Political Pluralism and the State: Beyond Sovereignty

The concept of a sovereign nation-state is a central part in many of the debates discussing the salient issues in political science today. Yet the debate on the state is fragmented and while the different sub-disciplines within political science address the different possible consequences of different processes, the one thing they all share is uncertainty about the future shape and role of the state.Political Pluralization and the State is the first work in political theory to bring together IR, comparative politics and political theory approches to analyze the state and develop a new interpretative scheme for social and political scientists. The book seeks to understand and interpret political pluralization as an expression of the continuous processes of cooperation and secession that define politics, to develop an alternative conception of the polis sensitive to these unavoidable processes, and to assess the three political problems outlined above in the light of the (il)legitimacy of political cooperation and secession. Divided into three parts: Part I introduce the concept of political pluralization and explains why political pluralization can be perceived as a serious challenge for the values of liberal democracy. Part II discusses the responses of contemporary political philosophy, in which the legitimacy of political rule depends not merely on efficiency and effectiveness but also on moral justifiability. Part III translates this new perspective into a new agenda for political theory drawing on Aristotles conception of the polis and Bodins analysis of sovereignty. This book will be of interest to students and scholars philosophy, politics, political economy, international relations, sociology and other social sciences.Wissenburg, Marcel is the author of 'Political Pluralism and the State: Beyond Sovereignty' with ISBN 9780415467391 and ISBN 041546739X.