Habermas Jurguen, De La Ciencia Política a La Moderna

Habermas, JUrgen. 'La Doctrina Clasica de Ia Polftica en su Relaci6n con Ia Filosoffa' en: Teorfa y praxis Capftulo primero: Estudios de

Filosoffa Social. Madrid: Tecnos, 1994

ESTUDIOS ALEMANES

Colecci6n dirigida por VICTORIA OcAMPo, HELMUT ARNTZ, HANs BAYER, EnNESTo GARZON VALDEs, RAFAEL GuTIERREz Gm ... ~RDOT y H. A. Mur:ENA.

Ensayos de filosofia social

Jurgen Habermas Version castellana de

D. J. VOGELMANN

Buenos Aires

itulo del original en aleman: THEORIE UND PRAXIS - SOZIAL PHILOSOPHISCHE STUDIEN

Publicado en aleman por: HERMANN LUCHTERHAND VERLAG, Neuwied am Rhim und B'erlin

1963 by Hermann Luchterhand Verlag 1966 by Editorial Sur, S. A.

Tapa de CARLOS SILVA

0 0 1 2 8 8 2

Impreso en Argentina

Queda hecho el deposito dispuesto por la ley II. 723

4

LA DOCTRINA CLASICA DE LA POLfTICA EN SU RELACI6N CON LA FILOSOFfA SOCIAL

En la obra aristotelica, la "pgl_itk~:_' __ es .parte_Q5;!_~~-jilospfia,J?:r:~Eica. Su tradici6n alcanza a sobrepasar el umbral del siglo xrx 1; luego, se ve definitivamente quebrada por la critica del historicismo 2 y tanto mas se seca su lecho fluvial, cuanto mas se desvia la corriente vital filos6fica hacia los canales de las ciencias separadas. Es asi como, desde fines del siglo xvm, las ciencias sociales de flam ante forma-cion por una parte, y las disciplinas del derecho publico por otra, socavan la politica clasica quitandole las aguas. Este proceso de desprendimiento del corpus de la filosofia practica, finaliza por lo pronto con el establecimiento de la politica segun el modelo de una ciencia experimental moderna, que ya no tiene en comun con aquella antigua ''politica" mucho mas que el nombre. Donde todavia nos topamos con ella, se nos presenta como anticuada sin reme-dio. Con el nacimiento de la Edad Moderna, su derecho ya aparece cuestionado dentro del propio marco de la filoso-fia: cuando Hobbes; a mediados del siglo xvn, se ocupa de the matter, form and power of a commonwealth, ya no prac-tica "politica" a la manera de Arist6teles, sino social philo-phy. Abjur6 asi, consecuentemente, a la tradici6n clasica, dos siglos antes de que esta quedara completamente derro-tada. Pues ei ejecut6 aquella revoluci6n en el modo de pensar que introdujeron en la filosofia politica Maquiavelo,

1 vV. Hennis, quien me facilit6 su investigaci6n sobre Filosofia Prdc-tica y Politico, todavia inedita, desarrolla esa problematica; el presente ensayo empalma con frecuencia con sus reflexiones.

2 Cf. M. Riedel, "Aristotelestradition am Ausgang des 18. Jahrhun-derts", en: Festschrift filr Otto Brunner, Gottingen 1962, p. 278 y ss.; del mismo autor: "Der Staatsbegriff der deutschen Geschichtsschreibung des 19. Jh.", en la Revista Des Staat, vol. 2, 1963, p. 41 y ss.

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8 JURGEN HA BERJ\fAS

par, t~n lado, Y l\Joro, par el otro. A toclos nosotros la antigua poht1ca se nos ha hecho extrafia, ante todo, par tres ra-zones:

I. Se e~1tendia a Ia politica como la cloctrina de Ia vida buena y JUSta; era continuacion de la etica. Porque Arist6-teles no veia oposicion aJguna entre la constitucion redac-tada en los n?moi) y el ethos de la vida dvica; a la inversa, tampoco podia separarse de la moral y la ley la moralidad d_el obrar. Tan solo la aparicion de la politeia faculta al c~udad~n? para la vida buena; el hombre se hace zoon poli-

~zlw?~ u.1:1camente en cuanto depende de la ciuclad para Ia IeahzaCI~n de su naturaleza 3 En el pensamiento de Kant, ~:1 _cambw, _la_ condu~~,~ ,l!l,W~l del ~!JCbta~i~~~--

e hblt~ se dierenc1c . . de la le itimidad de sus aetas ~~ asi como la moral1'da 1 m= "d'~"""ff...,.-;:arrcEi(f ~;:::' se ve es 1-g~~a e~ c~wc;a Ida~.' ~e d~slip-a de ambas tam?!i..!L!~_p_giJtiF~ ~-.: ~7 ... - ......... tQ.feiJ.aa .. tecmca ... de ~~na dQcJnna.pr.udencial u_t.llu.~U~l!;.?-. adqmere un valor pos1c10nal harto dudoso.

2. La antigu~ d_octrina de la p.Q.liJ:ica se referia exclusiva-~=~:e tf

1;a practica en :u,.

J JURGEN HABERMAS

der~e~d_e que Ma;x Weber clarific6 la Hamada disputa sabre e~ JUICIO ValoratiVO (y desde las determinaciones mas pre-c:sas de una "16gica de investigacion" positivista 6) , las cien-oas soci,a~es_. se h~.P: cl~9lig

12 JURGEN HABERMAS

dificult_acl aun sus metas ... Puesto que es necesario, par lo tanto, JUzgar lo que debe hacerse en la vida segun el peso de las casas Y sus apendices que se llaman circunstancias, muchas de las cuales tal vez sean extraiias y disparatadas y algunas a menudo erroneas y a veces hasta opuestas a la meta, los aetas de los hombres no pueden medirse con la rect_a 1~egla de la inteligencia, que es rigida. . . Aquellos sab_zos Imprude~tes qu~ sin vacilacion aplican la verdad ge-neial a lo particular, Irrumpen en los enredos de la vida, que_brandolos. Los pru_den tes, e? cam~io. que, pasando por enoma de las escabrosrdades e msegundades de la practica, alcanzan lo eternamente verdadero, dan necesariamente un ro?-eo, ya _que no es. posible alcanzarlo tomando par el ca-rr_n?o clerecho; y las Ideas que ellos conciben prometen bene-

fi~ws durante muc~;? ti~mpo, e~ la medida e~ que Io per-mite la naturaleza . V1co se atiene a las def1niciones aris-toteiicas __ ~~- _la d_isJinciO~--~~~J:S!.c!~D.

14 JURGEN HABERMAS

su trabajo 12, podra convertirse en el fundamento metodico de una nueva ciencia, de otra Scienza Nuova. Seguimos los pasos del desarrollo de la politica clasica a la filosofia social moderna, bajo el doble punto de vista de un cambio en la actitud metodica y la exploracion de un nuevo objeto cien-tifico.

LA RECEPCI6N TO MIST A DE LA POLfTICA ARISTOT:ELICA: EL ZOON POLITIKON COMO ANIMAL SOCIALE

~Como se ha llevad.o a cabo, de Aristoteles a Hobbes, la transformacion de la politica clasica en la moderna filosofia social? Aristoteles profesa la conviccion de que una ~tzf2l,U que no solo es asi Hamada, sino que en verdad merece llevar ese nombre, se toma a pecho la vinud de sus ciudadanos: "pues de otro modo la comunidad de la ciudad se conver-tiria en mera confederacion -en una koinonia S'Ynwwchia". En el derecho romano, esta obtiene la denominacion de sal::i.e~s, que significa tanto una alianza entre Estados como una asociacion comercial entre ciudadanos, tal como hoy todavia se la usa en el sentido de "sociedad". Aristoteles esboza la ficcion de semejante sistema contractual de dere-cho privado, con Ia finalidad de que todos puedan ganarse la vida de un modo asegurado y organizado, para clemostrar asi lo queci'una~oolis;tfto''es= cuando los ciudadanos, dedicados cada cual a sus negocios, fundan una comunidad legal con el objeto de establecer un ordenado comercio de trueque, y para el caso de complicaciones belicas, este no debe con-funclirse todavia con un Estado. Puesto que, asi reza el argu-mento, ellos se tratan entre si, hallandose en un lugar que les es comun, como si, no obstante, estuviesen separados, y cada cual considera su propia casa como una ciudad. Una polis, al contrario, se define par su oposicion al bikos. Frente a ello, Hobbes tiene que haherse]as pte!;i~am~nte con la.

12 C. las explicaciones para "De nostri temporis studiorum ratione", de F. Schalk, op. cit., p. 165 y ss.

TEO RIA Y PRAXIS 15

onstruccion, conforme a derecho natural, de semejante trat_ iuutuo entre gente civil 12riv'lp.a, regulado 12or el derec~o p:ffvaao y protegido por h sober:m fa ~~tat'!L Entre. amb~s autores viene a~ !!l_C:_~:lj;:tL .. de . un modo smgular, la f1losof1a social de Tomas .de .Aquino.

:P6r ui1 lado, Santo Tomas se coloca enteramente den.tro de Ia tradicion aristotelica: aun cuando un Estado haya std? fundado para posibilitar la supervivencia, solo puede adqm~ ir permanencia en funcion de la vida buena: "porqu~ s1 ~uisiesen los ho.mbres juntarse en funcion d,e la mera vtda, tambien los antmales y los esclavos. formanan ~arte de la civitas; si, par otra parte, solo se um~ran con el f~n de obte-ner riquezas, todos los que estan de tgual modo tn~e:esa~3~.s en e1 trafico economico deberian pertenecer a una czvztas . L,.JJego. uua comunidad solo ouede lla~arse ~stado cuando capacita a SJJS ciudadanos fHJ.,La las aCCIOnes VHtUOS3S. Y COn ella para la vida buena.

Mas; par otraparte, esta comunida? ya no la. e.ntiende Santo Tomas como genuinamente po_littca: subr.eptlnamente la civitas se ha transformado en soczetas. En ntnguna parte se hace patente con mayor precision el involuntario distan-ciamiento con respecto a la politica antigua ~ue la tra~uccion literal del zoon politikon: homo naturahter est a~u~al sociale 14. En otro lugar dice: naturale autem est homm1 ut sit ammal sociale et politi~um 15 _Es sig~if~~ativo que .n? encontremos en Santo Tomas la d1ferennacwn, tan clendt-damente expuesta par su Philosophus', entre el po~~r eco-nomico de man do del amo de cas a y el poder poh t1co de dominio en el ambito publico; el del despota del oikos era ciertamente dominio sobre libres y pares: politie 16 Pero aquel Princeps cuyo regimen investiga Santo Tomas, go-bierna monarquicamente, esto es, fundamentalmente. del mismo modo que el pater ,familias en su calid~d de ~ommus. Domini!lm'"es como se le llama ahara al gobterno lisa y lla-

13 De regimine princijJium, ed. Schreyvogel, p. 83. 14 Summa I q. 96, 4. 15 De regim. princ., c. I. 16 Pol. 1255 b.




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16 JURGEN HABERMAS

I:amente. El antagonismo entre polis y oikos quedo conci-hado par el denominador comun de la SOl'ietas~"esta'es inter-pretada en, an alogia COli la vida' fainiliar y doi~estica coordi-nada en, forrria'r>atl:iatcal: una interpretacion pues en ver-dad apolitica. Mientras el arden de la polis ~e mat~ifestaba en la participaci6n de los ciudadanos en la administracion, legislaci6n, jurisprudencia y deliberacion consultiva, Santo Tomas s_olo c~r:serva de csa taxis un ordo que sacrifica la substancia poht1ca de aquella voluntad y conciencia que va formandose en el dialogo publico y se aplica a la actuacion ClVIca: bonum autem et salus consociatae multitudinis est ut eius un_itas conservetur, quae dicitur pax. El criteria de_un o_rdo tnen fun~~do no lo da la libertad de los ciudaaaJ?os, smo la tranqmhdad y la ,paz_;, pax, una exegesis antes "po-licial" que politica del concepto del Nuevo Testamento. La cue:ti?n central de la politica antigua, seg{m la cual al domm:o se le escapa la calidad. Thema pmbandum de las reflexwnes, de. 1~ "pol_itica" tomista -con justicia desig-nadas como jzlosofzco-soczales-, es mas bien una suerte de orcl~!~ .famqi?::r: y domestico, a plica do per extension al Es-tado, Q _st=a la jerarqu1a de status de los ciudadanos traba-jadores. ELm:dg".civitatis

18 JURGEN HABERi\1AS

es el arte, susceptible de ser investigaclo y aprendido, de una estrateg1a en permanente ejercicio tanto hacia el inte~ rior como hacia afuera, cuyo fin es imponer el poder propio. La potestad domestica patria,rcal del principe cristiano se ha condensado -hasta formar la autoafirmaci6n abstracta del soberano (suprema potestas) j y se ha desprendido siml,Il-dneamente de las funciones-propiamente sociales de,lorgani~~t::i_c)I): t~

20 JURGEN HABERMAS

aumento de la vida grata, una ampliacion del poder que elimina el temor de la muerte violenta, produce inmedia-tamente, con Ia superacion de esta calamidad, otra diferente: el riesgo de la servidumbre. Las filesofias":sodales que dan una definicion poHtica a la" calamidad natural, no pueden, por lo tanto, adoptar una figura utopica, como aquellas que la definen economicamente. Aun cuando se empefian en no renunciar a una forma antiutopica de la elevacion gradual de la vida, caen en lo irracional; ya en la obra de Maquiavelo, la vi1tt't cobra el sentido de una salud de barba-ros, la que peirse transfigura al poder politico.

Junto a las dos calamidades "naturales" -la amenaza par el hambre y los enemigos- la calamidad Hartifical" de la dominacion de los hombres por los hombres se torna el ter-cer punta de partida de la investigacion filosofico-social: es cuestion de procurar dignidad y paz a los humillados y a los ofendidos, asi como Maquiavelo promete poder y se-guridad a los atacados y a los angustiados, y Mora, bienes-~tar y dicha a los afanosos y apesadumbrados 1s.

Ma uiavelo Mora obtienen, rente a la antigua poli-OSii e'$'a:'"s~nuJess,, y~ 9_1.11:! desli-

gan la estructura d~ dolll.ini , ,, , .... exo et1co. e o ue-s tra ta a a. artii-

22 JURGEN HATIERl\'[AS

sica de la sociedad burguesa, en la cual sujetos trabajado-res privados rivalizan para ganarse unos escasos bienes ... "ames cuan pocos hay que no saben que, de no cuidar ellos de si mismos, forzosamente se moriiian de hambre pese a un maximo florecimiento del Estado? Y es asi como la nece-sidad impulsa a cada cual a considerarse mrarlps .. l10I;l1PJe:;; parc,t.tc;:n~.r. repgta,ci

2-1 JURGEN H.-\BERJI.IAS

Aisla las operaciones para el logro de esta meta, de todas las premisas sociales. La actuaci6n politica se ve liberada

fe ataduras traclicionales y morales y no debe contar con lias tampoco como presentes en los antagonistas (se acepta omo valedero este principia: "toclos los hombres son ingra-os, in.constantes, hip6critas, medrosos y egoistas") ; por otra

parte, el obrar politico no puede apoyarse en instituciones dadas ni en credenciales obtenidas, sino que se inicia, por asi decirlo, desde el principia (rige aqui la premisa de una posicion de clominio obtenida mediante la violencia ajena o la casualidad: "Aquel a quien unicamente la suerte eleva del estado civil privado al trona, tendri ciertamente pocas dificultades para conquistarlo, pero tantas mis para man-tenerse en el") . El tal de uiavelo

nes de Ia necesszia, pohbca es e1 arte de regular "for-tuna", "a fin de que no pueda demostrar, a cada vuelta de ocasion, de cuinto es capaz". C_~s-~1:e J?,(),~J~;:i,~.,EEX~~--~!._~je:?P.~()-~bisto:r;i=R . ~~ El caso del Estado de coytintura, cii'yos fun-dainentos estin par colocarse toclavia, se presta como creado 'ex profeso para un anilisis de las reg las de es te arte. El r~ce-1~t~ri de Maqui~ve!o, c;:on su cil~ii1~o~aep-ocler!eci:t~ta~te-~ i~ fo):"rect5: irr~uiiii~jsa traaici6ii -q~I~-:~C!ff&}}Jf~p~rii, efi-

~cierite _en el ab~olutisJ.TlO de )qs_,sigiQ.~ sy}:>_~ig~iente(l. gg!P:_o w:es J:l:()t()t:iQ, in~tr!iye, al f>!~~-~ipe acerc;:t_~~ o)mo puede in:;) a~ t}nersela vis dominationis con exactitud tactica, en situacio-it-ies tipic~s, C01ll

26 JURGEN HABERIVIAS

ensayos de investigar los elementos divorciados de filosofia social tomista -d9m~M1'I~"Y'"''S6detas- bajo su

aspecto puramente tecnico, y a cada cual para si, no pasan de la abstracci6n. a uiavelo i nora la tarea hist6rica inhe-ente al desarrollo de una esfera socia ur uesa, yz.1\1oro: gnoFa.-?cles4iechoS:r-poHtit-os que surgen de'la ->rrva:; u a .e

tatluna.~Q~ibes ya llega ajusti~icar la afir\ (

~ci6.~de_)a ___ S,.?.lJ..~!:.':~~1~~-~~tg,t:;~J.JJ.acia . el ..... exte~ig;r"'.:Wf'!~iante\ J J~~~beE_~~A~."-!~}!:~~ts>..!Lda.sL.RI!!?Jic:.te; Uno de ellos llega a la recomendacion de tecnicas~ .el otro ofrece una propuesta de organizaci6n.

Cuando, en 1517, apareda el informe de l\1oro acerca de la Nova Insula Utopia bajo el titulo De optima Reipublicae statu, sus lectores humanistas habian de esperar una nueva formulaci6n de una pieza doctrinaria traclicional de la poli-tica. Pero precisamente la comparaci6n con el modelo pia-tonica que el mismo 1\-ioro invoca, demuestra hasta que punta ese titulo induce a error: el trabajo no analiza la esencia de la justicia, sino que copia uno de los relatos de viaje

. contemporaneos. Puesto que la justicia, en el concepto de ]OS g-riegos, es realizable -Lmicamente dentro de la cabal orga-!lizaci6n de la vida de la ciudad, exvlicaban ellos la esenciii!, de la justicia yalitndose de la esencia del Estado, y esto equivale a decir de la constituci6n perfecta de un gobierno ejercido sabre ciudadanos libres. Mora, en c..ambio, ya no se refiere a un arden esencial, ni a circunstancias que es ne-cesario comprender y de las cuales desearia dar un ejeroplo basado en la experiencia: su Esta:do;nb;'es"'un~-'-;fdeal,eri eL' ~ sen.rjdo kandanQ. Mas bien esboza una._,-;~~n,el sen-) tido (C!n que el habla_,inglesa utiliza esta d.enomiriaci6ii par

28 JURGEN H.\.BERi'.fAS

riclo partir, a no ser para informar sabre ese mundo, confe-sarias sin mas que en ninguna otra parte habias vista una organizacion estatal tan perfectamente ordenada 27". Esas palabras "en ninguna otra parte revelan el cloble sentido, y 1j la intencion de utopia en el basada: fingir.las.:cir:cunstancias ~~ sociales, deunmodo'tan

30 JURGEN

vela, por cuanto la habilidad para la obtencion y conse.r-Yacion del poder deri va, par cierto, de una transferencia de la techne artesanal a una zona de la praxis hasta enton-ces reservada a la phronesis, pero carece todavia par entero de la precision cientifica de la tecnica calculada. La pretQ 1;"9-dicalmente antes de quedar el sab6!r tee-nicS

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LA FUNDAMENTACI6N DE HOBBES DE LA FILOSOFiA SOCIAL COMO CIENCIA: EL ORIGEN PROBLEMATICO DE LAS NORMAS DE LA RAZ6N NATURAL DERIVADO DE LA MECANICA DE APETITOS NATURALES

La conexion entre dominium y societas, la uniclad entre Estado y sociedad bajo los titulos sinonimos de res pu?~ica y societas civilis, se fundaba en el derecho natural clasico. Pero entretanto la refonna habia conducido a una posHr-vacion y formalizacion del reinan~e derecho natural to~1:ista 34, que habia permitido a Althesn:s pl.an~ear. ~sta c.u:strc:n: "Quis enim exacte scire poterit qmd. Slt lUStr.tla, ms: IH~lUS quid sit ius cognoverit eiusque speoes?. Ex 1ure. emn ms-titia 35". El derecho se convierte en qurntaesene1a de pre-ceptos positivos que los individuos adoptan median~e con-trato; y la justicia ya solo significa respeto por la vahdez de estos contratos (Hobbes extrae de ella la siguiente conse-cuencia: "Si bien, en tal caso, ciertos aetas que en deter-minado Estado son justos, pueden ser injustos en otro, la justicia, es decir, la observancia de las leyes, es en todo.s partes la misma 36"). Semejante derecho formal corresponcle a las condiciones objetivas en la medida en gue dentro de los Estaclos territoriales del siglo xvr se imponen aquellos dos grandes procesos que moclifican funclame~talmente la con~xion entre dominium y societas: me reflero a la centrah-zacion y a un tiempo burocratizacion del dominio, en el aparato estatal moderno, del regimen de soberania, asi como tambien a la expansion capitalista del tnifico de mercan-das y a una paulatina revoluci6n de la forma de produc-ci6n dependiente de economias domesticas. Porque esta nue-va relaci6n de intereses, orientada hacia el mercado en lugar de la casa de las economias nacionales y territoriales, se clesarrolla ~ tal punta -bajo el reglamento de una autori-dacl que solo en ese momenta alcanza la soberania- que

31 Cf. F. Borkenau, Der Obergang vom feudalen :::um bilrgerlichen Weltbild, Paris, 1934, p. 104 y ss.

35 Politica Methodice Digesta, publicado segt'm 1a 3"' edici6n por C. J. Friedrich, Cambridge, Mass. 1932.

36 Th. Hobbes, Gnmdziige der Philosophie, Leipzig, 1915, II, 40.

Y PRAXIS "" ,)J

r tsta esfera de b "scciedad burguc~;:1" au tnrizada por asi de-. irlo en forma absolutista, puede scr adecuaclamen te co nee-

.

- Kirstie M. McClure, 'The Strange Silence of Political Theory: Response', en Political Theory, vol. 23, n. 4, Noviembre 1995, pp.

657-663.

The Strange Silence of Political Theory: Response Author(s): Kirstie M. McClure Source: Political Theory, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Nov., 1995), pp. 657-663 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/191907 Accessed: 25/03/2009 16:51

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SYMPOSIUM 657

who get on Ius academic nerves the most. But, as soon as one delineates each line m relation to the other, it becomes obvwus how each keeps crossmg over mto the other. For example, to defend either pragmatism or the conception of "empmcal reality" pushed m th1s story would be to draw our agent of directness once agam mto the very domams he finds Irrelevant. And-let me say 1t plrunly-m tins story directness itself is sustamed by mdirect means, namely through formation of two lines of assoc1ation not themselves flagged or defended.

-William E. Connolly Johns Hopkins University

William Connolly teaches political theory at Jolurs Hopktns Unrverslly. He IS editor of Contestations: Cornell Studies m Political Theory. His most recent books are The Augustiruan Imperative: A Reflection on the Politics of Morality and The Ethos of Pluralizatio!L

RESPONSE

FOR THOSE WHO CONSIDER themselves students of politics the tocsin of relevance is a noble bell, and I must say at the outset that I sympathize with Professor Isaac's Insistence on sounding It. At the same time, however, I confess suspiCion of great enthusiasms, particularly those that confidently assert the worldly presence of divmity. If there IS merit to the clrum that the revolutions of 1989 signal the end of the Jacobm Imagmary, such evocations of sublimity do them little JUStice, to say the least. No Jess than the compli-cated and polyvocal democratization movements m Latin Amenca that preceded them, these are mortal doings, Sites not only of high aspirations but of great nsks, scenes where liiDited success and partial failure go hand in hand.' But such fragilities and contradictions are eclipsed by the prophetic invocation of world h1stoncal significance. Here, like the grin of the Cheshire cat, the Jacobm 1magmary lingers on, glearrung bnghtly m the exhortation that "political theonsts" live up to the1r calling, that they reclaim the1r ancestral mheritance by reading God directly m the unfolding of the post-communist world. One need not deny the momentous character of the Soviet collapse to abJure such romantic VISions of the contemporary tasks of political theory.

That srud, its opemng and closmg gestures as1de, this account of "The Strange Silence of Political Theory" strikes me as more substantial than a

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658 POLITICAL THEORY I November 1995

matter of Ideology seeking a soapbox. Indeed, though I differ m my sense of how and why "political theory" ffilght engage the revolutions of 1989, I find many of the Issues rrused along the way qmte thought provoking, if not exactly m the terms provided. But let's begin at the beginning. The statistics offered here are certrunly damrung, and mcluding the remaining regional political science association JOUrnals m the count would only make them more so.2 And yet, as our more scientifically inclined colleagues ffilght reffilnd us, even so s1mple a survey confronts two sorts of validity problems: first, are we measunng what we thmk we're measunng; second, IS our sample sufficiently representative to permit generalization? Are articles categonzed as "political theory" in acaderruc JOurnals an appropnate mdicator of the character of political theory m the United States? Are these JOUrnals so clearly representative that what 1s true of them IS true of American political theory more generally?3 If both conditions are met, this is a "shocking mdictment" mdeed, though a good empmcist rrught find this "data" a bit too cohvenient. Alas, I'm not a good empmcist, but I'm mclined to think that inferrmg what political theonsts do from the most acaderruc of professiOnal political science and political philosophy journals comes to much the same thmg. Put differ-ently, smce these "statistics" treat the two as Identical, do they suggest anythmg more than the not entirely surpnsmg observation that acaderruc political theory IS "academic" political theory?

In fact, I thmk there IS somethmg more here than that. But to sort this out, we rrught consider more closely what this "political theory" IS that stands so obliviOus to the world around it. To this end, at least momentarily, it ffilght be useful to sharpen the distinction Implicit here between what rrught be called "domg political theory" and "bemg a political theonst"...-that IS, between the activity of rendenng accounts of words and deeds, of worldly events and mstitutions and processes, and the rather more guild like notion of participating m "a form of mqmry that clrurns to be the herr of Plato, Machiavelli, Tocqueville, and Marx" (p. 637). If I understand Professor Isaac rightly, the muteness he mdicts has to do with the failure of those profession-ally credentialed as "political theonsts" m the second sense to "do political theory" in the first. This, I take It, is the cash value of the romantic v1ew of theory, for it Is this that mvests the phrase "claims to be the heir" with its poleffilcal edge and 1ronic force. The guild may clmm such an illustriOus heritage, but however worshipfully It may speak of its imagined forebears its real parentage lies elsewhere-and that elsewhere IS the acade1py. Real political theory is a matter of dmng-a direct, spirited, origmal, lucid, and relevant "first order" engagement with political thmgs. The work of guildish theonsts IS a "second order" affair. Indirect, remote, disengaged, it nsks lucidity and relevance for professiOnal success.

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SYMPOSIUM 659

These are deliciously neat oppositions, and they work equally well agrunst the philosophtcal and htstoncal wmgs of the guild. As Anstophanes pictured Socrates spmning in the clouds, so here do we find Professors Dallmayr and Connolly set m philosophtcal and metatheoretical orbtt. As Guicciardini mocked Florentines' reverence for Rome as antiquanan folly, so here are commentaries like "Locke on Constitutional Government" cast as blithely removed from "substantive political concerns." As much tropes as truths, however, such parallels are not unequivocal. On one hand, to be sure, they urge attention to somethmg not unlike "actual political phenomena," "rele-vance," and "reference," and in this they share Professor Isaac's irntation wtth "remote theoretical constructs" (p. 645) and "proliferating textual commentaries" (p. 645). On the other hand, smce the recipients of thetr cnticism are Socrates in the frrst case and Machiavelli in the second, they also suggest that at least two canomcal icons were perceived by at least some of their contemporanes as domg somethmg rather less politically pertinent than a "sustamed engagement with empirical reality" (p. 645). What are we to make of this?

Well, though we Illight have come to this by other routes, it mvttes a less romantic vtew of the activities of those invoked here as exemplary contrasts to guildish or "acadellllc" political theory. Documentary evidence llllght suggest that "Plato, Machtavelli, Tocqueville, and Marx" were "profoundly caught up m the events of thetr day" (p. 637)-but to what extent can thetr now canomzed "theoretical" endeavors be sunilarly characterized? Leavmg Plato to one side, let's constder the difficult cases, begmnmg with tl\e infernal Florentine. Machiavelli's Discourses are framed as a commentary on the first ten books of Ltvy's htstory of Rome, hts Florentine histories mterweave passages appropriated wholesale from previous wnters, and for those fruniliar wtth the penod, hts mvocation of "effective htstory" in the Prince ts far too mflected by Renaissance debates about exemplanty and by tensions between Chnstian and civtc humamsm to support his posthumous election as the father of modern political realism. As for Tocqueville, the Old Regime and the Revolution was built on archival research considerably after the fact, while Democracy in Amenca theonzed not "current events" but histoncal processes alan to what we llllght now call comparative political Institutions and cultures. Marx's Manifesto, of course, as well as the Eighteenth Brumaire and other Journalistic Interventions were without doubt engage. But hts now canomcal early manuscripts only appeared posthumously and, as the chapters on value m Capztal suggest, arcane tdioms may not be foretgn to political relevance.

Such observations, of course, may not dissolve our distinction between "domg political theory" and "being a political theonst," but they complicate

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1t nonetheless. From my perspective, they shift the rromc sting of Isaac's phraseology from guildish clazms of a noble heritage to the rather more cunous presumption that political theory should be conceived as "a form of mquiry" m the first place, let alone one defined by the sort of "first order" mterrogations of the sort pnvileged here. Could this presumption itself be a guildish rest due? Could the status here accorded canonical figures-that IS, as exemplars of "a form of inquiry" -Itself be problematic? Put m yet another way, and recalling Marx on the holy family, might It not religiOusly abstract an Idealized "political theory" from the messy matenality ofhistoncal writers and wntings, only to hold contemporary guild members accountable to that idealization? Might it not, in effect, be indebted to the very guildishness it laments?

With this possibility m mind, let us recall our good empmc1st. If canomcal theoretical works were neither qmte so clearly participating m a common "form of inqmry" nor quite so obviously providing direct accounts of political domgs, thts need not entail the conclusiOn that they are not mstances of"domg political theory" m some sense other than that specified here. By the same token, however, this rrught call mto question the assumption that a survey of acaderruc Journals suffices to assess whether "political theory" IS engaging or "political theonsts" are reflecting upon the political dilemmas of the present, the revolutions of 1989 among them. As "domg political theory" may have many genenc faces, so might professionally credentialed political theorists engage m other forms or genres of cntical discourse. Here, the exclusiOn of contributions to "public intellectual journals" from considera-tion is far too easy. Intellectual history, as opposed to the history of canomcal texts, rrught suggest that most of these, too, are probably fated m the long term to obscurity and Irrelevance. But astde from guildish squabbling I see no reason not to mclude such writing as pertinent to any senous consideration of "the state of political theory." Bluntly put, unless one wishes simply to rail against the mstitution of scholarship, the ratio of "relevant" theory articles m five very "academic" JOurnals IS a dubious basis for assessmg what political theorists "do" or write m a broader sense.

But let us assume what Professor Isaac in fact acknowledges not to be the case: let us suppose that all members of the guild are mdeed guilty as charged, that no duly credentialed "political theonsts" have engaged recent events in any venue. Could we conclude from this that those events had not incited or provoked the activity of theorizing their political dimensiOns or significance? Why presume that such theonzations might not appear elsewhere, that they rrught not anse under other ausptces?4 Here, m effect, the question is not whether members of the political theory guild are attending to the dilemmas

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SYMPOSIUM 661

and challenges of 1989, but whether anyone ts addressing them m a way that could be understood as "domg political theory"-agam, not as "a form of inqmry" but m the sense of rendenng accounts of the words and deeds, events and processes, roiling m its wake.

In thts context, after scanrung various publications beyond those noted here, it seems to me that Professor Isaac's criticisms might be made at once less romantic and more pomted. Although, as one might expect, area-specific JOurnals have had much to offer, it ts also the case that anthropology, soctal theory, soctal philosophy, cultural studies, and ferrumst journals have been decidedly attentive to the revolutions of 1989 and to the VICissitudes ofthetr continuing elaboration. Why, one might ask, have Contentzon, Alternatives, New Formations, Constellations, The Crztzcal Review, Soczal Text, Telos, Common Knowledge, The Femmzst Review, The Journal of Women s History, and Women s Studies /nternatzonal Forum devoted numerous specialtssues and/or spectal sections to post-1989 politics? How ts tt that not only these JOurnals but others-among them October, Representations, Millenmum, SoczalAnthropology, Gender and Society, and Crossroads, to name a few-have gtven as much if not more space to such accounts than the publications in whtch political theonsts are generally expected to publish? If "domg political theory" ts to be construed broadly as various modes of critical engagement rather than narrowly as a form of inqmry, one rrught begin to wonder whether what ts cast here as politicaltrrelevance rrught have to do less wtth professionalism per se or an ethtcallapse on the part of "Amen can political theonsts" than with the mstitutional dynamics and specifically disctplinary constramts withm whtch "the field" of political theory has come to be structured. That the most scholarly of Amencan publication venues in political sctence and philosophy display these constraints seems to me netther mystenous nor morally culpable. Nor does the tmagery of Kuhman normal sctence seem to me quite so apt as what one writer, commenting on the political pnce exacted by the Institutionalization of cultural studies, has captured m the pithy phrase "disctpline and vamsh."5

If one wants a debate about fundamentals, why be timid? Why rest content with arguably guildish exhortations to political theonsts to engage "political reality" when bolder questions are possible? Is it an accident that most of the journals listed above are part of a longstanding trend toward mterdisctplinary or transdisctplinary perspectives? Or that many of them actively straddle the genre boundary between scholarly and public mtellectuallife? If, as Professor Isaac notes, en tical and theoretical accounts of the political world may take literary or dramatic form, rrught vartous perspectives from litt


implications? If, as far too many refuse to take seriously, not all Eastern and Central Europeans consider themselves "participants m a common European culture," and if many of those who don't are not among the now translated Intellectuals, rrught the cultural and lingmstic acumen of anthropological and h1stoncal studies not be pertinent as well? The significant questions here, I think, are poorly contamed m aspuations to resurrect political theory as "a form of inquiry." Instead of evoktng a Golden Age of "real" political theory, instead of readjusting the postwar subdisc1plinary settlement between the normative, historical, and scientific sects of Amencan political science, why not cast a critical eye on the structures and expectation of disc1plinanty as such?

In light of such possibilities, I thmk the stakes of what appears here as "the state of political theory" quite exceed the question of whether or not, on a romantic reading of their inhentance, Amencan political theonsts have adequately engaged the words and deeds associated with the revolutions of 1989 Histoncally speakmg, between the contexts and temporalities and politics of canorucal writers and ourselves there looms the mvention not only of professiOnal scholarship but of that strange and m many respects adrrurable mstitution, the modem uruversity. It IS here that such scholarship finds its contemporary audience and legitimation, even as the university itself has, if unevenly and not Without contradiction, become assunilated to the social, cultural, econorruc, scientific, and symbolic reproduction of modern political orders. From any number of critical perspectives, there are good reasons to doubt that disciplinary frames from the early twentieth century are adequate to the tasks of political reflection as we approach the twenty-first.

Due appreciation of such thmgs might both support and modify Professor Isaac's assessment of "the state of political theory." Without deprecating philosophical reflection or historical mquiry, the emergence of interdisciplin-ary and rruxed-genre publications might encourage those of us who value a broader public voice either to pressure disciplinary constraints ourselves or to g1ve greater credit to those more mclined to do so-whether those mclinations speak to "the revolutions of 1989" or any other of the mynad political dilemmas that populate the contemporary scene. Further, however, without denying the virtues of public mtellectual work, these considerations rrught mv1te a more generous reading of tpose for whom political critique concerns not only what we thmk about but how we thmk about thinking about it as well. In this regard, and in light of the multiple political valenct:s of both the modern umversity and its disciplinary diviSions, what IS here disparaged as "American" appropriations of "French and German Idioms" may be mflected by somethmg rather more weighty than either careensm or fashion. Amidst their quite substantial differences, much of the Irntial repute and

SYMPOSIUM 663

continumg cntical impact of such European mtellectuals as Habennas, Foucault, Dernda, and Lyotard m the American academy has pivoted signifi-cantly on their accounts of the politicalness of the institutional production and dissemmation of modern "knowledges." As these perspectives percolate through the many sites of American mtellectual life, some of their vanants may mdeed fall prey to the guildish habits that enforce institutional impera-tives to "discipline and vanish." Yet we would do well not to mistake a possible fate for a necessary trait. In this context, perhaps the question for "Amencan" political theory IS not why some of its scholarly enunciators take the political relevance of such accounts so seriously but how any of us cannot.

NOTES

1. Indeed, smlilarly sobenng tnstghts nught be gleaned from recent Italian politics, not to mention continumg articulations ofThatcherite and Reaganite agendas m Britrun and the United States. The "revolt of ctvil soctety" agrunst the admmtstrative and bureaucratic competences of the modem state may stgnify somethmg well m excess of the "ideologtcal antagonism between commumsm and liberalism" (p. 636) through which Cold War rhetoncs have encouraged thmkmg about the political world.

2. No less disheartenmg figures mtght result had the notion of politically wetghty contem-porary phenomena extended to Latin Amencan "transitions," the Gulf War, AIDS, genoctde m Rwanda, poverty, race relations, sexuality, or European unification, but I will restnct myself to the case as it ts framed here.

3. Here, for reasons that I hope will become clear later, I accede to the notion of Amencan peculiarity, though not m the "exceptionalist" sense that mforms the end of Professor Isaac's account.

4. Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Angels mAmenca come Immediately to rrund, not only because they exemplify Professor Isaac's admrrable recognition that political theory may take dramatic or literary form but also because they will doubtless reach a far broader and more diverse segment of the Amencan public than any scholarly work I can at present trnagme.

5. Ellen Rooney, "Disctpline and Vantsh: Fenumsm, the ReSIStance to Theory, and the Politics of Cultural Studies," differences 2, no. 3 (Falll990): 15-28.

-Kirstie M. McClure Johns Hopkins Umversity

Kirstie M. McClure teaches at Johns Hopk1ns Umverszty m the Department of Political Sc1ence and the Humamties Center. Her book, Judgmg Rights: Lockean Politics and the Ltmits of Consent, 1s forthcommg With Cornell Umversity Press.

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