Transforming Political Discourse: Political Theory and Critical Conceptual History

Whereas an earlier generation of political theorists practised "conceptual analysis" in attempting to clarify the meaning of political terms - power, authority and the like - this book argues that the task now facing political theorists is to construct "critical conceptual histories" in order to show how conceptual changes and innovations actually occur in concrete political settings. It argues that politics understood as a species of argumentation, is a linguistically or conceptually constituted activity. The political and theoretical arguments which make up political discourse are in part about language and constitute a central source of conceptual change and innovation. The construction of conceptual histories, far from being politically neutral, can reopen and reinvigorate political discourse and political life as it is lived and understood by its inhabitants. These six studies - of power, authority, party, republic, democracy and justice between generations - are intended to illustrate and exemplify the above themes.