Welcome Back

Everyone

Best wishes for the new term

POL110 Semester B Week One: Political Theory
and Studying Political Concepts
(Thinking about thinking for better thinking)

DR MADELEINE DAVIS

ADVICE AND FEEDBACK HOURS THIS TERM: TUESDAY 11.30-12.30, AND

WEDNESDAY 11-12. NO NEED TO BOOK – DROP IN TO ARTS 1 229A

M.J.DAVIS@QMUL.AC.UK
A few things to note :
 Portfolio 2: details are on QM+
 Important Module Information; Semester 2 Assessment profile
 The first task was on the reading you have done for this week
(Goodwin Ch 2 on Ideology); the second is on the topic of this lecture
(Political theory)
 Prepare a draft of Task 2 for next week’s seminar and bring it

 Note: it is VITAL to keep on top of all the tasks this semester. There
will be very little time for revisions at the end of the semester. You are
also reading and writing to prepare for the exam
 There is an in –person exam at the end of the module –
more details to follow. Week 12 classes and lecture will be
devoted to revision and preparation

 A few changes to the teaching team and timetable– so

check your timetable and attend the correct seminar!
Lecture Overview: Thinking about Thinking
 Today: Moving from ideological traditions, via concepts of ideology and concepts of political
theory to debates over political concepts

 What is political theory? What are political concepts?

 What do political theorists do?
 What questions does political theory deal with?
 Concepts and theories of being human: people and the organisation of society
 What is? Why? What should be? How? & Why? (Rational assessment/critique of ideologies)
 Historical and Conceptual Analysis
 Logical and dialectical Analysis and development
 Normative Argument
 Value of theory and practical Implications
 Problems of conceptual closure – closed mindedness
 Examples: James Baldwin and Edward Said: politics of dehumanisation
 We all do political theory all the time – how might we do it better?
We are all We find
political ourselves
theorists – caught up
trying to be in webs of
better pre-given
(i.e. critical) thinking
thinkers
Political Theory and Political concepts

 Political theory can be thought of standing between science and ideology

Science Political Theory Political Ideologies

Rational inquiry Contested rational Concepts and thinking

into reality - inquiry into political shaped by

non-rational factors
Consensus leads concepts - e.g. power of narratives
to established theories No immediate prospect of
consensual end to inquiry
Political Theory and Political concepts

 Political theory – theorising the political

 1. Theories of persons, social relations and societal structures
 E.g.
 Mill’s ‘engines of moral repression’
 Theory of mechanisms imposing morality in elite interests
 Marx and Capital
 Theory of deep, basic real structures of capitalist modernity
 Class relations, i.e. ownership of property & waged labour, profit imperative

 2. The study of Political concepts

 Concepts: general, complex and structured ideas about political realities
 Rational examination of political concepts
Concepts and Political concepts

 Concepts:
 Identifying classes or types of things or states of affairs.
 Determining ‘essential’ features of a thing or things.
 We use general terms all the time in everyday life
 E.g. We often use the word ‘freedom’
 But what is essential to freedom? What must be true of some state of affairs for it to be an
instance of freedom?
 The different answers to such questions are different concepts of freedom
 Studying political concepts is a crucial aspect of
political theory
 Political theory is both critical and constructive (critique combines the two)
 It tries to understand, clarify and critically examine the values and principles at stake in
political opinions and arguments. (Conceptual and Logical Analysis)
 E.g. Is it logically consistent to believe in universal human freedom at the same time as affirming
private possession of productive property (capitalist class relations)?
 Political theory formulates arguments in support of particular values and principles.
(Normative Argument)
 E.g. Arguing for universal human rights on the basis of distinctive claims about the nature of being
human, such as rationality, or needs, or purposiveness.
 Political theory draws out the implications for practice of particular values and principles.
(Practical Implications)
 E.g. Arguing for the primacy of property rights can lead to massive increases in overall wealth with
vast inequalities and mass propertylessness and poverty.
 Normative Arguments
 Political theorists/ philosophers have constructed normative arguments for
particular political ideals for thousands of years;

 Classical Theory, (e.g. Greek thinking around 500 BC) was concerned with
rational accounts of the ‘Good Life’: what is best for us both individually and
socially?

 Modern theory has often been sceptical about such rational inquiry
 Normative ideas as no more than individual preferences?
 Normative ideas as no more than culturally relative?
 But are these ideas themselves rational?
 Fashions in political theory too!
 Historical and Analytical Dimensions to
Conceptual Analysis
 Historical
 Origins of concepts
 Ways they change over time
 Relation to traditions, ideologies, or political and economic contexts
 Analytic
 Breaking down the elements involved the meaning
 Testing whether concepts are being used in different ways
 Relation to other concepts

Contestation of concepts – (W.B. Gallie) ‘essentially contested concepts’ "concepts the

proper use of which inevitably involves endless disputes about their proper uses on the part of
their users", and these disputes "cannot be settled by appeal to empirical evidence, linguistic
usage, or the canons of logic alone".
 Logical Analysis

 Developing a capacity for rational thought

 Qs: how are words being used? How do arguments make sense?
 Identifying what is implicit: assumptions (facts, realities and values)
 Distinguishing between factual, structural and evaluative claims
 Descriptive; explanatory; and normative aspects of an argument
 Identifying contradictions and inconsistencies
 Teasing out genuine argument from mere rhetoric
 Value of Political Theory?

 Possibility of rational reasons for action

 Rational action needed to better preserve or bring about good states of affairs

 Social and political reality is reproduced and or changed by action so …

 Action can be shaped by reasons so …
 Reasons are shaped by concepts so …
 The more rational the concepts – the more rational the action
 Rational vs irrational narratives (Monbiot)

 We face profound problems which need rational solutions

 We need rational political theory as part of any solution to problems
 Politics and conceptual closure:
beware of depoliticization!
 Recall ‘decontestation’ from Michael Freeden?
 Closing minds often an effect of political/cultural power
 Other forms of depoliticisation:
 One-dimensionality
 Identifying existing states of affairs as the ‘truth’ of a concept
E.g. this is ‘democracy’, or this is ‘freedom’
 Critique opens up the imagination
 Naturalisation
 Existing states of affairs appear to be ‘natural’ and/or fixed.
 Critique opens up rational discussion of what is natural and opens actuality to real
possibilities of change
 Examples: Baldwin and Said on
Humanism and Racism
 James Baldwin: I am Not Your Negro
 Edward Said: Orientalism
 ‘Negro’ and ‘Oriental’: some able to classify ‘others’ as lesser beings
 Conceptual critique - powerfully reveals this to be false

 False essentialism: dehumanising, i.e. denying the reality of being human to whole
populations/cultures

 Such concepts are internal to oppressive political practices

 The power/knowledge of colonialism, slavery and racialised domination
 Examples: Baldwin, Said on and
Humanism and Racism
 Use of dehumanising concepts: Historical and on-going

 Critique: raising vital questions about contemporary politics

 BLM and critiques of contemporary social relations based on historical and contemporary
misconceptions of race/ethnicity/gender/class

 Vital Questions:
 Are dominant conceptions of persons, and/or their use, dehumanising?
 How? Why? What is the role of theory in bringing humanising change about?
Conclude: We all use political concepts and do
political theory all the time
 We all have opinions about justice and injustice
 We all use concepts like democracy, freedom, justice, equality etc.
 We all have opinions about what politics is about and what might be possible through
political argument and struggle

How can we do our political theory, or thinking politically, better?

 Reflect on our own assumptions as well as those of others
 Think about the consistency of our opinions
 When some political event or policy makes us feel strongly, e.g. angry, try to work out why
 Use concepts and arguments political theorists have formulated to help us understand our
world
 Thank you and enjoy
being/becoming political
theorists!