Reflections on Violence

European Journal of Political Theory, 2006

The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between revolution and violence in Marxism and in a series of texts drawing on Marxian theory. Part 1 outlines the basic normative frameworks which determine the outer limits of permissible violence in Marxism. Part 2 presents a critical analysis of a series of later discussions - by Sorel, Fanon and Žižek - which transformed the terms in which violence was discussed by developing one particular aspect of Marxist thought. By teasing out the implications of revolutionary theory for the commission and permission of violence, it is possible to specify those points at which it tends towards excess. This in turn points towards limits that an adequate normative theory of revolutionary violence should establish.

The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between revolution and violence in Marxism and in a series of texts drawing on Marxian theory. Part 1 outlines the basic normative frameworks which determine the outer limits of permissible violence in Marxism. Part 2 presents a critical analysis of a series of later discussions - by Sorel, Fanon and iek - which transformed the terms in which violence was discussed by developing one particular aspect of Marxist thought. By teasing out the implications of revolutionary theory for the commission and permission of violence, it is possible to specify those points at which it tends towards excess. This in turn points towards limits that an adequate normative theory of revolutionary violence should establish.

2012

Ankara : The Department of Political Science and Public Administration, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, 2012.Thesis (Ph. D.) -- Bilkent University, 2012.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis aims at understanding the relationship between violence and politics in twentieth century political thought. To this end, the study looks at the works of selected thinkers and suggests a threefold categorization of existing approaches: a ‘non-problematization of the relationship between violence and politics’ exemplified in the liberal-democratic paradigm, a ‘nonproblematization of violence in politics’ in some critiques of liberal thought and the position of ambivalence, which suggests a historical relationship between violence and politics. The thesis moves to a further analysis of Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault, whose works are considered as representing the third position and discuss their analysis of the relationship between violence and politics with a focus on power and r...

International Relations and Diplomacy

Often the most brutal explosions of violence are admissions of impotence. Keeping this in mind, the author would like to bring to light the political terror of Joseph Stalin which was systematically disseminated on the Socialist Opposition lead by Leon Trotsky. In order to understand the brutal nature of the false trials and the numerous murders in the name of revolution, it is imperative to understand the degeneracy of the Soviet Union which has been analyzed very dialectically by Leon Trotsky. Paul Le Blanc notes that the socialism in one country perspective caused for all practical purposes a downgrade in the seriousness with which the Communist International was taken. Initially, established by Lenin and his comrades to build parties in countries all over the world, this theory was now being vulgarized and being transformed into a tool for the foreign policy of the bureaucratic brand of socialism which was being practiced by the Soviet Union. It is because of this theory that people who are not aware of the history and do not have a proper knowledge of dialectical analysis fail to analyze the Soviet Union. My paper talks about the violent construction of the myth of Trotskyism as a signifier signifying the betrayal to the big br(other) that is Stalin and exposing the bankruptcy and impotence of Stalinism.

Opticon1826, 2013

This article aims to examine the main tenets of Merleau-Ponty’s political thought. To this end, his early Marxism and his later support for Liberalism are contextualised within Merleau-Ponty’s philosophical work, put into relation and both criticised. The focus of the discussion is shifted onto the role and locus of the political thinker in order to evaluate the scope of a political project such as Marxism might have. It is divided into three sections. The first explores the themes of the philosophy developed until the early 1950s. The two sections that follow aim to critique his later work and to integrate and relate its arguments to earlier writings.

The study of violence has increasing academic purchase. However, the academic treatment of violence imparts an ontological status that masks violence from critical scrutiny. We argue for the social sciences to (re)theorize violence and to develop a dialectics of violence. Our purpose is to provide a space for dialogue, to open a broader debate within the social sciences on the theoretical determination of violence. We advocate for a new approach to violence that eschews the development of essentializing typologies or generalized explanations of violence as an epiphenomenon of society.

Social & Cultural Geography, 2017