Demonization : Nathaniel Berman

One of the most powerful tactics in current political debates is to accuse one’s opponent of “demonizing” the target of his or her critique. The charge almost always forces the other on the defensive – ranging from the petulant (“I wasn’t demonizing, I was just making specific criticisms”) to the childish (“I’m the one who’s demonizing?! You’re the one who’s . . .

Demonization : Nathaniel Berman

One of the most powerful tactics in current political debates is to accuse one’s opponent of “demonizing” the target of his or her critique. The charge almost always forces the other on the defensive – ranging from the petulant (“I wasn’t demonizing, I was just making specific criticisms”) to the childish (“I’m the one who’s demonizing?! You’re the one who’s . . .

Development : Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

A gradual unfolding, a bringing into fuller view; a fuller disclosure or working out of the details of anything, as a plan, a scheme, the plot of a novel. Also quasi-concr. that in which the fuller unfolding is embodied or realized. The economic advancement of a region or people, esp. one currently under-developed. This consideration leads us to what is. . .

Development : Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

A gradual unfolding, a bringing into fuller view; a fuller disclosure or working out of the details of anything, as a plan, a scheme, the plot of a novel. Also quasi-concr. that in which the fuller unfolding is embodied or realized. The economic advancement of a region or people, esp. one currently under-developed. This consideration leads us to what is. . .

Disappearance : Joan Cocks

Niccolò Machiavelli once quipped that “men are much more interested in present things than in those that are past,” a remark matched in its insouciance towards the “once was” by Leon Trotsky’s declaration that “the first secret of the dialectic . . . [is] that there is nothing unchanging on this earth, and that society is made out of plastic materials.” Both men are partly right. . .

Disappearance : Joan Cocks

Niccolò Machiavelli once quipped that “men are much more interested in present things than in those that are past,” a remark matched in its insouciance towards the “once was” by Leon Trotsky’s declaration that “the first secret of the dialectic . . . [is] that there is nothing unchanging on this earth, and that society is made out of plastic materials.” Both men are partly right. . .

Disruption : Ben Parker

In the year after Donald Trump was elected, the opinion pages of The New York Times were consistent in diagnosing the threat a Trump presidency bore to the republic, in essays titled “Democracy, Disrupted,” “Declaration of Disruption,” “The President’s Self-Destructive Disruption,” and “The Dangers of Disruption.” What did the various . . .

Disruption : Ben Parker

In the year after Donald Trump was elected, the opinion pages of The New York Times were consistent in diagnosing the threat a Trump presidency bore to the republic, in essays titled “Democracy, Disrupted,” “Declaration of Disruption,” “The President’s Self-Destructive Disruption,” and “The Dangers of Disruption.” What did the various . . .

Ecstasy : Stephen Bush

Ecstasy is disruptive, unusual, episodic: the term typically denotes the momentary puncture of our ordinary ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. But it might very well also be an ongoing condition. Some philosophers and social theorists have characterized subjectivity as permanently ecstatic. They say we are in some sense always outside ourselves. Neither our skin. . .

Ecstasy : Stephen Bush

Ecstasy is disruptive, unusual, episodic: the term typically denotes the momentary puncture of our ordinary ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. But it might very well also be an ongoing condition. Some philosophers and social theorists have characterized subjectivity as permanently ecstatic. They say we are in some sense always outside ourselves. Neither our skin. . .

Enough : Jacques Lezra

Politics is concerned with what is or is not enough; it takes shape when I judge something to be insufficient for something to obtain; and when I make a claim based on this judgment. The rules for obtaining whatever it is that I desire (a state of affairs or a matter of fact; something abstract, like the “truth,” “freedom,” or “security”; or being-with someone; or something. . .

Enough : Jacques Lezra

Politics is concerned with what is or is not enough; it takes shape when I judge something to be insufficient for something to obtain; and when I make a claim based on this judgment. The rules for obtaining whatever it is that I desire (a state of affairs or a matter of fact; something abstract, like the “truth,” “freedom,” or “security”; or being-with someone; or something. . .

Equality : Collaboration

Being a lexical enterprise, Political Concepts revolves around what is probably the quintessential philosophical question at least since Socrates: “What is X?” Socrates’ basic idea, much like that of the current lexicon, is that the everyday use of concepts is often problematic. The attempt to define what some X is, even when it does not reach a definite. . .

Equality : Collaboration

Being a lexical enterprise, Political Concepts revolves around what is probably the quintessential philosophical question at least since Socrates: “What is X?” Socrates’ basic idea, much like that of the current lexicon, is that the everyday use of concepts is often problematic. The attempt to define what some X is, even when it does not reach a definite. . .

Exploitation: Étienne Balibar

When I proposed “exploitation” as a contribution for this conference, I thought I would vindicate the political character of Marxism in the framework of an Encyclopedia of “political concepts” in the making, since everybody knows that this is one of Marxism’s central notions and that it characterizes Marxism’s way of overcoming separations between. . .

Exploitation: Étienne Balibar

When I proposed “exploitation” as a contribution for this conference, I thought I would vindicate the political character of Marxism in the framework of an Encyclopedia of “political concepts” in the making, since everybody knows that this is one of Marxism’s central notions and that it characterizes Marxism’s way of overcoming separations between. . .

Federation : Jean L. Cohen

Two developments call for creative thinking about constitutional and political forms. The first is the universalization of the political form of the sovereign national state—in the aftermath of formal decolonization and then with the decomposition of the great land based empire of the Soviet Union (post-1989). Norms against conquest and forced annexation. . .

Federation : Jean L. Cohen

Two developments call for creative thinking about constitutional and political forms. The first is the universalization of the political form of the sovereign national state—in the aftermath of formal decolonization and then with the decomposition of the great land based empire of the Soviet Union (post-1989). Norms against conquest and forced annexation. . .

Force : Claudia Baracchi

“Force is that which turns anybody who is subjected to it into a thing.” Near the beginning of “L’Iliade ou le poème de la force,” Simone Weil circumscribes with lapidary brevity the problem of force. The question of force has been haunting political reflection from the outset, according to two distinctive perspectives. On the one hand, the disenchanted observers of. . .

Force : Claudia Baracchi

“Force is that which turns anybody who is subjected to it into a thing.” Near the beginning of “L’Iliade ou le poème de la force,” Simone Weil circumscribes with lapidary brevity the problem of force. The question of force has been haunting political reflection from the outset, according to two distinctive perspectives. On the one hand, the disenchanted observers of. . .

Free Indirect: Timothy Bewes

“Free indirect discourse” and “free indirect style” are familiar terms in narrative theory, where they designate a mode of representing the speech or thoughts of a fictional character in the third person—directly, but without using quotation. Contrary to what is sometimes supposed, free indirect discourse is not in itself a technique of ambiguity. When Virginia Woolf. . .

Free Indirect: Timothy Bewes

“Free indirect discourse” and “free indirect style” are familiar terms in narrative theory, where they designate a mode of representing the speech or thoughts of a fictional character in the third person—directly, but without using quotation. Contrary to what is sometimes supposed, free indirect discourse is not in itself a technique of ambiguity. When Virginia Woolf. . .

Guilt : Joshua Dubler

As political technologies, we might consider the two principal types of guilt as akin to the American folkloric dyad of the short con and the long con. The distinction, if you recall, is as follows: in the short con, the conman takes the mark for whatever he happens to have on him, whereas in the long con, the mark is sent home for more. So while the short con is more or less . . .

Guilt : Joshua Dubler

As political technologies, we might consider the two principal types of guilt as akin to the American folkloric dyad of the short con and the long con. The distinction, if you recall, is as follows: in the short con, the conman takes the mark for whatever he happens to have on him, whereas in the long con, the mark is sent home for more. So while the short con is more or less . . .

Hegemony : Brian Meeks

I have been thinking about hegemony in the Caribbean for more than two decades, utilizing the Gramscian notion that social formations are structured in dominance, but that domination is often not primarily executed through force; rather, the social bloc in charge is able to produce and reproduce discourses and sets of ideas that give structure and shape to its apparent . . .

Hegemony : Brian Meeks

I have been thinking about hegemony in the Caribbean for more than two decades, utilizing the Gramscian notion that social formations are structured in dominance, but that domination is often not primarily executed through force; rather, the social bloc in charge is able to produce and reproduce discourses and sets of ideas that give structure and shape to its apparent . . .

Hope : Bruce Robbins

Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. One rarely hears this famous formula mentioned except with approval, and that is remarkable for a formula that is mentioned so often. When we pronounce these by now almost ritualized words, we feel that we are being properly tough-minded but that we are simultaneously managing as we feel is our paradoxical duty . . .

Hope : Bruce Robbins

Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. One rarely hears this famous formula mentioned except with approval, and that is remarkable for a formula that is mentioned so often. When we pronounce these by now almost ritualized words, we feel that we are being properly tough-minded but that we are simultaneously managing as we feel is our paradoxical duty . . .

Horror : Kiarina Kordela

Other differences notwithstanding, theoreticians tend to concur in that horror is not a cognitive but a physiological or affective extra-discursive state of being. Not unlike the state of having fever or feeling nausea, horror is a state of being, whose manifestation, based on the etymologies of the Greek φρικη [frike] and the Latin horror, may be . . .

Horror : Kiarina Kordela

Other differences notwithstanding, theoreticians tend to concur in that horror is not a cognitive but a physiological or affective extra-discursive state of being. Not unlike the state of having fever or feeling nausea, horror is a state of being, whose manifestation, based on the etymologies of the Greek φρικη [frike] and the Latin horror, may be . . .