Conceptualizing politics : an introduction to political philosophy / Furio Cerutti.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Politics is hugely complex. Some try to reduce its complexity by examining it through an ideological worldview, a one-size-fits-all prescriptive formula or a quantitative examination of as many 'facts' as possible. Yet politics cannot be adequately handled as if it were made of cells and particles: ideological views are oversimplifying and sometimes dangerous. Politics is not simply a moral matter, nor political philosophy a subdivision of moral philosophy. This book is devised as a basic conceptual lexicon for all those who want to understand what politics is, how it works and how it changes or fails to change. Key concepts such as power, conflict, legitimacy and order are clearly defined and their interplay in the state, interstate and global level explored. Principles such as liberty, equality, justice and solidarity are discussed in the context of the political choices confronting us. This compact and systematic introduction to the categories needed to grasp the fundamentals of politics will appeal to readers who want to gain a firmer grasp on the workings of politics, as well as to scholars and students of philosophy, political science and history.-- Provided by Publisher.

part I What is politics? -- 1. Politics and power -- 1. A First Definition of Politics -- 2. Power and political power -- 3. Operating areas, instruments and modus operandi of political power -- 4. Political power and the others -- 5. Objections and consequences -- 6. Politics and power, a fatal connection? -- 2. The subjective side of politics: legitimacy, identity, obligation -- 1. Legitimacy and legitimation -- 2. Political identity -- 3. Political obligation -- Excursus 1 What is political philosophy? -- part II How politics works -- 3. Order, institutions, models -- 1. What does order mean in politics? -- 2. Rules, institutions and the regulation of fear -- 3. Historic models of political order -- 4. The state -- 1. The state and sovereignty -- 2. The rise of the modem state in Europe -- 3. State and society -- 4. State and nation -- 5 ̂

The state and the law -- 6. State and values -- 5. Government and democracy -- 1. Democracy one and two -- 2. From representation to national democracy -- 3. Democratic government -- 4. How is democracy possible? Does it have alternatives? -- 5. Democracy and capitalism -- part III World politics and the future of politics -- 6. The states: power, peace and war in anarchical society -- 1. The anarchical international society -- 2. War -- 3. Restraints to war, or peace? -- 4. The pacification of Europe -- 7. The globalised world: a challenge to politics -- part I Globalisation and global governance -- 1. What is globalisation? -- 2. Globalisation and politics -- 3. Global governance? -- part II Global/lethal challenges: politics after modernity -- 4. The two present challenges -- 5. What to do with future generations? -- 6. Politics after modernity: another definition -- 75̂ ̂

Global troubles for democracy -- Excursus 2 Politics and death -- part IV Ethics and politics -- 8. Liberty, equality and rights -- 1. Concepts of liberty -- 2. Equality and egalitarianism -- 3. Rights -- 4. Rights: universal or not? -- 9. Justice and solidarity -- 1. Versions of justice -- 2. Distributive justice -- 3. Solidarity -- 10. Ethics, philosophy and politics -- 1. Ethics and politics -- 2. Which ethics for politicians? -- 3. For and against ideal theory -- 4. Critical Theory.