The cunning of unreason : making sense of politics /
John Dunn.
- xii, 401 pages ; 23 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 368-389) and index.
Preface -- Starting Out -- Defining the Task -- Why Is There Politics at All? Four Answers -- The Centrality of Rule and its Sources -- The State -- Explaining and Appraising Rule -- The Implications of the Explanations -- The State as Idea and as Fact -- Power and Authority -- Conclusion -- Political Understanding -- Political Understanding as Guide to Political Judgment? -- Understanding Human Interests -- Understanding States -- Law's Empire -- Summary -- Understanding the Constraints on State Power: The Case of Britain since 1979 -- British Politics since the Coming of Mrs Thatcher as an Explanatory Problem -- The Centrality of Judgment -- Necessity, Normative Rationality and Practical Judgment -- The Platonic Riposte -- Explaining Unfathomable Choices: Sociology versus Epistemology -- The Modern Representative Democratic Republic -- An Hegemonic State Form? -- Representative Democracy and Economic Policy -- Reorientating -- Crisis, Routine and Political Intelligibility -- Focusing the Problem -- Two Perspectives on the Modern Democratic Republic -- Riding Free -- Explaining the Failings of the Modern Republic: Platonism versus Sociology -- Incomprehension or Context? -- Crisis and Routine Again -- Starting Again -- The Components of Politics -- Looking for Political Understanding -- Doing Better: Fantasy and Judgment -- Overt Resources and Covert Possibilities -- Two Polarities: Voluntarism and Fatalism, Routine and Crisis -- Transcending Politics?: Three Strategies -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index. Part I.-- 1. 2. 3. Part II.-- 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Part III.-- 9. 10.
"All human action lies under the shadow of prospective regret, but there are few areas of contemporary life over which that shadow falls so darkly as it does over politics. We hear constantly that Americans are less likely than ever to vote and are increasingly cynical about the ability of politicians to effect change. Why is politics so consistently disappointing?Starting from the premise that the professional study of politics can offer us a way to understand why we have so little faith in the political process, The Cunning of Unreason explores competing definitions of politics, probing the hidden assumptions and implications of each. In energetic and engaging prose, Cambridge political theorist John Dunn makes a convincing case for the ongoing relevance of great political thinkers from Aristotle to Marx. Along the way, he bridges the academic world of political theory and the public world of debate about democracy, corruption, globalization, and the recent trend toward conservatism.A must read for every politician, spin doctor, and professional pundit, The Cunning of Unreason offers a greater understanding of the way politics works in contemporary society and what its promise is for the future."--Publisher description.