Papers by Pedro T. Magalhães
Frontiers in Political Science
This article examines the migration of reactionary antimodern thought from Europe to the United S... more This article examines the migration of reactionary antimodern thought from Europe to the United States of America. It assesses the impact that the work of two antimodern thinkers, Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin, had on two distinct domains of American thought, namely, conservative political ideology and academic political science. The paper argues that the antimodern perspective, eagerly absorbed by many intellectuals, has pushed American conservatism not only in an anti-liberal, but also in an antidemocratic direction. On the other hand, in academic political science, Strauss's and Voegelin's critiques of modernity, though certainly audible and noted, were neither taken seriously nor confronted in depth by the mainstream of the discipline. This neglect should be corrected, I contend, for contemporary political science is in need of a mature and nuanced theory of modernity that is capable of rising up to the radical challenge of the antimoderns.
The double illusion T his paper seeks to contribute to the debates on the crisis of contemporary ... more The double illusion T his paper seeks to contribute to the debates on the crisis of contemporary democracy by evoking two modern classics-Max Weber and Carl Schmitt-and a specific historical context-Weimar's late modernity. By sketching the troubled path from Max Weber's disillusioned liberalism to Carl Schmitt's totalitarian hopes, it suggests that modern democracy inhabits the critical and uncertain space between a double illusion.
Frontiers in Political Science , 2022
This article examines the migration of reactionary antimodern thought from Europe to the United S... more This article examines the migration of reactionary antimodern thought from Europe to the United States of America. It assesses the impact that the work of two antimodern thinkers, Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin, had on two distinct domains of American thought, namely, conservative political ideology and academic political science. The paper argues that the antimodern perspective, eagerly absorbed by many intellectuals, has pushed American conservatism not only in an anti-liberal, but also in an antidemocratic direction. On the other hand, in academic political science, Strauss's and Voegelin's critiques of modernity, though certainly audible and noted, were neither taken seriously nor confronted in depth by the mainstream of the discipline. This neglect should be corrected, I contend, for contemporary political science is in need of a mature and nuanced theory of modernity that is capable of rising up to the radical challenge of the antimoderns.
OZP - Austrian Journal of Political Science, 2022
This paper offers a critical examination of the foundations of Hans Kelsen's democratic theory in... more This paper offers a critical examination of the foundations of Hans Kelsen's democratic theory in neo-Kantian epistemology. It argues that, while such an epistemological framework provides coherence to his intellectual endeavor by reconciling his monistic legal theory with a pluralist democratic theory, it weakens the theoretical fertility and analytic edge of his political thought. Furthermore, I also claim that the Kelsenian epistemological turn, in its understanding of both law and politics, remains very much entangled in the dilemmas and modes of thought of a philosophical tradition that Kelsen himself believed to have entirely surpassed. His nevertheless insightful analysis of modern democratic institutions would therefore benefit from being read through different philosophical spectacles.
The Legitimacy of Modern Democracy
Chapter 2 of my book on The Legitimacy of Modern Democracy
The Legitimacy of Modern Democracy
Chapter 1 of my book on The Legitimacy of Modern Democracy
Refugees and Knowledge Production, 2022
Refugees and Knowledge Production, 2022
Historical Social Research, 2016
»Leichte Wolken am Konsens-Horizont. Einstellungen der portugiesischen parlamentarischen Eliten g... more »Leichte Wolken am Konsens-Horizont. Einstellungen der portugiesischen parlamentarischen Eliten gegenüber Europa vor und nach der Krise«. In this article we analyze the evolution of the attitudes towards Europe of Portuguese parliamentary elites in the context of the sovereign debt crisis. Our analysis relies on interviews to a total of 227 MPs in the context of the ENEC project in 2014 and of the Intune Project in 2009 and 2007. Our principal finding is that an important gap has risen between the attitudes of the MPs and of the masses. Indeed, while the Portuguese are becoming increasingly less pro-European, this is not the case of their deputies. We show that, in 2014, the percentage of deputies that believed that EU membership benefited the country has decreased a little, but it stays as high as 89%. Our data, however, show that MPs now exhibit lower levels of trust towards the European institutions. Interestingly, the drop in the levels of trust towards EU institutions does not affect all institutions equally: trust towards the European Parliament remains constant regarding 2007, whereas the levels of trust in the remaining two institutions decrease. Finally, we show that it is in the Socialist Party (PS) that there is the steepest decline in the level of overall trust, which is rooted in declining levels of confidence in the European Commission. Given that PS has traditionally portrayed itself as the most pro-Europe of the Portuguese parties, this is solid evidence of a growing discontent with the European Commission.
Journal of Political Ideologies, 2021
This article analyses the role played by the concept of nation in the interwar writings of Carl S... more This article analyses the role played by the concept of nation in the interwar writings of Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) and Eric Voegelin (1901-1985). It contends that, although these conservative thinkers were drawn in different ways to the anti-progressive potential of nationalist ideas, the centre of their political and theoretical horizons in that period is occupied by the problems of political unity and authority. Therefore, their nationalism is fundamentally determined by, and instrumental to, their adherence to a monistic and authoritarian conception of the state. This, in turn, leads them to embrace, though not without some reservations, the solutions put forward by the emergent far-right 'strongmen' to the interwar crisis of liberal democracy. Each author tested in his own way the porous borders between conservatism, nationalism, and fascism-a topic whose scholarly and political relevance is far from being exhausted.
Revista de História das Ideias, 2012
A navegação consulta e descarregamento dos títulos inseridos nas Bibliotecas Digitais UC Digitali... more A navegação consulta e descarregamento dos títulos inseridos nas Bibliotecas Digitais UC Digitalis, UC Pombalina e UC Impactum, pressupõem a aceitação plena e sem reservas dos Termos e Condições de Uso destas Bibliotecas Digitais, disponíveis em https://digitalis.uc.pt/pt-pt/termos. Conforme exposto nos referidos Termos e Condições de Uso, o descarregamento de títulos de acesso restrito requer uma licença válida de autorização devendo o utilizador aceder ao(s) documento(s) a partir de um endereço de IP da instituição detentora da supramencionada licença. Ao utilizador é apenas permitido o descarregamento para uso pessoal, pelo que o emprego do(s) título(s) descarregado(s) para outro fim, designadamente comercial, carece de autorização do respetivo autor ou editor da obra. Na medida em que todas as obras da UC Digitalis se encontram protegidas pelo Código do Direito de Autor e Direitos Conexos e demais legislação aplicável, toda a cópia, parcial ou total, deste documento, nos casos em que é legalmente admitida, deverá conter ou fazer-se acompanhar por este aviso. O problema da representação e a construção do povo: algumas notas sobre a actualidade do debate Schmitt versus Kelsen Autor(es): Magalhães, Pedro T.
Journal of the history of ideas, 2016
The thesis that the theory of charismatic-plebiscitary democracy developed by Max Weber in the wa... more The thesis that the theory of charismatic-plebiscitary democracy developed by Max Weber in the wake of the Weimar Republic was developed to its ultimate consequences by Carl Schmitt in the final crisis of Weimar has been hotly debated since it was first advanced in the 1950s. This paper proposes a fresh look at the controversy. By comparing both authors' concepts of politics in their relation to the problem of modernity, it argues that the Weber-Schmitt affair is neither a baseless legend nor a case of natural continuity. Instead, it should rather be understood in terms of a contingent affinity.
Refugees and Knowledge Production, 2022
Refugees and Knowledge Production: Europe's Past and Present, 2022
This chapter approaches the issue of methodological nationalism in the social sciences from both ... more This chapter approaches the issue of methodological nationalism in the social sciences from both a historical and a contemporary perspective, with particular emphasis on migration studies. First, it offers a historical overview of the problem and delves into its early intellectual history by examining Eric Voegelin’s reflections on ‘national minds’ in the interwar period This anticipates many questions and challenges that future critics of methodological nationalism would consider to be central. Second, we examine the persistence of nation-state-centred concepts and methods in the context of migration and refugee studies. Third, the chapter discusses different conceptual tools for overcoming the insufficiencies of methodological nationalism, weighing both their fruitfulness and their limits. Notwithstanding the ineradicability of nation-state-centred frameworks in social science as well as in the self-perceptions of migrant populations, we show that it is possible to conceive of both ‘community’ and ‘knowledge’ in non-national terms to investigate the possibilities of knowledge produced through experiences of displacement.
Topoi
The elite theory of Max Weber has recently been rediscovered by political scientists and politica... more The elite theory of Max Weber has recently been rediscovered by political scientists and political theorists who have sought to explore both the heuristic and the normative potential of plebiscitary leader democracy. Notwithstanding the merits of this wave of studies, this paper argues that attention should be shifted from Weber's context-specific defence of plebiscitary leadership in post-WWI Germany to his broader conception of charisma as an attempt to grasp the enigma of significant social and political change. Contemporary democratic theory, this paper contends, can fruitfully draw on Weber to sink into the antinomies and ambiguities of a transformative democratic politics.
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Papers by Pedro T. Magalhães
Conservative thinkers on the European continent have generally been less prone to compromise with the political Enlightenment than their Anglo-American counterparts. Since the eighteenth century, they have been profoundly influenced by the relativist and antirationalist intellectual currents designated by Isaiah Berlin as the "Counter-Enlightenment" and extending via nineteenth-century Romanticism and vitalism to the "conservative revolution" of Weimar-era Germany. If such an uncompromising stance towards the main tenets of progressive thought constituted a liability in the aftermath of the Second World War, soon their fundamental questioning of liberal principles acquired a new – and perhaps unexpected – audience among left-leaning democratic theorists and critics of modernity. Today, with the resurgence of nationalism, nativism, and cultural and ethnic particularism, it is safe to argue that such a thinking is far from being old news.
The volume engages in a discussion of conservative topics and thinkers on the European continent from 1789 to the present. It addresses issues such as attitudes towards change, conceptions of time, sovereignty and democracy, the role of conflict, the limits of reason, and the relation between the individual and the community, as they have been interpreted and reinterpreted from conservative points of view. In addition, close attention is paid to the links of conservative thought to late modern strands of continental philosophy – nihilism, relativism and historicism, among others – and to its permeation by ideational components stemming from the universes of liberalism, socialism, nationalism and fascism. The contributions will mainly draw on the resources of political philosophy, conceptual history, and ideological analysis. They assess the relevance of the continental varieties of conservatism for – and their impact on – contemporary discussions in and beyond Europe. The main aim of the volume is to shed new light on the conservative intellectual lineages of various topical notions in today’s political disputes.
The focus of the volume is on conservative political movements, ideologies, thinkers, and intellectual currents on the European continent (as opposed to Anglo-American political conservatism) from the 1789 French Revolution to the present day. In particular, the volume explores the ways in which continental political conservatism was influenced by the Counter-Enlightenment. The emphasis is on original research articles in the fields of political philosophy and theory and intellectual history, but empirical studies as well as systematic review and review articles will also be welcomed. Relevant topics include but are not limited to:
- The proto-Romantic German Counter-Enlightenment and its conservative political legacy.
- French counterrevolutionary conservatism and its legacy.
- Conservative political legacy of German idealism and Romanticism.
- Conservative political legacy of historicism.
- Conservative political legacy of Lebensphilosophie and Nietzsche.
- The German "conservative revolution" of the Weimar period and its legacy.
- Postwar and contemporary "radical conservatism".
Jussi Backman and Pedro T. Magalhães:
Editorial: Conservative Dispositions in Continental Thought
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.1095849
Giovanni Damele:
Crowds, Leaders, and Epidemic Psychosis: The Relationship Between Crowd Psychology and Elite Theory and Its Contemporary Relevance
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.1009181
Timo Pankakoski:
What is Conservative and Revolutionary about the "Conservative Revolution"? Argument-Level Evidence from Three Thinkers
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.959411
Ville Suuronen:
Why Are Political Discussions with Fascists Impossible? Reflections on the Far-Right Politics of Silence
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.951236
Hjalmar Falk:
The Modern Epimetheus: Carl Schmitt's Katechontism as Reactionary Chronopolitics
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.957094
Jussi Backman:
Radical Conservatism and the Heideggerian Right: Heidegger, de Benoist, Dugin
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.941799
Pedro T. Magalhães:
Beyond the Reactionary Sea Change: Antimodern Thought, American Politics, and Political Science
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.954668
Tuukka Brunila:
Depoliticization of Politics and Power: Mouffe and the Conservative Disposition in Postfoundational Political Theory
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.974065