Jonathan Allen | Northern Michigan University (original) (raw)
Papers by Jonathan Allen
This chapter focuses on the reflections on empire, nation, and race produced by three classically... more This chapter focuses on the reflections on empire, nation, and race produced by three classically trained and rather atypical Afrikaner intellectuals: J. H. Hofmeyr, T. J. Haarhoff, and Martin Versfeld. The background of these three men in the thought and history of the Greeks and Romans allowed them to formulate distinctive outlooks concerning empire, nationalism, and, to a lesser extent, race. Their work may be understood as a ‘competing discourse’ on the official analogy frequently drawn between Roman and British Imperialism,
s rationale for writing a book about "the bigot", rather than about the various instances of bigo... more s rationale for writing a book about "the bigot", rather than about the various instances of bigotry or prejudice that manifest themselves in politics, is that bigotry is usually associated with "clusters of hatred", not with a single target such as racism, sexism, religious intolerance, or anti-Semitism. What is needed, therefore, according to Bronner, is a "phenomenological sketch" or etiology, which identifies the source of prejudice's appeal for the bigot, the manner in which he selects his targets, and the impulses that are common to his worldview.
This is an uncorrected draft of a review essay that has just appeared, discussing two recent work... more This is an uncorrected draft of a review essay that has just appeared, discussing two recent works - Intellectual History in South Africa: Ideas, Individuals and Institutions, edited by Peter Vale, Lawrence Hamilton, and Estelle Prinsloo, and Saul Dubow's South Africa's Struggle for Human Rights. The essay argues for a closer engagement with the discursive context of political ideas in South Africa, and for the value of three interpretive frames - imperialism, human rights, and modernity - as supplements to the moderate multiculturalism that characterizes the Vale collection.
The Plough That Broke the Steppes is an important contribution to the global history of grassland... more The Plough That Broke the Steppes is an important contribution to the global history of grassland that has yet to be written. Like all great Book Reviews 769
This paper assesses the claim that strong and decisive executive leadership is both necessary and... more This paper assesses the claim that strong and decisive executive leadership is both necessary and desirable in liberal democracies. In the first two sections of the essay, I begin by identifying eight tensions that exist between the idea of leadership and the central commitments of liberal democracy. These provide reasons for skepticism concerning calls for stronger political leadership, but do not count against all conceptions of leadership. In the third section of the paper, I argue for a conception of political leadership that is more compatible with liberal democracy.
This paper argues that the study of political leadership needs to adopt a critical and historical... more This paper argues that the study of political leadership needs to adopt a critical and historical perspective on the focus on leadership. I argue, first, that a concern with political leadership is a relatively recent phenomenon, replacing earlier concern with political authority, and reflecting the growing influence of a 'democratic' commitment to 'the career open to talents'. The career of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Napoleonic Legend play a major role in shaping the new idea of political leadership - as concerned with personality, charisma, and military or executive decisiveness. This Bonapartist or Caesarist model of leadership undermines the initial democratic promise of the modern idea of political leadership. I close by arguing that a focus on governance - on offices and the duties associated with them - should replace an unhealthy interest in political leadership.
This is a presentation of a defensive and minimalist conception of moral universalism, aimed at a... more This is a presentation of a defensive and minimalist conception of moral universalism, aimed at avoiding "projection error". The paper includes a critical discussion of Seyla Benhabib's "'Nous' et les 'Autres'".
Review Essay of Eric Michaud, The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany and Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Building Fa... more Review Essay of Eric Michaud, The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany and Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Building Fascism, Communism and Liberal Democracy: Gaetano Ciocca - Architect, Inventor, Farmer, Writer, Engineer.
This paper is a critique of the proposal to issue "torture warrants". It begins by presenting an ... more This paper is a critique of the proposal to issue "torture warrants". It begins by presenting an account of the moral evil of torture, then offers a critique of proposals to legalize limited forms of interrogational torture, and concludes by considering political responses to known individual cases of torture.
Introduction: Isaiah Berlin's death in 1997, and the appearance of several new collections of ess... more Introduction: Isaiah Berlin's death in 1997, and the appearance of several new collections of essays by him over the past decade, have resulted in a recent flurry of writing about his political thought. As always, commentators have divided sharply over the status of his contribution to political thought. Some of his admirers point to the importance and originality of his formulation of the idea of value-pluralism -the notion that multiple moral and non-moral values exist, that they may conflict with one another, and that when they do, such conflict cannot be resolved by appeal to a single, overarching value or by means of a single scale of values. Many see Berlin's attempt to ally pluralism and liberalism as his most stimulating contribution to political theory, or note the role he played in Oxford and more generally in reviving interest in the history of ideas and in presenting to the Englishspeaking world a range of thinkers otherwise likely to have been lost to view -Vico, Herder, de Maistre, Sorel, etc. Berlin's detractors, on the other hand, note the absence from his writings of a book-length defense of his views, or find fault with the accuracy of his work in the history of ideas and with his scholarship in general. 1
How may a so ci ety, in a mor ally de fen si ble way, con front a past of in jus tice and suf fer... more How may a so ci ety, in a mor ally de fen si ble way, con front a past of in jus tice and suf fer ing, and seek to break the spell of vio lence and dis re gard for human life? I be gin by dem on strat ing the rele vance of this ques tion to the South Af ri can Truth and Rec on cilia tion Com mis sion, and I draw at ten tion to An dré du Toit's long-standing in ter est in ways in which truth com mis sions may func tion to con soli date po liti cal change. In the sec ond sec tion of the ar ti cle, I ar gue that truth com mis sions should be re garded as a de fen si ble moral compro mise be tween the val ues of jus tice and so cial unity, and I criti cize claims that truth com mis sions pro mote tran si tional jus tice, when that is un der stood as a dis tinc tive con cep tion of jus tice that emerges in cir cum stances of re gime tran si tion. In the third sec tion, I criti cize the claim that truth com mis sions are not a moral com pro mise at all but em body a su pe rior, re stora tive con cep tion of jus tice. I con clude by show ing why ret ri bu tion is re quired by crimi nal justice, and why truth com mis sions must be seen, not as an end in them selves, but as in sti tu tions whose func tion is to em pha size the im por tance of the rule of law, nor mal crimi nal jus tice, and le gal rec og ni tion. * To whom cor re spon dence should be ad dressed to at: De part ment of Pol itics, Prince ton Uni ver sity,
This chapter focuses on the reflections on empire, nation, and race produced by three classically... more This chapter focuses on the reflections on empire, nation, and race produced by three classically trained and rather atypical Afrikaner intellectuals: J. H. Hofmeyr, T. J. Haarhoff, and Martin Versfeld. The background of these three men in the thought and history of the Greeks and Romans allowed them to formulate distinctive outlooks concerning empire, nationalism, and, to a lesser extent, race. Their work may be understood as a ‘competing discourse’ on the official analogy frequently drawn between Roman and British Imperialism,
s rationale for writing a book about "the bigot", rather than about the various instances of bigo... more s rationale for writing a book about "the bigot", rather than about the various instances of bigotry or prejudice that manifest themselves in politics, is that bigotry is usually associated with "clusters of hatred", not with a single target such as racism, sexism, religious intolerance, or anti-Semitism. What is needed, therefore, according to Bronner, is a "phenomenological sketch" or etiology, which identifies the source of prejudice's appeal for the bigot, the manner in which he selects his targets, and the impulses that are common to his worldview.
This is an uncorrected draft of a review essay that has just appeared, discussing two recent work... more This is an uncorrected draft of a review essay that has just appeared, discussing two recent works - Intellectual History in South Africa: Ideas, Individuals and Institutions, edited by Peter Vale, Lawrence Hamilton, and Estelle Prinsloo, and Saul Dubow's South Africa's Struggle for Human Rights. The essay argues for a closer engagement with the discursive context of political ideas in South Africa, and for the value of three interpretive frames - imperialism, human rights, and modernity - as supplements to the moderate multiculturalism that characterizes the Vale collection.
The Plough That Broke the Steppes is an important contribution to the global history of grassland... more The Plough That Broke the Steppes is an important contribution to the global history of grassland that has yet to be written. Like all great Book Reviews 769
This paper assesses the claim that strong and decisive executive leadership is both necessary and... more This paper assesses the claim that strong and decisive executive leadership is both necessary and desirable in liberal democracies. In the first two sections of the essay, I begin by identifying eight tensions that exist between the idea of leadership and the central commitments of liberal democracy. These provide reasons for skepticism concerning calls for stronger political leadership, but do not count against all conceptions of leadership. In the third section of the paper, I argue for a conception of political leadership that is more compatible with liberal democracy.
This paper argues that the study of political leadership needs to adopt a critical and historical... more This paper argues that the study of political leadership needs to adopt a critical and historical perspective on the focus on leadership. I argue, first, that a concern with political leadership is a relatively recent phenomenon, replacing earlier concern with political authority, and reflecting the growing influence of a 'democratic' commitment to 'the career open to talents'. The career of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Napoleonic Legend play a major role in shaping the new idea of political leadership - as concerned with personality, charisma, and military or executive decisiveness. This Bonapartist or Caesarist model of leadership undermines the initial democratic promise of the modern idea of political leadership. I close by arguing that a focus on governance - on offices and the duties associated with them - should replace an unhealthy interest in political leadership.
This is a presentation of a defensive and minimalist conception of moral universalism, aimed at a... more This is a presentation of a defensive and minimalist conception of moral universalism, aimed at avoiding "projection error". The paper includes a critical discussion of Seyla Benhabib's "'Nous' et les 'Autres'".
Review Essay of Eric Michaud, The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany and Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Building Fa... more Review Essay of Eric Michaud, The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany and Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Building Fascism, Communism and Liberal Democracy: Gaetano Ciocca - Architect, Inventor, Farmer, Writer, Engineer.
This paper is a critique of the proposal to issue "torture warrants". It begins by presenting an ... more This paper is a critique of the proposal to issue "torture warrants". It begins by presenting an account of the moral evil of torture, then offers a critique of proposals to legalize limited forms of interrogational torture, and concludes by considering political responses to known individual cases of torture.
Introduction: Isaiah Berlin's death in 1997, and the appearance of several new collections of ess... more Introduction: Isaiah Berlin's death in 1997, and the appearance of several new collections of essays by him over the past decade, have resulted in a recent flurry of writing about his political thought. As always, commentators have divided sharply over the status of his contribution to political thought. Some of his admirers point to the importance and originality of his formulation of the idea of value-pluralism -the notion that multiple moral and non-moral values exist, that they may conflict with one another, and that when they do, such conflict cannot be resolved by appeal to a single, overarching value or by means of a single scale of values. Many see Berlin's attempt to ally pluralism and liberalism as his most stimulating contribution to political theory, or note the role he played in Oxford and more generally in reviving interest in the history of ideas and in presenting to the Englishspeaking world a range of thinkers otherwise likely to have been lost to view -Vico, Herder, de Maistre, Sorel, etc. Berlin's detractors, on the other hand, note the absence from his writings of a book-length defense of his views, or find fault with the accuracy of his work in the history of ideas and with his scholarship in general. 1
How may a so ci ety, in a mor ally de fen si ble way, con front a past of in jus tice and suf fer... more How may a so ci ety, in a mor ally de fen si ble way, con front a past of in jus tice and suf fer ing, and seek to break the spell of vio lence and dis re gard for human life? I be gin by dem on strat ing the rele vance of this ques tion to the South Af ri can Truth and Rec on cilia tion Com mis sion, and I draw at ten tion to An dré du Toit's long-standing in ter est in ways in which truth com mis sions may func tion to con soli date po liti cal change. In the sec ond sec tion of the ar ti cle, I ar gue that truth com mis sions should be re garded as a de fen si ble moral compro mise be tween the val ues of jus tice and so cial unity, and I criti cize claims that truth com mis sions pro mote tran si tional jus tice, when that is un der stood as a dis tinc tive con cep tion of jus tice that emerges in cir cum stances of re gime tran si tion. In the third sec tion, I criti cize the claim that truth com mis sions are not a moral com pro mise at all but em body a su pe rior, re stora tive con cep tion of jus tice. I con clude by show ing why ret ri bu tion is re quired by crimi nal justice, and why truth com mis sions must be seen, not as an end in them selves, but as in sti tu tions whose func tion is to em pha size the im por tance of the rule of law, nor mal crimi nal jus tice, and le gal rec og ni tion. * To whom cor re spon dence should be ad dressed to at: De part ment of Pol itics, Prince ton Uni ver sity,
New England Journal of Political Science, 2016
A work that attempts to juxtapose politics and beauty is something of a curiosity in contemporary... more A work that attempts to juxtapose politics and beauty is something of a curiosity in contemporary political theory. Yet this has not always been so. For example, ancient political philosophy often portrayed the ideal political unit as one in which the four cardinal virtues -wisdom, courage, prudence, and justice -were related harmoniously, and justice itself was understood as a beautiful concord or harmony. Plato's association of the true, the good, and the beautiful, represents a distinctive but not extraordinary version of this outlook. The utopian political imagination, both ancient and modern, has often been captivated by visions of symmetrical design, efficiency of form, or by the organic beauty of the pastoral idyll. Modern ideologies such as nationalism, fascism, National Socialism, and communism, all promoted a distinctive aesthetic in public sculpture and architecture, and in propaganda material,and this aesthetic was viewed by many not merely as an instrument of persuasion but as integral to the ideology in question.