If political tyranny implies the exclusion of the people from public affairs, then freedom is the practice of common ownership of political institutions. Theodosiadis (2025:5-6) develops this approach by tracing its ancient Greek roots, clarifying its American traditions and identifying its institutional forms for a democratic, Promethean politics of today. His idea of political Prometheanism attempts to re-claim the authentic meaning of democracy as a living and participatory practice rather than a mechanical institution. In brief, political Prometheanism calls for societies in which 'ordinary people' would truly 'own' their political institutions and practice the art of governance with the aim of collective flourishing. Promethean politics defends hope and conviction that freedom is achieved through collective action, against both liberal optimism and the despair of political pessimism.
This essay intervenes in contemporary debates around neoliberalism and its relationship to both authoritarianism and social democracy. It does so by reconstructing the debate on Thatcherism that took place between Stuart Hall and Bob Jessop in the 1980s. Both authors provide materialist analyses of Thatcherism that p...
Daniel McLoughlin· Historical Materialism· 0 citations
In the minds of many critical theorists, Theodor W. Adorno epitomizes the failure of critical theory to provide any concrete guidance for political practice. His name is almost synonymous with the retreat of the progressive intellectual from the creeping totalitarianism of contemporary mass democracy. This book endeavo...
What sort of ethos does democratic politics demand? While many political thinkers argue that democratic ethics should shape political judgments, the concept of ethos remains underdeveloped.
Appearances of Ethos responds to this gap in three ways. It begins by identifying the contours of the concept as it has appeared...
The stunning political upheavals witnessed across the western world over the past year have raised the question of whether the neoliberal economic system that has dominated since the 1980s is about to unravel.
During the 1930s, when liberalism last came under attack, two distinct ideologies offered hope to the disaffe...
This essay draws attention to the social processes that shape law. It argues, therefore, that processes of political institutionalisation arise out of sociocultural conflicts resolved through force in favour of a single collective actor, albeit only in relative and historically provisional terms. This essay seeks to...
E. Bevilacqua· International Journal for th...· 0 citations
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