Political Theory

WE WELCOME ALL PANEL AND PAPER PROPOSALS ON POLITICAL THEORY. BELOW ARE SOME SPECIFIC IDEAS FROM THE SECTION CHAIRS. Social Thought and the Theory of Politics This section takes an 'applied' approach to Political Theory, in that it aims to host panels and papers that explore the theoretical basis of research in Political Science and the theoretical aspects and implications of the specific issues it addresses. Emphasis will be placed on how inputs from other areas of knowledge and especially of social thought can illuminate the study of ‘the political’. Though this section is open to a wide variety of contributions that conjugate Political Science and theory, the author that will provide the main methodological and thematic reference is Max Weber (1864-1920), whose approach was a singular combination of theoretical work, concept building and political and social analysis directed at a wide-array of phenomena from social life. Papers which aim to discuss the legacy of Max Weber to Political Theory in any of the section’s panels are especially welcome, but so are those that engage with other authors and approaches with relevant contributions to the topics below. 1. The place of Political Theory in Political Science This panel is dedicated to the role of political theory in the elaboration of methods and concepts in political science. How do considerations about the nature of social life, of the state or of human action and its drivers influence research into the political? Questions such as these inspired the thinker we take as a main reference for this section and its panels, Max Weber. His emphasis on the need for methodological clarity and coherence as well as conceptual accurateness still presents a model for the integration of political theory into the practice of political analysis. The fact that his approach was also one which integrated history, social thought and political economy - among other elements - into his understanding of the political, means contributions aiming to discuss the role of other disciplines in shaping political theory are also welcome. 2. Power, legitimacy and political actors: Max Weber's sociology of domination and political theory. Many of the concepts from Max Weber's sociology of domination (Herrschaft) are part of the vocabularies not only of political scientists, but also of the media and other academics, making an appearance even in the everyday conversation of non-experts. Yet, the commonplace use of notions such as charisma, patrimonialism and legitimacy does not always correspond to their original ideal-typical formulation in Weber's works. This panel welcomes contributions which aim to clarify these concepts - or show their limitations - as well as those that demonstrate how these and other Weberian ideal types can still illuminate phenomena of contemporary political life. 3. Political Parties and Democracy. Max Weber was one of the first social thinkers to conceptualize the close connection between the development of “mass democracies” and political parties from both a sociological and a political theoretical point of view. Nowadays, the link between democracy and political parties seems to be less obvious, for different reasons. How can Weber's as well as other contributions to the theory of political parties and democracy help us understand the complex relationship they maintain nowadays? 4. Political theory and the challenge of Europe The construction and legitimacy of a European political union has been the object of many reflections in political theory lately, most of them focusing on the kind of “state” entity the European Union could or should become. Bringing Max Weber into this discussion, as well as other classical and contemporary contributions, might afford a better understanding of the complex intertwining of legitimacy and power issues at stake in the EU. This panel thus welcomes papers dealing with theoretical attempts to face the challenge set by the European Union to political scientists.