Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Political science / utopias'

In this thesis I argue that the tradition of political philosophy which follows in John Rawls's footsteps is obligated to concern itself not only with the realizability, but also with the realization, of justice. Although Rawls himself expresses a commitment only to the former of these, I argue that the roles which he assigns to political philosophy require him to take on the further commitment to realization. This is because these roles are meant to influence not only political philosophers, but the citizens of the wider community as well. The realistically utopian role, which I take to be the central one, requires political philosophy to inspire in that population a hope which I argue that realizability alone cannot provide. Given the deep revisions regarding the political nature of justice as fairness which Rawls made on the basis of realizability concerns, I argue that his theory must in this case be committed to a similar revision. The hope which political philosophy is meant to provide is simply not realizable until the discipline concerns itself centrally with the task of realization.

Antiutopía y Control. La distopía en el mundo contemporáneo y actual è una tesi dottorale che nasce con l'obiettivo di studiare, dal punto di vista politico, sociale e culturale, le più rilevanti tipologie di controllo a cui varie forme di governo, dalle dittature alle democrazie, hanno sottoposto e sottopongono i propri cittadini. Focalizzandosi principalmente sul XX e XXI sec., l'analisi storica, sociologia e psicologica del fenomeno parte, però, da un punto di vista inusuale, quello letterario della distopia. Oscuro e disincantato opposto dell'ottimista utopia, essa è un genere letterario che descrive il peggiore dei mondi possibili e racconta di popoli pesantemente manipolati, disperati e repressi. L'intenzione dichiarata della letteratura e del cinema distopico è di mettere in guardia i loro fruitori dalle possibili conseguenze di situazioni politiche, sociali o ambientali già degenerate nelle realtà di riferimento degli autori. Lo fanno usando mondi immaginari, lontani nel tempo o nello spazio, invece che ambientazioni contemporanee ai lettori, ma, nella maggioranza dei casi, il male esposto non è altro che la trasfigurazione di una paura o di un problema reale, drammaticamente attuale. La distopia non è solo svago e divertimento, essa può aiutarci a capire l'attuale stato delle cose perché la letteratura, il cinema e i fumetti di una data comunità riflettono la società a cui appartengono. Se il contesto è infetto, la cultura riconoscerà, assimilerà e denuncerà l'infezione. Le ipotesi principali da cui la tesi muove sono tre: La distopia, con la sua brutale estremizzazione e/o la sua dissacrante parodia di problematiche attuali, può aiutare a delineare un'analisi storica, sociologica e psicologica del controllo politico, sociale e culturale. La distopia non è solo una degenerazione rintracciabile nei noti processi repressivi del potere totalitario o autoritario, ma è uno strumento di persuasione usato anche nei poteri democratici. La differenza maggiore tra la distopia dei regimi dittatoriali e quella delle società democratiche risiede nel differente dosaggio che essi fanno di controllo positivo e negativo, di piacere e dolore, di benessere e paura. Per sviluppare e dimostrare queste ipotesi, la tesi è divisa in tre parti principali. Nella prima, si ripercorre la storia dell'utopia e della distopia, rintracciandone le tematiche ricorrenti e maggiormente caratteristiche e focalizzandosi sul sottogenere politico. Quest'ultimo, infatti, è il tema che più di tutti mostra connessioni con la ricerca in corso, dal momento che la distopia specificatamente politica presenta società fortemente controllate e gerarchizzate, con popolazioni spersonalizzate e manipolate dal potere. Si procede, quindi, con l'analisi di quelle opere che, secondo chi scrive, meglio esprimono il senso soffocante e deformante dell'autorità, come ad esempio 1984 di George Orwell, Brave New World di Aldous Huxley e Fahrenheit 451 di Ray Bradbury. Completata questa analisi, la tesi si dedica allo studio più strettamente storico, sociologico e psicologico del fenomeno distopico. Nelle seconda e nella terza parte, infatti, si mettono in comparazione le caratteristiche principali delle opere riportate con quelle di diverse realtà storiche del secolo passato e di quello presente. Nella seconda parte, nello specifico, ci si occupa dei poteri dominanti, ossia di totalitarismi e autoritarismi, perché essi incarnano tragicamente meglio di qualunque altro sistema politico l'idea di distopia. Il nazismo, il fascismo, il franchismo, il socialismo sovietico e i regimi che gravitano intorno ad esso, le dittature in America Latina o in Asia, infatti, portano letteralmente l'inferno sulla terra e condannano all'incubo milioni di vite. Nella terza parte, invece, sono le società democratiche, con la loro tendenza a controllare le popolazioni attraverso tecniche suadenti e persuasive del genere panem et circenses, le protagoniste dell'analisi. Sia per i poterei dominanti, sia per quelli democratici, si prendono in esame delle tematiche specifiche. Si indaga sugli agenti e sulle ragioni della violenza fisica e psicologica a cui le popolazioni sono sottomesse, oltre che sull'uso della cultura, della religione, dell'educazione e dell'informazione come strumento di repressione e di condizionamento, soffermandosi in particolare sul ruolo della propaganda e dei mass-media. Si studia la rappresentazione del nemico, in tempo di pace e guerra, e la necessità della sua esistenza per mantenere meglio il controllo sui cittadini. Si valuta, inoltre, la risposta psico-fisica della popolazione all'uso della repressione e della persuasione, per osservare come l'autorità possa influenzare, modificare o, peggio, distruggere, i corpi e le menti dei cittadini ad essa soggetti. Si fa tutto questo con la speranza di circoscrive il “cattivo luogo”, che dovrebbe spaventare non solo nella finzione.
Antiutopía y Control. La distopía en el mundo contemporáneo y actual is a doctoral thesis that offers an historical, sociological and psychological analysis of the social, political and cultural control, implemented by various forms of government, from dictatorships to democracies, to submit their citizens. Focusing on the 20th and 21th century, the research moves from an unusual literary and cinematographic point of view, the dystopian one. Dark and disillusioned opposite of optimistic utopia, dystopia is a genre that describes the worst of all possible worlds and tells about heavily manipulated, desperate and repressed people. The present work is divided into three main parts. In the first, it traces the history of utopia and dystopia, discovering the recurring and most distinctive themes and focusing on the political sub-genre (Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, etc.). Completed this analysis, the thesis studies more closely the dystopian dynamics in historical, sociological and psychological processes. In the second part, the thesis investigates totalitarian and authoritarian powers, because they embody the idea of dystopia tragically better than any other political system. In the third part, the focus is on democratic societies, with their tendency to control populations through persuasive techniques as panem et circenses. For both groups, the research examines specific issues. It analyzes the agents and the reasons of physical and psychological violence, as well as the use of culture, religion, education and information as tools of repression and conditioning, with particular emphasis on the role of propaganda and mass media. It studies the representation of the enemy in time of peace and war, and the need for its existence to maintain a more stable control over the citizens. It also evaluates the psycho-physical response of the population to the use of constraint and persuasion. It tries to understand how authority can influence, change, or worse, destroy the bodies and the minds of citizens subjected to it. The aim of Antiutopía y Control is to delineate the "bad place" in history and remember readers that dystopia should scare not only in fiction.

Questa ricerca si propone di offrire una ricostruzione complessiva degli aspetti salienti dell'utopia, le cui riflessioni si focalizzano attorno al tentativo di pervenire ad una comprensione non riduttiva dell'universo utopico. L'utopia abbraccia una vasta gamma di ambiti diversi che vanno dall'ideologia alla religione, dalla filosofia sociale, alla filosofia politica e all'economia; rappresenta, dunque, un valido strumento d'indagine per analizzare la pluralità delle diverse dimensioni delle relazioni sociali. Il concetto di utopia, inteso come ricerca di una legge ideale sulla quale fondare le istituzioni sociali, è già presente nel mondo antico, si manifesta nel mondo medievale nella forma millenarista del ritorno di Cristo, per divenire quasi un genere letterario a sé stante nel Rinascimento. Man mano che ci si avvicina ai tempi più recenti le utopie si colorano sempre più di interesse sociale e di progettualità politica. Ai primi interpreti di queste utopie, viene dato generalmente il nome di socialisti utopisti. Nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento iniziano le storie dell’utopia che s’intrecciano — in particolare con Marx ed Engels — con la storia del socialismo. Nel frattempo, lungo il Novecento si assistite ad un drastico cambio di prospettiva il cui bersaglio polemico è l'universo totalitario e i pericoli derivanti dall'uso distorto della scienza e della tecnologia che porterà all'affermazione delle distopie come genere letterario. Gli ultimi decenni, invece, anche a causa della pessimismo della ragione moderna e del pensiero debole, si sono caratterizzati per una crisi ed una sfiducia generalizzata nei confronti della politica da un lato e dall'affermazione dell'ideologia neoliberale dall'altro. In questo periodo, inoltre, l'utopia vive una certa marginalità filosofica e appare incapace di offrire al mondo un orizzonte nuovo. La speranza è riposta nei nuovi movimenti sociali che si stanno dimostrando i più strenui difensori dell'ambiente e dei beni comuni. Gli unici attualmente che, pur tra mille difficoltà, cercano di opporsi all'ideologia mercatista del pensiero unico, e di proporre un'alternativa comunitaria.
This research aims to provide a complete reconstruction of the salient aspects of utopia, whose thoughts are focused around the attempt to achieve a non-reductive understanding of the utopian universe. The utopia embraces a wide range of different areas ranging from ideology, religion, social philosophy, political philosophy and economics. Therefore, it represents a useful tool to analyze the plurality of the different dimensions of social relations. The concept of utopia, understood as a search for an ideal law on which to base social institutions, is already present in the ancient world, it manifests itself in the medieval world in the millennialist form of return of Christ, to become almost a literature genre in the Renaissance. As you get closer to more recent times, utopias are increasingly colored of social interest and political planning. The name of utopian socialists is generally given to the first interpreters of these utopias. In the second half of the nineteenth century, especially with Marx and Engels, the utopia stories begin to intertwine with the history of socialism. Instead, along the twentieth century occurs a drastic change of perspective, whose polemical target is the totalitarian universe and the dangers arising from the use of the distorted science and technology that will lead to the affirmation of dystopias as a literary genre. The last decades, however, partly because of the crisis of modern reason and “weak thought”, were characterized by a crisis and a generalized distrust of politics on the one hand, and affirmation of neoliberalism ideology on the other. In this period, the utopia lives a sort of philosophical marginality and it seems unable to offer new horizons to the world. The hope is now placed in the new social movements that are proving to be the most strenuous defenders of the environment and public goods. They currently are the only ones who, in spite of thousand difficulties, try to oppose to the “single thought” and to the unbridled competition, and propose a communitarian alternative.

This thesis explores and connects two main elements: the utopian studies and the studies of social and political critique. The big quantity and variety and history of utopian texts raises a simple question: why someone writes utopian texts, why one wishes for a better and different life? And how do these factors operate in the large picture of humanity. It has been observed that utopian literature flourish in the times of human despair. In the times of unhappiness people try to search for decisions inside the dominant order in which they often feel hopeless to change. The utopians might say: “We do not want reforms, we want new forms!”. The main purpose of this thesis is to explore the critical side of utopias. How this critique works and how does it unfolds? What reactions does it create and why? This thesis is also concerned about the ambiguous nature of the concept utopia and its possible connections with human desire. If we agree with Deleuze and Guattari concept of desire as production, we can view utopia totally differently – as a immanent process of becoming, as a direction, not a destination.
Šis magistro darbas apžvelgia ir apjungia du pagrindinius šio darbo elementus: utopijų studijos ir socialinė bei politinė kritika. Didelis kiekis įvairiausių utopinių tekstų kelia klausimą: kodėl žmonės rašo utopinius tekstus ir apskritai kodėl svajoja apie geresnį ir kitokį gyvenimą? Istoriškai pastebime, kad utopijų rašymas intensyviausiai atsiskleidžia per negandų ir nelaimių laikus. Neaiškumo ir nelaimės akivaizdoje žmonės ieško būdų radikaliai pakeisti esamą padėtį, bet dažnai susiduria su valstybinio aparato stagnacija. Utopistas sakytų: „Užteks politinių reformų, mes norime naujų formų!”. Pagrindinis šio darbo tikslas orientuojasi į kritinė utopinio mąstymo pusę. Kaip veikia utopinė kritika? kaip ji išsiskleidžia? Kokias reakcijas sukelia utopinis mąstymas ir kodėl? Šis darbas taip pat gilinasi į sąvokos „utopija“ problematiką. Jei mes sutinkame su Deleuze ir Guattari geismo, kaip nepertraukiamos produkcijos sąvoka, mes galime atsakyti daug klausimų dėl utopinio mąstymo įvairoves, taip pat pažiūrėti į ją iš kito kampo – kaip į imanentišką tapsmo procesą, kuris turį krypti, bet ne galutinę atvykimo vietą.

The object of this study is a program of government that has, as its immediate objective, the modification and regulation of consumer conduct deemed pertinent to climate change. Drawing from the analytical grid and conceptual tools of governmentality, this study has organized and analyzed an archive of documents related to the One-Tonne Challenge, a 'public education' program implemented by the Government of Canada from 2003 to 2006. There are numerous forms of conduct targeted by this program, involving many of the mundane and routine practices of everyday life. Despite their heterogeneity, the targeted forms of conduct can all be measured and evaluated according to the greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, an ecological technology of government that has had its application extended to the 'personal' level. As consumers increasingly engage in practices that are energy efficient, a 'low intensity GHG emission lifestyle' will emerge as a new societal norm, which is declared to be the 'ultimate strategic objective' of the program.

"Der Tscheche Věněk Šilhan sagt heutigen Lesern in Deutschland meist nichts. Er hat als Ökonom mehrere Bücher und gewichtige Aufsätze verfasst. Auf dem berühmten Parteitag der KPTsch in Prag-Vysočany, der sich der militärischen Okkupation am 21. August 1968 widersetzte, wurde er in Abwesenheit des internierten Alexander Dubček zum geschäftsführenden Ersten Sekretär des ZK gewählt. Dadurch ist er zu einer der Symbolfiguren des Prager Frühlings geworden."

La tesi vuole indagare il periodo che dal 1975 al 1979 ha segnato il destino di una nazione. Il genocidio perpetrato dai Khmer Rossi e le conseguenze internazionali, fino a portare ai processi internazionali dei nostri giorni, saranno oggetto di analisi nella dissertazione.

The author discusses the issue whether the internet and other electronic sources should be used for elections. Online-elections can make the electoral process not only less complex but also cheaper, thus the analysis faster and more reliable. The lower costs could, in turn, lead to a new impulse on direct-democracy-instruments. Comparing the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland the article provides information about national strategies, discourses and problems, and shows the different political and cultural settings.

Cette thèse interroge l'existence d'une utopie environnementale de coopération entre Nature et Technique dans le secteur de l'énergie, qu'il s'agisse d'énergie renouvelable au Royaume-Uni ou d'énergie nucléaire en France. Dans la première partie de ce travail, nous avons établi que les systèmes énergétiques, par le biais de projets de coopération entre Nature et Technique, offraient un tableau pertinent des concurrences, et de plus en plus des coopérations entre Nature et Technique dans les discours et les pratiques étudiés, et ce en France. La deuxième partie de ce travail a consisté à démontrer dans quelle mesure les résistances à ces vision~ de la Nature et de la Technique en coopération sont plus fortes en France qu'au Royaume-Uni, car ces visions en coopération, comme nous l'avons montré en première partie, sont plus explicitement présentes en France qu'au Royaume-Uni. Dans la dernière partie de cette recherche, l'objectif a été enfin de démontrer dans quelle mesure ces représentations de la Nature et de la Technique en coopération traduisaient la rencontre d'idéologies technologiques propres au champ énergétique et de visions utopiques de l'environnement. Nous avons donc réussi à démontrer qu'au Royaume-Uni, cette vision utopique de l'environnement était davantage saisie comme une opportunité pour les acteurs du projet de centrale houlomotrice, tandis qu'en France, cette vision utopique de l'environnement menaçait l'idéologie technologique incarnée par l'énergie nucléaire.

La thèse se propose d'explorer les rapports entre utopie et littérature chez deux auteurs majeurs du XXe siècle italien, Elio Vittorini (1908-1966) et Italo Calvino (1923-1985), prenant en considération un large pan de leurs œuvres et de leur travail d'écrivain. À travers ce parcours, c'est une petite parabole de l'utopisme littéraire dans le second XXe siècle italien que l'on cherche à tracer, en partant des années quarante, où le travail littéraire était fonction d'un engagement politique externe, pour arriver, à travers une série de déconvenues politiques et de transformations sociales, à une tentative de redéfinition des fonctions politiques de la littérature qui nous mène jusqu'aux années soixante-dix. La trentaine d'années parcourue dans cette thèse est en effet riche en évolutions, du détachement des écrivains du Parti communiste, au passage à une nouvelle phase " néocapitaliste " dont l'Italie sort considérablement transformée. Nous nous trouvons donc à l'articulation entre deux périodes, moderne et postmoderne, dans une transition qui correspond aussi à une crise et à une remise en question de l'utopie, à travers les notions de progrès, de perfectibilité, de téléologie et de totalité qui lui étaient liées. Notre recherche cherche à cerner ces évolutions et leurs retombées sur le travail littéraire de nos écrivains - travail d'écriture bien sûr, mais aussi travail critique et théorique sur la définition de la littérature et ses fonctions. Cependant, elle évolue également sur un second plan : celui d'une définition des modèles utopiques en littérature, les œuvres dont nous nous occupons mettant en place, dans leurs rapports plus ou moins lointains au genre utopique, un certain type d'utopisme littéraire. Après une partie d'introduction théorique se concentrant sur les définitions possibles de l'utopie, nous partons donc de Vittorini et de l' " utopisme culturel " des années du Politecnico, revue animée par l'auteur entre 1945 et 1947, chapitre auquel répond l'analyse des œuvres Conversazione in Sicilia (Conversation en Sicile, 1941) et Le città del mondo (Les Villes du monde, 1951-1956). Une longue étude est ensuite consacrée au Menabò, revue dirigée par les deux auteurs entre 1959 et 1966, au cœur d'une crise poétique, politique, épistémologique dont la revue se fait l'écho. Sont parcourues en miroir deux " œuvres de la crise ", Le donne di Messina (Les Femmes de Messine, 1964) de Vittorini et La giornata d'uno scrutatore (La Journée d'un scrutateur, 1963) de Calvino. Une dernière partie se concentre sur le Calvino " utopiste " des années parisiennes, de sa passion pour Fourier à sa formulation de l' " utopia pulviscolare ", une utopie pulvérisée, spatialisée, anti-téléologique, dont les Città invisibili (Les Villes invisibles, 1972) sont la mise en forme littéraire, constituant le point d'arrivée de notre parcours.

Abstract

This thesis deals with the democratic accountability question within systems of global governance, but focuses on the European Union. The main ambition has been to explore and give an account for the current situation, and lack of accountability as a part of the European Union democratic deficit. It will also stress some of the solutions proposed. In order to fulfil this I have used classic liberal democracy theory and multi level governance theory. The thesis defines the concept of accountability as to be held accountable to a constituency or a superior official and the relationship between them can take many different shapes. Several factors are identified as threats to accountability such as many tiers of governance, no clearly defined responsibilities and the lack of elected politicians on a level of global governance. By establishing the EU as a government of multi level governance and a bearer of democratic values, problems with accountability and hence legitimacy will be presented in relation to the EU:s sui generis features and unique composition. The thesis concludes that even though a union with democratic accountability is highly desired, it is not feasible that it will happen in the nearest future, hence as the situation is today with scattered responsibilities and an invisibility within the non elected institutions, accountability remains a utopia for coming generations to implement.

Key Words: accountability, the EU, democracy, legitimacy, responsibility, global governance, multi level governance, democracy theory.

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Il est difficile de ne pas concevoir l’utopie du côté de la rupture : division spatiale originelle, tension temporelle, désaccord critique. Pourtant les théories et attaques des anti-utopistes voient dans l’utopie un monde illusoire voire inutile, clos, signant la fin des temps et potentiellement dangereux pour l’humanité. Et si l’utopie n’était pas le programme de la société meilleure à réaliser, mais bien au contraire une pratique transgressive, une apparition de discontinuité dans notre « ici et maintenant », un excès qui vient doubler le réel plutôt qu’un possible à réaliser dans le futur ?Iain M. Banks est un auteur de science-fiction contemporain original et audacieux, qui, conscient des dangers inhérents à l’utopie, a su jouer avec ces limites pour proposer une société utopique totalement inédite : cette utopie s’appelle la Culture. Comment réinvestir singulièrement l’utopie ? Comment la science-fiction – et plus précisément le genre du space-opéra – permet-elle de mettre en scène des problématiques politiques dignes d’un intérêt philosophique ?Iain M. Banks imagine une utopie tout entière tournée vers la rencontre, la proximité, la nouveauté. Subvertissant les traditions utopique et science-fictionnelle, le Cycle de la Culture est traversé par l’altérité et le conflit. Ces deux caractéristiques sont les fils directeurs de cette thèse qui vise à reconceptualiser l’utopie dans une perspective philosophique, politique et littéraire, en travaillant les représentations du discours utopique au sein du laboratoire science fictionnel.Ce discours prend ici trois formes : dystopie, hétérotopie, (e)utopie. Ensemble, elles dessinent une « culture utopique radicale »
It is difficult not to conceive utopia as a rupture: through original spatial division, temporal tension, critical discordance. Yet, theories and attacks from anti-utopians consider utopia as an illusory world, even useless, enclosed, marking the end of times and potentially dangerous for humanity. What if utopia was not the programme of a better society to realize,but instead a transgressive practice, an apparition of discontinuity in our « now and here », an excess which overtakes reality rather than a possible that has yet to be realized in the future? Iain M. Banks is a contemporary, original and audacious science-fiction author, who,aware of the inherent dangers of utopia, has known how to challenge these limits in order to provide a completely unique utopian society: this utopia is called the Culture. How to critically reinvest utopia? How can science fiction – and more precisely the genre of space-opera – depict political issues, worthy of philosophical enquiry? Iain M. Banks imagines a space for utopia, entirely oriented towards encounter,proximity, and novelty. Subverting science-fictional and utopian traditions, notions of alterity and conflict span the Culture Cycle. These two characteristics are the guiding principles of this dissertation, which aims at reconceptualizing utopia through a philosophical, political and literary perspective, by way of analysing the representations of utopian discourses within the science-fictional laboratory. These discourses take three shapes: dystopia, heterotopia, (e)utopia. Together, they outline a “radical utopian culture”

Comment s’articulent, autour des rapports entre l’homme et la nature, les pratiques scientifiques du naturaliste et du géographe, une pensée politique s’étendant du libéralisme à l’anarchisme et un style d’écrivain ? C’est la question que posent, singulièrement à la forme de l’essai, les œuvres d’Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), de Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) et d’Élisée Reclus (1830-1905). Dans un large XIXème siècle à envisager comme période révolutionnaire marquée par l’effacement des terræ incognitæ, le recul de la nature « sauvage » et les soubresauts économiques et politiques (Révolution Industrielle et révolutions politiques faisant se succéder les régimes), ces figures qu’il faut relire comme d’authentiques écrivains allient au sein d’une politique de la nature la géographie de la Terre à celle de l’Homme, et leurs expériences personnelles de la nature (du voyage d’exploration à l’habitat) à une pensée de la communauté allant et venant de l’individu à l’humanité, du micro- au macrocosme. Héritiers des Lumières luttant contre l’esclavage, le despotisme et le colonialisme, qu’ils documentent, ces essayistes qui refusent de laisser la science aux mains d’une caste positiviste et ethnocentriste sont les vulgarisateurs et les prophètes d’une démocratie littéraire en construction. Ils sont les pionniers d’une exploration moderne des rapports entre écriture et connaissance, les témoins essentiels d’une différenciation des savoirs que leur pratique littéraire universaliste entend conjurer. Tout l’enjeu consiste à perpétuer une approche de la nature comme un ensemble (cosmos) au moment même où elle se trouve, en tant qu’objet, divisée entre création littéraire et savoir savant. A l’aube de l’écologie littéraire et dans cette description d’un monde où chaque chose dépend de chacune des autres, la pratique de l’essayiste semble être la seule à pouvoir porter ce discours complexe, à la fois politique, scientifique et littéraire
How can the naturalist’s and the geographer’s scientific enquiries, a political thought ranging from liberalism to anarchism, and a writer’s style all revolve around the relationship between Man and Nature ? Such is a question raised —especially with regards to the Essay genre— by the works of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) and Élisée Reclus (1830-1905). Within the bounds of a longer 19th century, which can be seen as an age of revolutions marked by the fading off of terræ incognitæ, the dwindling of the Wilderness, and a series of economical and political fits (Industrial and Political revolutions triggering the succession of strings of regimes), it appears critical to reconsider these names as those of genuine authors. From the heart of a politics of nature, they bind together the geographies of Man and the Earth, and their personal experience of Nature (as explored or inhabited) with a thought of community ceaselessly shifting from the Individual to the Human Kind, from the Microcosm to the Macrocosm. These Essay writers are the heirs of the Enlightenment in their struggle against slavery, despotism and colonialism (which they document); they object to leaving science in the hand of a positivistic, ethnocentric caste —they are the authors of popular sciences and the prophets of a literary democracy in the making. They are the pioneers of a modern exploration of the relationship between writing and knowledge, the crucial witnesses of a gradual differentiation of sciences that their universalistic literary paradigm sets out to avert. The ultimate point is to carry on approaching Nature as a whole (cosmos) in an era bringing about its division, as an object, into two separate categories of literary creation and scholarly knowledge. In the dawning light of literary ecology, and in this world description in which all things depend on all things, the work of the Essay-writer seems to be the only one able to voice this complex speech, made of politics, science and literature all together

This work reinterprets the idea of progress at the heart of Woodrow Wilson’s liberal internationalism through the lens of secularization theory, which holds that modern philosophies of progress stand on religious foundations and represent secularized vestiges of biblical eschatology. Previous applications of this insight reveal a selective pattern: Whereas totalitarian and illiberal narratives of progress such as Nazism and Marxism-Leninism have received lavish attention and spawned extensive political religions literature, liberal progressivism has been ignored. This dissertation rectifies this neglect. Initial chapters present the biblical conception of history as the myth of salvation, introduce secularization through the writings of Karl Löwith and Hans Blumenberg, respectively its principal proponent and main critic, and test the limits of the concept to confirm its applicability to liberal progressivism. The main part aims secularization theory at Wilson’s idea of progress in the broader context of American liberal thought. From the 17th-century Puritan vision of a “city upon a hill” to the 19th-century doctrine of “manifest destiny”, biblical eschatology defined the way Americans envisioned history and their role in it, giving rise to a sort of liberal-republican millennialism. Wilson was no exception: Considering faith essential to authentic knowledge, he regarded history as a providential process, the United States as a divinely appointed redeemer nation, and himself as a Christian statesman performing God’s work in a fallen world. His foreign policy was fundamentally a religious mission to transform international relations according to the Bible, thereby fulfilling the prophecy of salvation. The dissertation demonstrates the eschatological foundations of his statecraft through specific examples and draws attention to their illiberal and totalizing implications. Final passages note the enduring relevance of Wilson’s principles and, based on their reinterpretation in this work, reflect critically on their suitability as a guide for future American foreign policy.

This dissertation explores two paradigms of modernization popular in Mexico in the 1940s. It argues that careful discussion of those paradigms is necessary to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the transition to an 'institutionalized' revolution, and also of the possible ways modernization can be imagined The two paradigms are distinguished with the aid of Karl Mannheim's dichotomy of 'utopia' versus 'ideology.' The 'utopian' approach to modernization was influenced by European historicism, which was popularized in Mexico through the works of Jose Ortega y Gasset and the arrival of Spanish refugee intellectuals. Historicism mixed freely with discussions of modernization in the early 1940s, particularly in the university classrooms of Jesus Silva Herzog and Luis Recasens Siches, and it helped Mexicans reconcile 'planned' modernization to their liberal and humanist traditions. The 'ideological' approach to modernization was influenced by the 'scientific management' movement in the United States, where several students from the National Autonomous University's National School of Economics studied public administration. That younger generation was determined to revive the Mexican Revolution through enlightened 'management.' The dissertation hypothesizes that their attempted synthesis of the 'utopian' and 'ideological' paradigms was conducive to political stability, but not to the renewal of the Revolution
acase@tulane.edu