Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Abstract
Pierre Bourdieu began his posthumously published lectures “On the State” by highlighting the three dominant traditions that have framed most thinking about the state in Western social science and modern social theory. On the one hand, he highlighted what he termed the “initial definition” of the state as a “neutral site” designed to regulate conflict and “serve the common good.” Bourdieu traced this essentially classical liberal conception of the state back to the pioneering political treatises of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.1 In direct response to this “optimistic functionalism,” Bourdieu noted the rise of a critical and more “pessimistic” alternative—something of a diametric opposite.
Recommended Citation
Novak, William J., Stephen W. Sawyer, and James T. Sparrow. "Beyond Stateless Democracy." Tocqueville Review 36, no. 1 (2015): 21-41.