Political philosophy does not intend to interpret the world or transform it but, as secondary knowledge and reason court, looks for transparency, gages the cognitive scope and the correction of our believes and projects, at the time as provides the justification and legitimation of the principles and conditions that must regulate social interaction.
These are some of the reflections included in the volume “Political theory faced tith the problems of the 21st century”, an edition prepared by Professors Ángel Valencia and Fernando Fernández-Llebrez, who include in this book published by the Publishing House of the University of Granada the contents of the homonymous conference held in December of 2002, coordinated by professor Antonio Robles Egea.
According to the authors of the book, who quote Bhikhu Parekh, “currently, after decades of stagnation, political theory enjoys good health, as having been able to survive «the fiercest attacks, has built an impressive tradition able to hold new experimental materials». Although it is true that it brings about progress, if «the discipline wants to go on making progress, it must be prepared to face up to new challenges and review its theoretical instruments» as, otherwise, the supposed progress could be the start of a new and undesired lethargy.”
Professor Valencia and Fernández-Llebrez refer to the difficulty that nowadays entails to talk with precision and, above all, to write about present and what seems to be new and to be able to distinguish between what is novel or not. “To this extent, −they say− and although it may seem paradoxical, past time can be helpful, but also the ability to tackle reality directly and do it with intellectual courage”.
Globalization
The changes happened in the world order with the internal collapse of «real socialism» is part of some of these challenges, according to the authors of the book. “This collapse −they point out− affects questions from the «unipolarity» of the world, with all its consequences, to the ways of legitimation of modern democracy, as it has lost its «traditional opponent», and is trapped in the liberal-democrat fight. But the process of economical globalization we are immersed in also affects not just the relation between politics and economy and its theoretical and practical justifications, but also the territorial dimensions of representative democracy (its limits and potentials), as well as the necessary conceptual precision when it comes to understand such reality”.
In the same way, the relation established between economical, social and political development and its connection with the ecological question is other of the topics that are in the essential structure of the political reality in the 21st century, as the possibilities that allow such connections will be essential to tackle certain public policies. Similarly, the process of inclusion that entails the modern democratic tradition involves to think about new realities that are crying out to be part of the «traditional» subjects of political theory. “Questions referring to sexual identities, equal policies between sexes, «social minorities», etc., are topics that can not be kept out of out theoretical work”.
Reference:
Professor Fernando Fernández-Llebrez
Department of Political and Administration Science. University of Granada.
Phone number: 958 248 377 / 958 244 198 (department)
E-mail: fernando@ugr.es
