This dissertation engages a very general question: what matters politically? This question is characterized as a point of heresy, as a site through which different political stances differentiate themselves from one another and account for their differences. Building on the concept of aesthetics of politics developed by Jacques Rancière, I seek to free up this concept’s critical and analytical potential by arguing that different aesthetics of politics act as prerequisites to divergent determinations of political importance. More precisely, I argue that significant formulations of how variations in distributions of political importance occur tend to presuppose particular accounts of the relationships between perception and interpretation, sensibility and understanding, or how we sense and how we make sense. While the concept of aesthetics is tied to particular histories of what has been called Western Modernity, I argue that Western political thought has been characterized by a deep concern for questions of perception since its allegedly inaugural texts in Classical Greece, and that the so-called postmodern condition continues to put into play aesthetic terms of political engagement. To test this hypothesis positing that we always already think of politics aesthetically, I map five influential aesthetics of politics: aesthetics of prevalence, aesthetics of emancipation, aesthetics of temperament, aesthetics of friction, and aesthetics of endurance. Each one is already manifold. To make sense of these multiplicities, each aesthetics of politics is studied through a fourfold engagement with the politics of one of the senses of the age-old fivefold of sight, taste, hearing, touch, and smell. The politics of each sense are engaged along a politological, an artistico-political, a polemological and a hauntological folds. I am thereby able to show the intricacies of how the problem of political importance has been and is being dealt with. / Graduate / 0615 / simonlab@uvic.ca

A história política paraguaia pauta-se por longos períodos de predomínio dos dois principais grupos políticos agrupados nos partidos Colorado e Liberal, constatando-se na evolução da estrutura histórica a manutenção de seu predomínio, nos períodos de autoritarismo bem como nos de democratização. O presente trabalho propõe-se a demonstrar que a ideologia é um elemento importante no processo de dominação política no Paraguai, visando sua legitimação, constituindo-se em uma hegemonia. Observa-se que o dinamismo interno dos partidos provido pelas lutas internas partidárias, engendrando em uma estrutura partidária e em um discurso ideológico flexíveis, possibilita a sua continuação ao longo do tempo. Procura-se analisar qual o papel do discurso ideológico na dinâmica interna dos partidos, se influencia no processo de adaptação que permite a sua manutenção histórica. Neste âmbito, busca-se apreciar qual o papel dos intelectuais orgânicos – com atuação na estrutura partidária – na conformação e manutenção do bloco histórico, a fim de observar se de fato o elemento ideológico constitui-se em relevante ferramenta para a sua manutenção. Intenta-se compreender como se comportou historicamente o desenvolvimento do processo de hegemonia dos grupos sociais dominantes, e como este fenômeno possibilitou a acomodação dos interesses divergentes e concorrentes de alguns setores do bloco, e desses com os setores operários e camponeses, mantendo o modelo hegemônico de dominação. A partir do estudo de cinco períodos, procura-se identificar quais são os discursos ideológicos dos partidos Colorado e Liberal, a partir de intelectuais orgânicos representantes das principais correntes dos partidos, assim como elementos que os diferenciam e outros que permanecem ao longo do tempo, visando encontrar a ideia central e os elementos essenciais que movem a ação política partidária. Para tanto, utilizar-se-ão duas classes de fontes empíricas para a pesquisa: as convenções partidárias e suas declarações ideológicas, ademais de obras da produção de intelectuais orgânicos representantes dos dois projetos hegemônicos. / The Paraguayan political history is guided by long predominance periods of the two main political groups grouped in Colorado and Liberal parties, finding in the evolution of the historic structure the maintain of its dominance in both periods of authoritarianism as in democratization. This paper aims to demonstrate that ideology is an important element in the political domination process in Paraguay, seeking its legitimacy, thus becoming a hegemony. It is observed that the internal dynamics of the parties provided by party infighting, engendering in a party structure and a flexible ideological discourse, enables its continuation over time. Seeks to analyze the role of ideological discourse in the internal dynamics of the parties, whether or not influence the adaptation process that allows its historical maintenance. In this context, the aim is to assess what is the role of organic intellectuals – operating in the party structure – in the formation and maintenance of the historical bloc, in order to see if in fact the ideological element constitutes a relevant tool for its maintenance. Attempts to understand how historically behaved the development of hegemony process of dominant social groups, and how this phenomenon has enabled the accommodation of divergent and competing interests of some sectors of the bloc, and those with the workers and peasants sectors, maintaining the hegemonic model of domination. From the study of five periods, seeks to identify what are the ideological discourses of the Colorado and Liberal parties in those moments, from organic intellectuals representatives of mainstream political parties, as well as elements that differentiate the parties and others who remain over time, aimed at finding the central idea and the essential elements that move the partisan political action. To this end, shall be used two classes of empirical sources for the research: the party conventions and their ideological statements, in addition to works of the production of organic intellectual representatives of the two hegemonic projects.

This study examines the politics of identification in antiracist struggles and asks how people begin and sustain social movement work across lines of difference. The project follows a series of activists and public intellectuals to sites of conflict in order to explore how actors confront failures in solidarity by summoning people to understand their freedom as bound to antiracist struggles. In work by James Baldwin from the 1960s and work by three contemporary social movement organizations—Black Lives Matter, antiracist LGBTQ organization Southerners on New Ground (SONG), and immigrant justice organization #Not1More—actors construct shared forms of identification across racial lines using kinship language and references to the body. Undergirding these rhetorical and organizing strategies is a concept—boundness—with a history in black political thought; a paradigm in which people’s lives are understood to be co-constituted and their freedom bound together. The first chapter traces the concept of boundness in James Baldwin’s political thought and explores how boundness offers an alternative and embodied way to theorize racial identity, racialized violence, and interracial solidarity. Chapter II examines interviews with James Baldwin in 1963 and #BlackLivesMatter activists in 2014-2015 to explore how their overlapping interventions reorient public discussions about racial violence. Chapters III and IV examine how contemporary activists in SONG and #Not1More generate shared forms of identification across racial lines. Drawing on archival research and ethnography, this study employs a close reading approach to specific moments in political discourse and organizing to theorize how people on the ground are crafting and contesting forms of identification. Ultimately, this project offers an account of the ways in which forms of political identification are structured by ethical and emotional orientations, and contends that contestations over these structures are a primary site of politics. This dissertation includes previously published material (Chapter I). / 10000-01-01

This study of the term politique during the French Wars of Religion (c. 1562-98) argues that it is a keyword in the sense that it is is active and actively used in French explorations of the political, in the forming and undermining of collective identities in a period of civil crisis, and in the self-fashioning gestures of a shifting political class. I sample and analyse a range of texts - from treatises that form part of the canon of early modern French political writing (such as Bodin's Six livres de la Republique [1576] and the Satyre ménippée [c. 1593]) to anonymous polemical pamphlets - all of which feature prominent uses of the term politique. Certain of these sources gave rise to a longstanding historiographical impression that politique referred, in the period, to a coherent third party in the religious wars as well as to a related kind of expertise and its practitioner. This thesis builds on and extends recent work showing that there was no such party and no one in the period who directly identified as politique. Rather than seeking to identify the 'real' politiques or to establish a corrected definition of the term as used in sixteenth-century French, I argue that the term is strikingly and increasingly mobile across the period, coming at times to refer to mobility itself in conceptions of politics and political action. Dialogue emerges in the thesis as a key conceptual arena and discursive mode for writers attempting to work out what they and others mean by the term politique. I use philological and word-historical methods to examine writers of the period who seek to determine what makes a good or bad politique, to present themselves as politique, or to condemn politiques as morally bankrupt, and - in some cases - to do all of the above in the same text. Almost every text I analyse in the thesis offers its own definition of politique, and attempts to be definitive, but I show that all these attempts to make the reader recognise the 'true' meaning of politique are extending the drama rather than concluding it.

Karl Marx's relationship to republicanism proceeds in three stages: he began his political career as a republican, he subsequently transitioned to communism, and then he finally reconciled his republicanism and communism. Marx's early political writings reveal his commitment to central republican ideas, including popular sovereignty, widespread political participation and universal suffrage. These commitments led him to reject absolute and constitutional monarchy. But they also led to a critique of the modern republic, which Marx argued gave insufficient space for citizens to participate publicly for the common good. He thus gives a republican critique of the republic. Marx's disillusionment with the ability of a modern republic to deliver human emancipation eventually led him to transition to communism. He now argued that the republic would be a bourgeois republic, which would subject the proletariat to the capitalist. He attacked republicans for neglecting social depredation in favour of political reform. However, his transition to communism also carried with it several republican commitments. Unlike the many apolitical versions of communism at the time, Marx insisted that the workers had to establish the republic before communism could emerge. He also extended key republican political ideas, including the objection to arbitrary power, to the social sphere. But what was absent was an account of a more participatory and accountable political alternative to the modern republic. However, the experience of ordinary workers carrying out the legislative and public administration of Paris during the Commune, led Marx to return to many of those early republican themes. He celebrated ordinary citizens' capacity for self-government and advocated popular control over the state and transforming representative democracy into popular delegacy. He came to realise that these political structures were essential to achieving the social goals of communism. He thus came to a synthesis of his early republicanism and later communism.

A história política paraguaia pauta-se por longos períodos de predomínio dos dois principais grupos políticos agrupados nos partidos Colorado e Liberal, constatando-se na evolução da estrutura histórica a manutenção de seu predomínio, nos períodos de autoritarismo bem como nos de democratização. O presente trabalho propõe-se a demonstrar que a ideologia é um elemento importante no processo de dominação política no Paraguai, visando sua legitimação, constituindo-se em uma hegemonia. Observa-se que o dinamismo interno dos partidos provido pelas lutas internas partidárias, engendrando em uma estrutura partidária e em um discurso ideológico flexíveis, possibilita a sua continuação ao longo do tempo. Procura-se analisar qual o papel do discurso ideológico na dinâmica interna dos partidos, se influencia no processo de adaptação que permite a sua manutenção histórica. Neste âmbito, busca-se apreciar qual o papel dos intelectuais orgânicos – com atuação na estrutura partidária – na conformação e manutenção do bloco histórico, a fim de observar se de fato o elemento ideológico constitui-se em relevante ferramenta para a sua manutenção. Intenta-se compreender como se comportou historicamente o desenvolvimento do processo de hegemonia dos grupos sociais dominantes, e como este fenômeno possibilitou a acomodação dos interesses divergentes e concorrentes de alguns setores do bloco, e desses com os setores operários e camponeses, mantendo o modelo hegemônico de dominação. A partir do estudo de cinco períodos, procura-se identificar quais são os discursos ideológicos dos partidos Colorado e Liberal, a partir de intelectuais orgânicos representantes das principais correntes dos partidos, assim como elementos que os diferenciam e outros que permanecem ao longo do tempo, visando encontrar a ideia central e os elementos essenciais que movem a ação política partidária. Para tanto, utilizar-se-ão duas classes de fontes empíricas para a pesquisa: as convenções partidárias e suas declarações ideológicas, ademais de obras da produção de intelectuais orgânicos representantes dos dois projetos hegemônicos. / The Paraguayan political history is guided by long predominance periods of the two main political groups grouped in Colorado and Liberal parties, finding in the evolution of the historic structure the maintain of its dominance in both periods of authoritarianism as in democratization. This paper aims to demonstrate that ideology is an important element in the political domination process in Paraguay, seeking its legitimacy, thus becoming a hegemony. It is observed that the internal dynamics of the parties provided by party infighting, engendering in a party structure and a flexible ideological discourse, enables its continuation over time. Seeks to analyze the role of ideological discourse in the internal dynamics of the parties, whether or not influence the adaptation process that allows its historical maintenance. In this context, the aim is to assess what is the role of organic intellectuals – operating in the party structure – in the formation and maintenance of the historical bloc, in order to see if in fact the ideological element constitutes a relevant tool for its maintenance. Attempts to understand how historically behaved the development of hegemony process of dominant social groups, and how this phenomenon has enabled the accommodation of divergent and competing interests of some sectors of the bloc, and those with the workers and peasants sectors, maintaining the hegemonic model of domination. From the study of five periods, seeks to identify what are the ideological discourses of the Colorado and Liberal parties in those moments, from organic intellectuals representatives of mainstream political parties, as well as elements that differentiate the parties and others who remain over time, aimed at finding the central idea and the essential elements that move the partisan political action. To this end, shall be used two classes of empirical sources for the research: the party conventions and their ideological statements, in addition to works of the production of organic intellectual representatives of the two hegemonic projects.

A história política paraguaia pauta-se por longos períodos de predomínio dos dois principais grupos políticos agrupados nos partidos Colorado e Liberal, constatando-se na evolução da estrutura histórica a manutenção de seu predomínio, nos períodos de autoritarismo bem como nos de democratização. O presente trabalho propõe-se a demonstrar que a ideologia é um elemento importante no processo de dominação política no Paraguai, visando sua legitimação, constituindo-se em uma hegemonia. Observa-se que o dinamismo interno dos partidos provido pelas lutas internas partidárias, engendrando em uma estrutura partidária e em um discurso ideológico flexíveis, possibilita a sua continuação ao longo do tempo. Procura-se analisar qual o papel do discurso ideológico na dinâmica interna dos partidos, se influencia no processo de adaptação que permite a sua manutenção histórica. Neste âmbito, busca-se apreciar qual o papel dos intelectuais orgânicos – com atuação na estrutura partidária – na conformação e manutenção do bloco histórico, a fim de observar se de fato o elemento ideológico constitui-se em relevante ferramenta para a sua manutenção. Intenta-se compreender como se comportou historicamente o desenvolvimento do processo de hegemonia dos grupos sociais dominantes, e como este fenômeno possibilitou a acomodação dos interesses divergentes e concorrentes de alguns setores do bloco, e desses com os setores operários e camponeses, mantendo o modelo hegemônico de dominação. A partir do estudo de cinco períodos, procura-se identificar quais são os discursos ideológicos dos partidos Colorado e Liberal, a partir de intelectuais orgânicos representantes das principais correntes dos partidos, assim como elementos que os diferenciam e outros que permanecem ao longo do tempo, visando encontrar a ideia central e os elementos essenciais que movem a ação política partidária. Para tanto, utilizar-se-ão duas classes de fontes empíricas para a pesquisa: as convenções partidárias e suas declarações ideológicas, ademais de obras da produção de intelectuais orgânicos representantes dos dois projetos hegemônicos. / The Paraguayan political history is guided by long predominance periods of the two main political groups grouped in Colorado and Liberal parties, finding in the evolution of the historic structure the maintain of its dominance in both periods of authoritarianism as in democratization. This paper aims to demonstrate that ideology is an important element in the political domination process in Paraguay, seeking its legitimacy, thus becoming a hegemony. It is observed that the internal dynamics of the parties provided by party infighting, engendering in a party structure and a flexible ideological discourse, enables its continuation over time. Seeks to analyze the role of ideological discourse in the internal dynamics of the parties, whether or not influence the adaptation process that allows its historical maintenance. In this context, the aim is to assess what is the role of organic intellectuals – operating in the party structure – in the formation and maintenance of the historical bloc, in order to see if in fact the ideological element constitutes a relevant tool for its maintenance. Attempts to understand how historically behaved the development of hegemony process of dominant social groups, and how this phenomenon has enabled the accommodation of divergent and competing interests of some sectors of the bloc, and those with the workers and peasants sectors, maintaining the hegemonic model of domination. From the study of five periods, seeks to identify what are the ideological discourses of the Colorado and Liberal parties in those moments, from organic intellectuals representatives of mainstream political parties, as well as elements that differentiate the parties and others who remain over time, aimed at finding the central idea and the essential elements that move the partisan political action. To this end, shall be used two classes of empirical sources for the research: the party conventions and their ideological statements, in addition to works of the production of organic intellectual representatives of the two hegemonic projects.

No amplo contexto social, político e religioso da França quinhentista, as \"Guerras de Religião\", sobretudo a Saint-Barthélemy, motivarão a produção de textos revolucionários pelos huguenotes. Surgem ali os grandes escritos monarcômacos franceses. Dentre todos estes, três se destacam justamente porque conseguirão transcender as questões político-religiosas e realizar uma abordagem sistematizada de temas mais universais da manifestação política do poder. Dessa forma, conseguirão superar em muito o âmbito da controvérsia então desenvolvida e lançar uma renovada visão em aspectos estruturais do regime de governo, sendo até chamados de \'triunvirato monarcômaco\' por um dos especialistas no assunto. São eles a Franco-Gallia, da autoria de François Hotman, Du Droit des Magistrats, de Théodore de Bèze, e as Vindiciae contra Tyrannos, de Philippe Du Plessis-Mornay. Eles abordarão de maneira significativa os temas da limitação dos poderes reais, o direito de resistência à tirania e a teoria contratual nas relações entre governantes e súditos. As numerosas edições e publicações destes trabalhos e os comentários de influentes pesquisadores transmitem o valor destas obras. Dessa forma, torna-se um imprescindível desafio ampliar os estudos desses livros e realizar uma análise do seu conteúdo para se ter uma clara noção do desenvolvimento do pensamento político monarcômaco. / In the broad context social, political and religious of the renaissancist century (XVI) in France, the \"Wars of Religion,\" especially the Saint-Barthélemy, motivated the production of texts by the revolutionary Huguenots. There arose the great writings French \"monarcomachs\". Among all these, three stand out precisely because they will achieve the issues transcend political and religious and conduct a systematic approach to more universal themes of the demonstration of political power. Thus, succeed in overcoming the very scope of the controversy developed and then launch a renewed vision in structural aspects of the system of government, and even called \"monarcomach triumvirs\" by one of the experts on the subject. They are the Franco-Gallia, by Francois Hotman, Du Droit des Magistrats, by Théodore de Bèze, and the Vindiciae contra Tyrannos, by Philippe Du Plessis-Mornay. They address in a meaningful way the issues limitation of real powers, the right of resistance against tyranny and the theory of contract in relations between rulers and subjects. The numerous editions and publications of these works and the comments of influential researchers transmit the value of these books. Thus, it becomes a crucial challenge expand the studies of these books and do an analysis of their content to have a clear concept of the development of political monarchomach thought.

A problemática relação entre as obras de Caio Prado Jr. e Celso Furtado consiste numa das mais interessantes polêmicas de nossa historiografia. Sabe-se que em Formação Econômica do Brasil, principal obra de Furtado, não há referências explícitas à obra de Caio Prado Jr., mesmo que a influência do pensamento do historiador marxista na obra do economista cepalino seja mais do que evidente. A questão, longe de estar pacificada, despertou a atenção de nomes como Chico de Oliveira, Paul Singer, Roberto Schwarz e Tamás Szmerecsányi. Para além da polêmica, parece haver razoável interesse na comparação mais ampla do pensamento de ambos. Partindo daí, o presente trabalho coteja o pensamento dos autores entre dois momentos temáticos bem definidos, o de seus livros de Formação, de meados das décadas de 1940 e 1950 e o momento da Revolução, já nos idos da década de 1960. Nesse marco cronológico e temático, procura-se situar os autores no contexto intelectual mais amplo de que fazem parte. O marxismo de matriz comunista, no caso de Caio Prado Jr. e a economia política da CEPAL para Celso Furtado. Em seguida, a comparação é realizada em torno de três eixos temáticos mais amplos. O primeiro, a respeito do uso que realizam da tipologia de contrários das colonizações de exploração e povoamento. O segundo, que trata da maneira como abordam a difícil transição, ainda inconclusa, entre colônia e nação, que em Caio Prado Jr. adquire a forma de impasses do inorgânico e em Furtado, nas ideias que levaram à criação da SUDENE. Por fim, compara-se as respostas de ambos ao conturbado contexto político da década de 1960, quando as análises convergem para a defesa de uma Revolução, ou Pré-Revolução, vista não como ruptura, mas como um processo mais amplo de transformação social. / The problematic relation between the works of Caio Prado Jr. and Celso Furtado is one of the most interesting polemics of our historiography. It is known that in the Formação Econômica do Brasil, Furtado\'s main work, there are no explicit references to the work of Caio Prado Jr., even though the influence of the thought of the Marxist historian on the work of the ECLAC economist is more than evident. The issue, far from being pacified, attracted the attention of names like Chico de Oliveira, Paul Singer, Roberto Schwarz and Tamás Szmerecsányi. Beyond the controversy, there seems to be reasonable interest in the broader comparison of the thinking of both. From this point of view, the present work contrasts the authors\' thinking between two well-defined thematic moments, that of their books of \"Formation\", from the mid-1940s and 1950s and the moment of the \"Revolution\", already in the 1960s In this chronological and thematic framework, we seek to locate the authors in the broader intellectual context of which they are part. Communist matrix Marxism, in the case of Caio Prado Jr. and the political economy of ECLAC for Celso Furtado. Then, the comparison is carried out around three broader thematic axes. The first one, regarding the use that they make of the typology of opposites of colonização de exploração e colonização de povoamento. The second, which compares the way they deal with the difficult, and still unfinished transition between colony and nation, which in Caio Prado Jr. acquires the form of \"impasses do inorgânico\" and in Furtado, in the ideas that led to the creation of SUDENE. Finally, their responses are compared in the troubled political context of the 1960s, when the two analyzes converge to defend a Revolution, or Pre-Revolution, seen not as rupture, but as a broader process of social transformation.

In this thesis, I explore the epistemological dimensions in the political thought of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), a renowned Muslim theologian and philosopher, famous for the refutation of the peripatetic tradition by means of a thoroughgoing skepticism. His reflections on human understanding and the cognitive faculties led him to the following conclusion: since reason is not self-sufficient, humanity must abide by revealed laws. While al-Ghazālī maintains that strict obedience is necessary for certain commoners, he arrives at such theocratic conclusions by way of investigating human nature as well as metaphysical claims. In brief, al-Ghazālī’s claim that humans must abide by revelation is grounded on two interrelated themes which are prevalent across his texts: (1) his view that God’s power over the universe is unlimited and (2) his claim that humans are entirely feeble before His omnipotence. In this sense, al-Ghazālī’s theology stands out as a negative philosophy; it is his use of philosophy that eventually undercuts independent philosophy, thus demanding that all persons submit to a higher source of truth, God’s revelation. Alternatively, al-Ghazālī proposes a mystical doctrine to address humanity’s perceptive shortcomings, claiming that the ascetic experience is the best means to attaining knowledge of the divine. I argue that, by pursuing a systemic inquiry into the nature of creation, which leads up to this mysticism, al-Ghazālī occasionally elevates reason to the ranks of revelation. This is because he arrives at this conclusion not by way of revelation, but through independent philosophical reflection and inquiry, one that makes use of particular theological notions. His skeptical refutation of certain philosophical doctrines is followed by his mysticism. In the later stages of my thesis, I extrapolate from this study to make larger claims about the nature of theocratic regimes. In the final analysis, I re-examine his theological and philosophical concepts to demonstrate how they are transposed to his political thought. I argue that al-Ghazālī’s key theological notions strongly shape his main political writings, though he tones down the philosophical and mystical jargon. While addressing the rulers, al-Ghazālī hopes that they could adopt the humility of the ideal ascetic man he has in mind. In brief, al-Ghazālī articulates a politics of humility to warn against tyrannical practice by appealing to the importance of the heart. Lastly, though this thesis deals with al-Ghazālī’s theological corpus, I also contribute to the literature on reason and revelation. I demonstrate that the theological may also contain reason at its foundation, especially when appealing to universal questions about humanity’s welfare.