Jean L Cohen
Biographic Data
| ID | 3606435 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jean L Cohen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jean L |
| FAMILY NAME | Cohen |
| SIGNATURE | COHEN J L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Columbia University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5167-5601 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 49 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 403 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 49 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Symposium
Cycles of Oligarchy, Democracy, and Authoritarianism
Our reply to critics by Andrew Arato and Jean L. Cohen
Rethinking hybrid regimes
Does Voluntary Association Make Democracy Work?
The Democratic Construction of Inherently Sovereign Functions
In this essay, I approach the question of privatization from a normative political theory perspective. Following Mégret's lead, I focus on the inter- or transnational domain, with the aim of making explicit the norms that undergird Mégret's analysis despite the functional approach he apparently adopts. I argue that the normative basis of the ideas of sovereignty and publicness he relies on is parasitic on the principles of democratic legitimacy d…
Democracy without Shortcuts
This article engages with Cristina Lafont’s excellent book, Democracy without Shortcuts. I argue that she provides us with the tools to comprehend what democracy entails and how to challenge the populist pseudo-democratic project
The Utopia of Civil Society
The utopia of civil society starts out from the obviously plausible counterthesis according to which the Western liberal democracies, unlike Soviet-type societies, are civil societies, however imperfect. Admittedly, democratic utopias drawing on the resource of solidarity and projecting the vast expansion of communicative processes of will formation can also he, and have often been, totalizing. Revolutionary utopias can use versions of genuine im…
Civil Society and Political Theory
Hollow parties and their movement-ization
This article focuses on the relationship between social movements and political parties in the context of populist challenges to constitutional democracy. There are many reasons for the current plight of democracy but I focus here on one aspect: the decline of mainstream political parties, the emergence of new forms of populist movement parties and the general crisis of political representation in long consolidated Western democracies. This artic…
What's wrong with the normative theory (and the actual practice) of left populism
On Liberalism’s Religion
This chapter addresses two crucial issues raised by Laborde’s superb Liberalism’s Religion. The first pertains to where the liberal democratic modern state draws the line between the self-governing prerogatives of religious nomos communities and their regulation by the civil law; the second pertains to the prerogative of the state to do the relevant line drawing. Theorists concerned with religious freedom focus on the first set of questions under…
On the genealogy and legitimacy of the secular state
Reflections on the Dubrovnik/Prague seminars
The Uses and Limits of Legalism
Human rights have become the language of justice in our globalizing world. Yet, curiously, despite many rounds of debate over moral versus political conceptions, little attention has been paid to the meaning of human rights as international legal concepts. The specific normative significance of the fact that human rights are legal norms of the international legal order and the implications this has for the nature and justice of that order has got…
Civil society, populism and religion
Civil Society and Political Theory
Part 1 The discourse of civil society: the contemporary revival of civil society conceptual history and theoreticl synthesis theoretical development in the 20th century. Part 2 The discontents of civil society: the normative critique - Hannah Arendt the historicist critique - Carl Schmitt, Reinhart Koselleck and Jurgen Habermas the genealogical critique - Michel Foucault the systems-theoretic critique - Niklas Luhmann. Part 3 The reconstruction o…
Freedom of Religion, Inc
This article focuses on an expansive conception of religious freedom propagated by a vocal group of American legal scholars – jurisdictional pluralists – often working with well-funded conservative foundations and influencing accommodation decisions throughout the US. I show that the proliferation of 'accommodation' claims in the name of church autonomy and religious conscience entailing exemption from civil regulation and anti-discrimination law…
Jurisdicción multicultural en el Estado liberal
This paper defends a critical view about the so called “new legal pluralism”. It begins byplacing this concept in an historical perspective, and then analyzing feminist arguments forthe “transformative accommodation” of religious diversity in the form of status based legalpluralism. The author’s contribution is not only the assessing of the flaws in the legal pluralistsolution, but also the offering of a different model of transformative accommod…
Reply to Scheuerman’s review of Globalization and Sovereignty
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Political religion vs non-establishment
This article defends the principle of non-establishment against 21 st -century projects of political religion, constitutional theocracy and political theology. It is divided into two parts, which will appear in two consecutive issues of Philosophy & Social Criticism, 39(4–5) and 39(6). Part 1 proceeds by constructing an ideal type of political secularism, and then discussing the innovative American model of constitutional dualism regarding religi…
Political religion vs non-establishment
This article defends the principle of non-establishment against 21 st -century projects of political religion, constitutional theocracy and political theology. It is divided into two parts. The first part, published in special issue 39.4–5 of Philosophy and Social Criticism, proceeds by constructing an ideal type of political secularism, and then discussing the innovative American model of constitutional dualism regarding religion that combined c…
Globalization and Sovereignty
Sovereignty and the sovereign state are often seen as anachronisms; Globalization and Sovereignty challenges this view. Jean L. Cohen analyzes the new sovereignty regime emergent since the 1990s evidenced by the discourses and practice of human rights, humanitarian intervention, transformative occupation, and the UN targeted sanctions regime that blacklists alleged terrorists. Presenting a systematic theory of sovereignty and its transformation i…
Repensando a privacidade
A partir de um diálogo com a crítica feminista às dicotomias entre o público e o privado, a autora define os limites e contornos do direito à privacidade, considerado um aspecto central à autonomia e ao direito ao corpo. O comunitarismo e as correntes feministas que defendem a superação das fronteiras entre público e privado são criticados pela incapacidade de garantir o respeito às decisões autônomas dos indivíduos, sobretudo no que concerne seu…
Banishing the Sovereign? Internal and External Sovereignty in Arendt
According to Hannah Arendt “the great and, in the long run, perhaps the greatest American innovation in politics as such was the consistent abolition of sovereignty within the body politic of the republic, the insight that in the realm of human affairs sovereignty and tyranny are the same.” It is very clear that Arendt considers the American abolition of sovereignty to pertain to internal affairs only; first, because she explicitly says “within t…
Rethinking Social Movements
This landmark volume brings together some of the titans of social movement theory in a grand reassessment of its status. For some time, the field has been divided between a dominant structural approach and a cultural or constructivist tradition. The gaps and misunderstandings between the two sides as well as the efforts to bridge them closely parallel those in the discipline of sociology at large. This book aims to further the dialogue between th…
Whose Sovereignty? Empire Versus International Law
This article focuses on the impact of globalization on international law and the discourse of sovereignty. It challenges the claim that we have entered into a new world order characterized by transnational governance and decentered global law, which have replaced “traditional” international law and rendered the concepts of state sovereignty and international society anachronistic. We are indeed in the presence of something new. But if we drop the…
Changing Paradigms of Citizenship and the Exclusiveness of the Demos
Three distinct components of the citizenship principle have been identified in the literature: a political principle of democracy, a juridical status of legal personhood and a form of membership and political identity. The modern paradigm of citizenship was based on the assumption that these components would neatly map onto one another on the terrain of the democratic welfare state. Globalization, new forms of transnational migration, the partial…
Civil society, populism and religion
Diversity and Its Discontents
Sociedade civil e globalização
The discourse of civil society has gone global. Once again theorists of democracy are placing their bets on civil society to generate solidarity, publicity, civicness, awareness of new forms of injustice, and democracy vis-a-vis the new world order. Yet too many analysts are naively optimistic or ideological about global civil society's democratizing role. In order to visualize the proper role of civil society in the global context, careful syste…
What's wrong with the normative theory (and the actual practice) of left populism
Rethinking Human Rights, Democracy, and Sovereignty in the Age of Globalization
The traditional conception construes human rights as moral rights all people have due to some basic feature or interests deemed intrinsically valuable. This comported well with the revival of the discourse of human rights in the wake of atrocities committed during WWII. It served as a useful referent for local struggles against foreign rule and domestic dictatorship in the 1980s. Since 1989, human rights discourse acquired a new function: the jus…
A Global State of Emergency or the Further Constitutionalization of International Law
Sovereign Equality vs. Imperial Right
The Return to Civil Society
Rights and Citizenship, and the Modern Form of the Social
Repensando a privacidade
A partir de um diálogo com a crítica feminista às dicotomias entre o público e o privado, a autora define os limites e contornos do direito à privacidade, considerado um aspecto central à autonomia e ao direito ao corpo. O comunitarismo e as correntes feministas que defendem a superação das fronteiras entre público e privado são criticados pela incapacidade de garantir o respeito às decisões autônomas dos indivíduos, sobretudo no que concerne seu…
Personal Autonomy and the Law
Discourse Ethics and Civil Society
Sur la controverse frequente dans la theorie politique actuelle quant a savoir si liberalisme et democratie sont antithetiques. L'A. presente une conception de la societe civile democratique a travers une vision du discours ethique qui envisage tant la legitimation democratique que les droits fondamentaux dans la societe civile
Hollow parties and their movement-ization
This article focuses on the relationship between social movements and political parties in the context of populist challenges to constitutional democracy. There are many reasons for the current plight of democracy but I focus here on one aspect: the decline of mainstream political parties, the emergence of new forms of populist movement parties and the general crisis of political representation in long consolidated Western democracies. This artic…
Banishing the Sovereign? Internal and External Sovereignty in Arendt
According to Hannah Arendt “the great and, in the long run, perhaps the greatest American innovation in politics as such was the consistent abolition of sovereignty within the body politic of the republic, the insight that in the realm of human affairs sovereignty and tyranny are the same.” It is very clear that Arendt considers the American abolition of sovereignty to pertain to internal affairs only; first, because she explicitly says “within t…
The Self-Institution of Society and Representative Government
This article discusses the work of Cornelius Castoriadis, an important political thinker and theorist of democracy. Castoriadis developed not one but two theories of democracy based on two distinct understandings of autonomy. The first is compatible with the key features of representative government; the second is not. Unfortunately, Castoriadis models his interpretation of the idea of popular sovereignty on the second view, thereby concluding, l…
Rethinking hybrid regimes
On the genealogy and legitimacy of the secular state
Freedom of Religion, Inc
This article focuses on an expansive conception of religious freedom propagated by a vocal group of American legal scholars – jurisdictional pluralists – often working with well-funded conservative foundations and influencing accommodation decisions throughout the US. I show that the proliferation of 'accommodation' claims in the name of church autonomy and religious conscience entailing exemption from civil regulation and anti-discrimination law…
Civil Society And Social Theory
Cycles of Oligarchy, Democracy, and Authoritarianism
Democracy without Shortcuts
This article engages with Cristina Lafont’s excellent book, Democracy without Shortcuts. I argue that she provides us with the tools to comprehend what democracy entails and how to challenge the populist pseudo-democratic project
On Liberalism’s Religion
This chapter addresses two crucial issues raised by Laborde’s superb Liberalism’s Religion. The first pertains to where the liberal democratic modern state draws the line between the self-governing prerogatives of religious nomos communities and their regulation by the civil law; the second pertains to the prerogative of the state to do the relevant line drawing. Theorists concerned with religious freedom focus on the first set of questions under…
Class and Civil Society
The Anglo-American Reception of Critical Theory
Class and Civil Society. The Limits of Marxian Critical Theory
Discourse Ethics and Civil Society
Sur la controverse frequente dans la theorie politique actuelle quant a savoir si liberalisme et democratie sont antithetiques. L'A. presente une conception de la societe civile democratique a travers une vision du discours ethique qui envisage tant la legitimation democratique que les droits fondamentaux dans la societe civile
Civil Society And Social Theory
The Return to Civil Society
Jean Cohen Responds
These pages are meant to clarify what I take to be the key issues at stake in Murphy's criticism of Habermas. They are not meant as a defense of any particular interpretation of Habermas, including my own. Nevertheless, I start with Murphy's rather polemical discussion of my short 1988 article, Discourse Ethics and Civil Society, in order to correct certain misinterpretations, to clear the ground and to point to where I believe further work for a…
Rights and Citizenship, and the Modern Form of the Social
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Does Voluntary Association Make Democracy Work
Diversity and Its Discontents
Personal Autonomy and the Law
The Hijacking of Sexual Harassment
Para pensar de nuevo la privacidad
Para pensar de nuevo la privacidad: la autonomía, la identidad y la controversia sobre el aborto
Changing Paradigms of Citizenship and the Exclusiveness of the Demos
Three distinct components of the citizenship principle have been identified in the literature: a political principle of democracy, a juridical status of legal personhood and a form of membership and political identity. The modern paradigm of citizenship was based on the assumption that these components would neatly map onto one another on the terrain of the democratic welfare state. Globalization, new forms of transnational migration, the partial…
Personal Autonomy and the Law
There have been remarkable changes in the “domain of intimacy” over the last four decades
Pour une démocratie en mouvement. Lectures critiques de la société civile
Distribution électronique Cairn.infopour Presses de Sciences Po. Distribution électronique Cairn.infopour Presses de Sciences Po. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement.Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous…
Rethinking Social Movements
This landmark volume brings together some of the titans of social movement theory in a grand reassessment of its status. For some time, the field has been divided between a dominant structural approach and a cultural or constructivist tradition. The gaps and misunderstandings between the two sides as well as the efforts to bridge them closely parallel those in the discipline of sociology at large. This book aims to further the dialogue between th…
Regulating Intimacy
Sociedade civil e globalização
The discourse of civil society has gone global. Once again theorists of democracy are placing their bets on civil society to generate solidarity, publicity, civicness, awareness of new forms of injustice, and democracy vis-a-vis the new world order. Yet too many analysts are naively optimistic or ideological about global civil society's democratizing role. In order to visualize the proper role of civil society in the global context, careful syste…
Whose Sovereignty? Empire Versus International Law
This article focuses on the impact of globalization on international law and the discourse of sovereignty. It challenges the claim that we have entered into a new world order characterized by transnational governance and decentered global law, which have replaced “traditional” international law and rendered the concepts of state sovereignty and international society anachronistic. We are indeed in the presence of something new. But if we drop the…
The Self-Institution of Society and Representative Government
This article discusses the work of Cornelius Castoriadis, an important political thinker and theorist of democracy. Castoriadis developed not one but two theories of democracy based on two distinct understandings of autonomy. The first is compatible with the key features of representative government; the second is not. Unfortunately, Castoriadis models his interpretation of the idea of popular sovereignty on the second view, thereby concluding, l…
Sovereign Equality vs. Imperial Right
Rethinking Human Rights, Democracy, and Sovereignty in the Age of Globalization
The traditional conception construes human rights as moral rights all people have due to some basic feature or interests deemed intrinsically valuable. This comported well with the revival of the discourse of human rights in the wake of atrocities committed during WWII. It served as a useful referent for local struggles against foreign rule and domestic dictatorship in the 1980s. Since 1989, human rights discourse acquired a new function: the jus…
A Global State of Emergency or the Further Constitutionalization of International Law
Banishing the Sovereign? Internal and External Sovereignty in Arendt
According to Hannah Arendt “the great and, in the long run, perhaps the greatest American innovation in politics as such was the consistent abolition of sovereignty within the body politic of the republic, the insight that in the realm of human affairs sovereignty and tyranny are the same.” It is very clear that Arendt considers the American abolition of sovereignty to pertain to internal affairs only; first, because she explicitly says “within t…
Political science (40 works) · Sociology (38 works) · Law (34 works) · Politics (30 works) · Law (22 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Law and economics (16 works) · Democracy (14 works) · Epistemology (13 works) · Philosophy (11 works)