order globally.

Political parties have lost swathes of members and effective power is ever more concentrated in the hands of their leaders. Behind these trends lie changing relationships between economics, the media and politics. Electoral spending has spiralled out of all control, with powerful economic interests exercising undue influence. The 'level playing field', on which democracy's contests have supposedly been fought, has become ever more sloping and uneven. In many 'democratic' countries media coverage, especially that of television, is heavily biased. Electors become viewers and active participation gives way to mass passivity. Can things change? By going back to the roots of democracy and examining the relationship between representative and participatory democracy, political historian Paul Ginsborg shows that they can and must.

Throughout modern European history, the international order of the continent has been conditioned by the interaction between competing trends of internationalism and diverse forms of nationalism. The goal of this book is to distinguish the various types of each, to indicate their origins, trace their development, and analyze their interplay. Carsten Holbraad identifies three major types of each approach: conservative, liberal, and socialist. By looking at all three for both internationalism and nationalism, it is evident that no school of thought has a monopoly on either approach. As a result, the study is able to present a broader and more complex view of the intellectual trends in European history and politics.

A much-needed historical perspective in the highly relevant contemporary debates around these two notions by contextualising their discussion from ancient Greece to Soviet Russia.

Eighteenth-century Spain drew on the Enlightenment to reconfigure its role in the European balance of power. As its force and its weight declined, Spanish thinkers discouraged war and zealotry and pursued peace and cooperation to reconfigure the international Spanish Empire.

Today Europe stands at a crossroads unlike any it has faced since 1945. Since the 2008 financial crash, Europe has weathered the Greek debt crisis, the 2015 refugee crisis, and the identity crisis brought about by Brexit in 2016. The future of the European project is in doubt. How will Europe respond? Reform and revolution have been two forms of response to crisis that have shaped Europe’s history. To understand Europe’s present, we must understand that past. This interdisciplinary book considers, through the prism of several landmark moments, how the dynamics of reformation and revolution, and the crises they either addressed or created, have shaped European history, memory, and thought.