Political Innovation and Conceptual Change

by Terence Ball (Editor), James Farr (Editor), Russell L. Hanson (Editor)

This book sets out to defend the claim that politics is a linguistically constituted activity, and to show that the concepts that inform political beliefs and behavior have historically mutable meanings that have undergone changes related to real political events. The contributors go on to analyze the evolution of no less than thirteen particular concepts, all central to political discourse in the western world. They include revolution, rights, democracy, property, corruption, and citizenship.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Talha Koseoglu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1989 the book was itself innovative at that time perhaps, but not anymore. If you are somewhat familiar with debates in historiography or history of political thought, or if you have hear of the "linguistic turn" in social sciences in general, the methodological discussions in the book (esp first two chapters) would appear rather trivial. Yet there is a lot to learn from subsequent chapters about histories of each concepts. Chapters are a bit too descriptive (is it inevitable in historical strain of political theory or any history work?), and a bit Britain-focused. Certain chapters make good use of historic and synchronic comparison by use of Ancient Greek and Roman, Early-modern Republican and modern French and American political theorists. Some chapters are really good, and I would recommend reading those and skipping the rest if you are not specifically interested in one of them. Apart from the first two conceptual chapters (which would be helpful for those who are less familiar with history), Skinner's chapter on state (chapter 5), Walzer's chapter on citizenship (chapter 10) and Dunn's chapter on revolution (chapter 16) are especially recommended.