Joel Wolfe | University of Cincinnati (original) (raw)
Papers by Joel Wolfe
Journal of Political Power, 2011
Page 1. Journal of Political Power Vol. 4, No. 1, April 2011, 127144 ISSN 2158-379X print/ISSN 2... more Page 1. Journal of Political Power Vol. 4, No. 1, April 2011, 127144 ISSN 2158-379X print/ISSN 2158-3803 online © 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/2158379X. 2011.555963 http://www.informaworld.com Who rules the EU? ...
This paper characterizes the impact of the UK‘s neoliberal experiment as a winner-take-all form o... more This paper characterizes the impact of the UK‘s neoliberal experiment as a winner-take-all form of political economy with the end product being the capture and subordination of the state by financial interests and an associated decline in democratic control and accountability, it then considers the various explanations of these damaging trends, and presents an alternative and novel power-based analysis of the implications of the financial markets ‘ grip on state power. Reflections on what might be done to correct this damaging situation conclude our discussions. A recent report by Democratic Audit has warned that democracy in the UK may be ―in long term terminal decline ‖ with a loosening of popular control over political decision making and a decline in how representative and fair the system is in relation to the general electorate. (Stuart Wilks-Heeg et al, 2012.) One of the aspects to which the report refers is an ―unprecedented ‖ growth of corporate power which ―threatens to und...
European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, 2012
Power and Privatization, 1996
Political Studies Review, 2013
West European Politics, 1986
Page 1. Class Formation and Democracy: The Decline of Working-Class Power in Britain Joel D. Wolf... more Page 1. Class Formation and Democracy: The Decline of Working-Class Power in Britain Joel D. Wolfe The debate about the future of working-class power in Britain raises for class theory an important, if neglected, question ...
The Review of Politics, 1985
In order to defend participatory democracy in large-member voluntary organizations, Michels's... more In order to defend participatory democracy in large-member voluntary organizations, Michels's challenge to traditional democratic theory must be answered. By arguing that the technical, sociological, and psychological processes of modern organizations invariably result in leaders dominating members, Michels questioned democratic theorists' assertions that participation is self-reinforcing and that participation produces popular control. Defending participatory democracy, then, involves showing how the problems of participation and popular control can be overcome in formally representative organizations. The answer proposed is that collective solidarity or community formed by those reacting to injustice and committed to egalitarian social relations provides the motivation for mass participation and the basis for popular control in modern union and party organizations.
Southern Economic Journal, 1991
Political Studies Review, 2012
Political Studies, 1999
With the sell-o of the nationalized utilities, regulation became central to the way Britain is go... more With the sell-o of the nationalized utilities, regulation became central to the way Britain is governed. The withdrawal of state ownership and provision, however, challenges agency models of state power, which suggest that state capacity increases only with increased resources. This paper suggests that distinguishing between direct and indirect power explains how diminishing state intervention can enhance state control. After reconceptualizing regulation in terms of these two media of power, the paper examines British utility regulations as the operations and eects of marketizing delegation. It shows how market processes operate as a medium of indirect control, permitting the core state to hold direct power in reserve and enhancing overall state power.
Political Studies, 1991
State-centred theory, a leading exemplar of the new institutionalism, assumes the separation of s... more State-centred theory, a leading exemplar of the new institutionalism, assumes the separation of state from society and objectivity from subjectivity. This epistemological stance supports a structural analysis which holds that the state is an actor in its own right, that the state has distinctive interests, and that state capacity depends on strong institutions and weak societal opposition. Yet the case of the Thatcher governments' ideologically motivated privatization programme challenges the statists' hypotheses and epistemology. Rather. the making of British privatization policy supports the view that the way political actors form and use ideas is important in explaining state power and in defending the liberal democratic vision of mankind as the maker of history. Amid a proliferation of methodological styles and theoretical frameworks in political science, the new institutionalism rekindles the hope for unity and scientific progress.' Its attention to the autonomy of institutions reacts in part against the failure of the 'inputism' of the 1950s and 1960s to recognize how political organization produces policy consequences' and in part against arguments about government overload and delegitimation.' Its claim that institutions shape interests and capacities also counters the arguments of cultural relativism and subjectivism that seem to negate the positivistic foundations of an empirical science. Its concern with history and particularity reacts against the universalism, abstraction and even historicism of some grand theories. Representative of the new institutionalist project are recent state-centred * An earlier version of this paper waspresented at the 1989 American Political Science Association annual meeting. In making revisions, I have benefited from the helpful comments and criticisms of Gerard Braunthal, Richard E. Foglesong, Jack Hayward, Desmond S. King and two anonymous reviewers.
Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 2001
Page 1. PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES / March 2001 Wolfe / POWER OF PHILOSOPHY Power of Philo... more Page 1. PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES / March 2001 Wolfe / POWER OF PHILOSOPHY Power of Philosophy JOEL D. WOLFE University of Cincinnati Bent Flyvbjerg, Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice. Univer-sity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998. ...
New Political Science, 1995
What follows is a transcript of the Roundtable on the Future of Socialism, which was organized by... more What follows is a transcript of the Roundtable on the Future of Socialism, which was organized by the British Politics Group at the 1994 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. The title for the symposium derives from Anthony Crosland's well-...
The International Journal of Press/Politics, 1999
This article examines the prominence of Web sites of major and minor parties in the United States... more This article examines the prominence of Web sites of major and minor parties in the United States and the United Kingdom, comparing features such as search capabilities, membership forms, information on party organization and issues, characteristics of graphics, and currency of updates as well as their relative quality and sophistication.We also look at the prominence of major and minor parties in newspapers and magazines and in various search engines and sites for political junkies. We find that minor parties have a greater presence on the Web in the United Kingdom than in the United States, but even so, the sites of major parties in both countries are more prominent and sophisticated than those of minor parties, and major parties generally receive more media coverage than minor parties, both on-line and off-line.The data suggest that the established interests dominating most of the communications, transactions, elections, and political processes of advanced industrialized countrie...
The American Political Science Review, 1986
An academic directory and search engine.
The American Political Science Review, 1980
Who rules the European Union? The answers of the main schools of European Union (EU) theory dive... more Who rules the European Union? The answers of the main schools of European
Union (EU) theory diverge: neofunctionalism highlights function, group pressure,
entrepreneurial leadership; international relations realism privileges state interests;
and neo-institutionalisms favor the influence of incentive structures, organizational
processes, or norms. These explanations reflect different concepts of power,
producing irreconcilable disputes that expose the conflict among meta-theoretical
methods in the warranting of knowledge. In confronting this dilemma, Deweyan
pragmatism provides a tool for investigating the way meta-theoretical concepts
ground ideas of power. Using this to examine the effects of philosophical
assumptions in selected theories of the EU integration and policy-making
demonstrates the impact of meta-concepts in shaping the analysis of power and
calls for an alternative philosophical approach for studying who rules the EU.
2 Abstract: This paper characterizes the impact of the UK‘s neoliberal experiment as a winner t... more 2
Abstract:
This paper characterizes the impact of the UK‘s neoliberal experiment as a winner take - all form of political economy with the end product be ing the capture and subordination of the state by financial interests and an associated decline in democratic
control and accountability, it then considers the various explanations of these damaging trends, and presents an alternative and novel power based analysis of the implications of
the financial markets‘ grip on state power. Reflections on what might be done to correct this damaging situation conclude our discussions.
Journal of Political Power, 2011
Page 1. Journal of Political Power Vol. 4, No. 1, April 2011, 127144 ISSN 2158-379X print/ISSN 2... more Page 1. Journal of Political Power Vol. 4, No. 1, April 2011, 127144 ISSN 2158-379X print/ISSN 2158-3803 online © 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/2158379X. 2011.555963 http://www.informaworld.com Who rules the EU? ...
This paper characterizes the impact of the UK‘s neoliberal experiment as a winner-take-all form o... more This paper characterizes the impact of the UK‘s neoliberal experiment as a winner-take-all form of political economy with the end product being the capture and subordination of the state by financial interests and an associated decline in democratic control and accountability, it then considers the various explanations of these damaging trends, and presents an alternative and novel power-based analysis of the implications of the financial markets ‘ grip on state power. Reflections on what might be done to correct this damaging situation conclude our discussions. A recent report by Democratic Audit has warned that democracy in the UK may be ―in long term terminal decline ‖ with a loosening of popular control over political decision making and a decline in how representative and fair the system is in relation to the general electorate. (Stuart Wilks-Heeg et al, 2012.) One of the aspects to which the report refers is an ―unprecedented ‖ growth of corporate power which ―threatens to und...
European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, 2012
Power and Privatization, 1996
Political Studies Review, 2013
West European Politics, 1986
Page 1. Class Formation and Democracy: The Decline of Working-Class Power in Britain Joel D. Wolf... more Page 1. Class Formation and Democracy: The Decline of Working-Class Power in Britain Joel D. Wolfe The debate about the future of working-class power in Britain raises for class theory an important, if neglected, question ...
The Review of Politics, 1985
In order to defend participatory democracy in large-member voluntary organizations, Michels's... more In order to defend participatory democracy in large-member voluntary organizations, Michels's challenge to traditional democratic theory must be answered. By arguing that the technical, sociological, and psychological processes of modern organizations invariably result in leaders dominating members, Michels questioned democratic theorists' assertions that participation is self-reinforcing and that participation produces popular control. Defending participatory democracy, then, involves showing how the problems of participation and popular control can be overcome in formally representative organizations. The answer proposed is that collective solidarity or community formed by those reacting to injustice and committed to egalitarian social relations provides the motivation for mass participation and the basis for popular control in modern union and party organizations.
Southern Economic Journal, 1991
Political Studies Review, 2012
Political Studies, 1999
With the sell-o of the nationalized utilities, regulation became central to the way Britain is go... more With the sell-o of the nationalized utilities, regulation became central to the way Britain is governed. The withdrawal of state ownership and provision, however, challenges agency models of state power, which suggest that state capacity increases only with increased resources. This paper suggests that distinguishing between direct and indirect power explains how diminishing state intervention can enhance state control. After reconceptualizing regulation in terms of these two media of power, the paper examines British utility regulations as the operations and eects of marketizing delegation. It shows how market processes operate as a medium of indirect control, permitting the core state to hold direct power in reserve and enhancing overall state power.
Political Studies, 1991
State-centred theory, a leading exemplar of the new institutionalism, assumes the separation of s... more State-centred theory, a leading exemplar of the new institutionalism, assumes the separation of state from society and objectivity from subjectivity. This epistemological stance supports a structural analysis which holds that the state is an actor in its own right, that the state has distinctive interests, and that state capacity depends on strong institutions and weak societal opposition. Yet the case of the Thatcher governments' ideologically motivated privatization programme challenges the statists' hypotheses and epistemology. Rather. the making of British privatization policy supports the view that the way political actors form and use ideas is important in explaining state power and in defending the liberal democratic vision of mankind as the maker of history. Amid a proliferation of methodological styles and theoretical frameworks in political science, the new institutionalism rekindles the hope for unity and scientific progress.' Its attention to the autonomy of institutions reacts in part against the failure of the 'inputism' of the 1950s and 1960s to recognize how political organization produces policy consequences' and in part against arguments about government overload and delegitimation.' Its claim that institutions shape interests and capacities also counters the arguments of cultural relativism and subjectivism that seem to negate the positivistic foundations of an empirical science. Its concern with history and particularity reacts against the universalism, abstraction and even historicism of some grand theories. Representative of the new institutionalist project are recent state-centred * An earlier version of this paper waspresented at the 1989 American Political Science Association annual meeting. In making revisions, I have benefited from the helpful comments and criticisms of Gerard Braunthal, Richard E. Foglesong, Jack Hayward, Desmond S. King and two anonymous reviewers.
Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 2001
Page 1. PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES / March 2001 Wolfe / POWER OF PHILOSOPHY Power of Philo... more Page 1. PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES / March 2001 Wolfe / POWER OF PHILOSOPHY Power of Philosophy JOEL D. WOLFE University of Cincinnati Bent Flyvbjerg, Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice. Univer-sity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998. ...
New Political Science, 1995
What follows is a transcript of the Roundtable on the Future of Socialism, which was organized by... more What follows is a transcript of the Roundtable on the Future of Socialism, which was organized by the British Politics Group at the 1994 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. The title for the symposium derives from Anthony Crosland's well-...
The International Journal of Press/Politics, 1999
This article examines the prominence of Web sites of major and minor parties in the United States... more This article examines the prominence of Web sites of major and minor parties in the United States and the United Kingdom, comparing features such as search capabilities, membership forms, information on party organization and issues, characteristics of graphics, and currency of updates as well as their relative quality and sophistication.We also look at the prominence of major and minor parties in newspapers and magazines and in various search engines and sites for political junkies. We find that minor parties have a greater presence on the Web in the United Kingdom than in the United States, but even so, the sites of major parties in both countries are more prominent and sophisticated than those of minor parties, and major parties generally receive more media coverage than minor parties, both on-line and off-line.The data suggest that the established interests dominating most of the communications, transactions, elections, and political processes of advanced industrialized countrie...
The American Political Science Review, 1986
An academic directory and search engine.
The American Political Science Review, 1980
Who rules the European Union? The answers of the main schools of European Union (EU) theory dive... more Who rules the European Union? The answers of the main schools of European
Union (EU) theory diverge: neofunctionalism highlights function, group pressure,
entrepreneurial leadership; international relations realism privileges state interests;
and neo-institutionalisms favor the influence of incentive structures, organizational
processes, or norms. These explanations reflect different concepts of power,
producing irreconcilable disputes that expose the conflict among meta-theoretical
methods in the warranting of knowledge. In confronting this dilemma, Deweyan
pragmatism provides a tool for investigating the way meta-theoretical concepts
ground ideas of power. Using this to examine the effects of philosophical
assumptions in selected theories of the EU integration and policy-making
demonstrates the impact of meta-concepts in shaping the analysis of power and
calls for an alternative philosophical approach for studying who rules the EU.
2 Abstract: This paper characterizes the impact of the UK‘s neoliberal experiment as a winner t... more 2
Abstract:
This paper characterizes the impact of the UK‘s neoliberal experiment as a winner take - all form of political economy with the end product be ing the capture and subordination of the state by financial interests and an associated decline in democratic
control and accountability, it then considers the various explanations of these damaging trends, and presents an alternative and novel power based analysis of the implications of
the financial markets‘ grip on state power. Reflections on what might be done to correct this damaging situation conclude our discussions.