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Beyond hegemony: Toward a new philosophy of political legitimacy

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posted on 2023-06-07, 20:04 authored by Darrow SchecterDarrow Schecter
Since the Enlightenment, liberal democratic governments in Europe and North America have been compelled to secure the legitimacy of their authority by constructing rational states whose rationality is based on modern forms of law. The first serious challenge to liberal democratic practices of legal legitimacy comes in Marx's early writings on Rousseau and Hegel. In addition to examining Marx's critique of Kant, Hegel, and liberalism, Beyond Hegemony investigates the reasons for the authoritarianism and breakdown of state socialist governments in Russia and elsewhere claiming to put Marx's ideas on democracy and equality into practice. The book explains that although Marx's critique remains valid today, his ideas need to be supplemented by the contributions to social theory made by Nietzsche, Foucault, the critical theory of the Frankfurt School as well as the libertarian socialism of G.D.H. Cole. What emerges is a new theory of political legitimacy which indicates how it is possible to move beyond liberal democracy whilst avoiding the authoritarian turn of state socialism.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Pages

208.0

ISBN

9780719060885

Department affiliated with

  • History Publications

Notes

The book explains the weaknesses of the many extra-legal accounts of legitimacy now on offer, such as those based on friendship and identity. It goes on to argue that the first of two steps beyond hegemony depends on the discovery of legitimate forms of law (in contrast with legal forms of legitimacy), and demonstrates why the conditions of legitimate law can be identified as a prelude to the second step, which is enacting them in qualitatively new kinds of legislation.

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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