Paul Raekstad
Biographic Data
| ID | 4375771 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Raekstad |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Raekstad |
| SIGNATURE | RAEKSTAD P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8756-3428 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 97 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Genealogy and political philosophy
The value of genealogies for political philosophy
Genealogies are an increasingly important part of contemporary political philosophy. However, even recent genealogies differ a great deal in terms of their ends and methods. Strikingly, this has received virtually no discussion in the literature. This article begins to fill that gap. It does so by comparing and contrasting the genealogies of Bernard Williams, Quentin Skinner, and Raymond Geuss, exploring their different goals, methods, and value …
Algorithmic domination in the gig economy
Digital platforms and application software have changed how people work in a range of industries. Empirical studies of the gig economy have raised concerns about new systems of algorithmic management exercised over workers and how these alter the structural conditions of their work. Drawing on the republican literature, we offer a theoretical account of algorithmic domination and a framework for understanding how it can be applied to ride hail an…
Prefiguration
This chapter explores prefigurative politics in anarchist, Marxist and syndicalist theory and strategy. It discusses what prefigurative politics is; the role it has played in the world’s socialist movements; the main arguments for why prefiguration is necessary for achieving a free, equal and democratic society; the importance of certain kinds of intersectionality; and debates about the usefulness of taking over the existing state. If we are ever…
The Socialist Alternative
Surveillance Capitalism or Information Republic
Recent years have seen growing concerns about corporate surveillance. Critics of surveillance capitalism often use the language of domination and unfreedom to describe these new socio‐technological conditions. Yet there has been little sustained normative analysis that has diagnosed the new forms of domination introduced by surveillance capitalism or considered the remedies needed to remove them. That is what this article provides. We draw on the…
Freedom, Socialism, and Property‐Owning Democracy
What should a free economic system look like? Socialists have long held that a universal human emancipation requires replacing capitalism with socialism. However, it has recently been argued that Property‐Owning Democracy (POD) safeguards freedom while allowing us to keep key features of capitalism. I challenge that claim by showing that the institutional features that make capitalist workplaces unfree are shared with POD. As a result, POD is ins…
Karl Marx's Realist Critique of Capitalism
Karl Marx's Realist Critique of Capitalism
Radicalizing Rights
Strikes often lack a reasonable chance of success unless they violate some basic liberties (of contract, movement, etc.). This creates a dilemma for liberal democracies that recognize a right to strike: either the right is toothless, or the basic liberties do not have priority and so are not basic. Alex Gourevitch argues that grounding the radical right to strike in an interest in freedom resolves the dilemma. We point out an ambiguity in this so…
Politics and the vocation of political theory
Political theory is theory of and for politics11 This starting-point is controversial (see Cohen, 2008; Estlund, 2014), but that is a discussion for another time. To be clear, I here use "political theory" synonymously with "political philosophy."; but if this is so, what is "politics"? As Elizabeth Frazer (2008) has rightly pointed out, there are a number of different ways of spelling out what the "political" in "political theory" might mean—is …
Adam Smith
There is long-standing disagreement about how radical Adam Smith should be taken to be. Recently, Jonathan Israel’s work on the enlightenment situates Smith as a moderate enlightenment thinker. This article challenges that assessment. Smith sees aristocrats as largely devoid of competence, wisdom, and virtue and thinks they do not wield significant political power in commercial societies. He is also highly critical of their economic power; and us…
The radical realist critique of Rawls
Despite the rapidly growing literature on realism, there’s little discussion of the ideology critique of John Rawls offered by one of its leading lights, Raymond Geuss. There is little understanding of what (most of) this critique consists in and few discussions of how Rawls’ approach to political theorising may be defended against it. To remedy this situation, this article reconstructs the realist ideology critique of Rawls advanced by Raymond G…
The model of the legislator
Realism, Utopianism and Human Rights
In a recent article, Benjamin McKean defends utopian political theorising by means of an internal critique of realism, construed as essentially anti-utopian, in order to defend human rights against realist objections thereto. I challenge that argument in three steps, focusing on the realism of Raymond Geuss. First, I show that the realism of Raymond Geuss is not incompatible with utopianism, that Geuss never opposes realism to utopianism and that…
Property-owning democracy as an alternative to capitalism
Alan Thomas’ Republic of Equals: Predistribution and Property-Owning Democracy sets itself the ambitious task of synthesising neo-republican political theory and Rawlsian justice as fairness. It is an important and challenging work that will set the stage for a great deal of the discussion not only on justice and republicanism, but also on property-owning democracy, market socialism and broader discussions of alternative economic institutions to …
The new democracy
The meaning of political concepts is always tied to the practices that develop, sustain, and change them through time. Democracy is no different. One of the most interesting recent chapters in the history of democracy is the New Democracy Movement, which includes the wave of movements from the Arab Spring to the Movement of the Squares and Occupy, and is sometimes taken also to include later events like Nuit Debout. These movements used the langu…
The Present and Future of Political Realism
Realism, Utopianism, and Radical Values
One of the more debated topics in the recent realist literature concerns the compatibility of realism and utopianism. Perhaps the greatest challenge to utopian political thought comes from Bernard Williams' realism, which argues, among other things, that political values should be subject to what he calls the ‘realism constraint’, which rules out utopian arguments based on values which cannot be offered by the state as unrealistic and therefore i…
Human development and alienation in the thought of Karl Marx
Marx's theory of alienation is of great importance to contemporary political developments, due both to the re-emergence of anti-capitalist struggle in Zapatismo, 21st Century Socialism, and the New Democracy Movement, and to the fact that the most important theorists of these movements single out Marx's theory of alienation as critical to their concerns. Despite this renewed practical and theoretical interest, however, these and other writers hav…
Marx’s Inferno
Sciendo provides publishing services and solutions to academic and professional organizations and individual authors. We publish journals, books, conference proceedings and a variety of other publications.
Revolutionary practice and prefigurative politics
Recent years have seen a growth in movements like Zapatismo, 21st Century Socialism, the Movement of the Squares, Occupy, and others who combine commitments to a radical conception of democracy, human emancipation, and what is sometimes called "prefigurative politics." Prefigurative politics is discussed among the anarchists prominent in Occupy (Bray, 2013; Graeber, 2009, 2013; Maeckelbergh, 2011, 2012; van der Sande, Sitrin, & Azzellini, 2014; Y…
Understanding Anarchism
Two Contemporary Approaches to Political Theory
Broadly speaking, the form that contemporary Anglo-American political theory has taken since the 1970s, with its reinvigoration in the seminal work of John Rawls, can largely be described as Platonic and Kantian, focusing on the formulation, comparison, and evaluation of abstract principles of justice, and only subsequently looking to their application in the real world. Concerned about this, a number of critics of the contemporary paradigm in po…
Occupation, Practice, and Revolution
Revolutionary practice and prefigurative politics
Recent years have seen a growth in movements like Zapatismo, 21st Century Socialism, the Movement of the Squares, Occupy, and others who combine commitments to a radical conception of democracy, human emancipation, and what is sometimes called "prefigurative politics." Prefigurative politics is discussed among the anarchists prominent in Occupy (Bray, 2013; Graeber, 2009, 2013; Maeckelbergh, 2011, 2012; van der Sande, Sitrin, & Azzellini, 2014; Y…
Algorithmic domination in the gig economy
Digital platforms and application software have changed how people work in a range of industries. Empirical studies of the gig economy have raised concerns about new systems of algorithmic management exercised over workers and how these alter the structural conditions of their work. Drawing on the republican literature, we offer a theoretical account of algorithmic domination and a framework for understanding how it can be applied to ride hail an…
The radical realist critique of Rawls
Despite the rapidly growing literature on realism, there’s little discussion of the ideology critique of John Rawls offered by one of its leading lights, Raymond Geuss. There is little understanding of what (most of) this critique consists in and few discussions of how Rawls’ approach to political theorising may be defended against it. To remedy this situation, this article reconstructs the realist ideology critique of Rawls advanced by Raymond G…
Realism, Utopianism and Human Rights
In a recent article, Benjamin McKean defends utopian political theorising by means of an internal critique of realism, construed as essentially anti-utopian, in order to defend human rights against realist objections thereto. I challenge that argument in three steps, focusing on the realism of Raymond Geuss. First, I show that the realism of Raymond Geuss is not incompatible with utopianism, that Geuss never opposes realism to utopianism and that…
Human development and alienation in the thought of Karl Marx
Marx's theory of alienation is of great importance to contemporary political developments, due both to the re-emergence of anti-capitalist struggle in Zapatismo, 21st Century Socialism, and the New Democracy Movement, and to the fact that the most important theorists of these movements single out Marx's theory of alienation as critical to their concerns. Despite this renewed practical and theoretical interest, however, these and other writers hav…
Two Contemporary Approaches to Political Theory
Broadly speaking, the form that contemporary Anglo-American political theory has taken since the 1970s, with its reinvigoration in the seminal work of John Rawls, can largely be described as Platonic and Kantian, focusing on the formulation, comparison, and evaluation of abstract principles of justice, and only subsequently looking to their application in the real world. Concerned about this, a number of critics of the contemporary paradigm in po…
Radicalizing Rights
Strikes often lack a reasonable chance of success unless they violate some basic liberties (of contract, movement, etc.). This creates a dilemma for liberal democracies that recognize a right to strike: either the right is toothless, or the basic liberties do not have priority and so are not basic. Alex Gourevitch argues that grounding the radical right to strike in an interest in freedom resolves the dilemma. We point out an ambiguity in this so…
Property-owning democracy as an alternative to capitalism
Alan Thomas’ Republic of Equals: Predistribution and Property-Owning Democracy sets itself the ambitious task of synthesising neo-republican political theory and Rawlsian justice as fairness. It is an important and challenging work that will set the stage for a great deal of the discussion not only on justice and republicanism, but also on property-owning democracy, market socialism and broader discussions of alternative economic institutions to …
The model of the legislator
Politics and the vocation of political theory
Political theory is theory of and for politics11 This starting-point is controversial (see Cohen, 2008; Estlund, 2014), but that is a discussion for another time. To be clear, I here use "political theory" synonymously with "political philosophy."; but if this is so, what is "politics"? As Elizabeth Frazer (2008) has rightly pointed out, there are a number of different ways of spelling out what the "political" in "political theory" might mean—is …
The new democracy
The meaning of political concepts is always tied to the practices that develop, sustain, and change them through time. Democracy is no different. One of the most interesting recent chapters in the history of democracy is the New Democracy Movement, which includes the wave of movements from the Arab Spring to the Movement of the Squares and Occupy, and is sometimes taken also to include later events like Nuit Debout. These movements used the langu…
Two Contemporary Approaches to Political Theory
Broadly speaking, the form that contemporary Anglo-American political theory has taken since the 1970s, with its reinvigoration in the seminal work of John Rawls, can largely be described as Platonic and Kantian, focusing on the formulation, comparison, and evaluation of abstract principles of justice, and only subsequently looking to their application in the real world. Concerned about this, a number of critics of the contemporary paradigm in po…
Occupation, Practice, and Revolution
Understanding Anarchism
Marx’s Inferno
Sciendo provides publishing services and solutions to academic and professional organizations and individual authors. We publish journals, books, conference proceedings and a variety of other publications.
Revolutionary practice and prefigurative politics
Recent years have seen a growth in movements like Zapatismo, 21st Century Socialism, the Movement of the Squares, Occupy, and others who combine commitments to a radical conception of democracy, human emancipation, and what is sometimes called "prefigurative politics." Prefigurative politics is discussed among the anarchists prominent in Occupy (Bray, 2013; Graeber, 2009, 2013; Maeckelbergh, 2011, 2012; van der Sande, Sitrin, & Azzellini, 2014; Y…
Realism, Utopianism, and Radical Values
One of the more debated topics in the recent realist literature concerns the compatibility of realism and utopianism. Perhaps the greatest challenge to utopian political thought comes from Bernard Williams' realism, which argues, among other things, that political values should be subject to what he calls the ‘realism constraint’, which rules out utopian arguments based on values which cannot be offered by the state as unrealistic and therefore i…
Human development and alienation in the thought of Karl Marx
Marx's theory of alienation is of great importance to contemporary political developments, due both to the re-emergence of anti-capitalist struggle in Zapatismo, 21st Century Socialism, and the New Democracy Movement, and to the fact that the most important theorists of these movements single out Marx's theory of alienation as critical to their concerns. Despite this renewed practical and theoretical interest, however, these and other writers hav…
The new democracy
The meaning of political concepts is always tied to the practices that develop, sustain, and change them through time. Democracy is no different. One of the most interesting recent chapters in the history of democracy is the New Democracy Movement, which includes the wave of movements from the Arab Spring to the Movement of the Squares and Occupy, and is sometimes taken also to include later events like Nuit Debout. These movements used the langu…
The Present and Future of Political Realism
Realism, Utopianism and Human Rights
In a recent article, Benjamin McKean defends utopian political theorising by means of an internal critique of realism, construed as essentially anti-utopian, in order to defend human rights against realist objections thereto. I challenge that argument in three steps, focusing on the realism of Raymond Geuss. First, I show that the realism of Raymond Geuss is not incompatible with utopianism, that Geuss never opposes realism to utopianism and that…
Property-owning democracy as an alternative to capitalism
Alan Thomas’ Republic of Equals: Predistribution and Property-Owning Democracy sets itself the ambitious task of synthesising neo-republican political theory and Rawlsian justice as fairness. It is an important and challenging work that will set the stage for a great deal of the discussion not only on justice and republicanism, but also on property-owning democracy, market socialism and broader discussions of alternative economic institutions to …
Adam Smith
There is long-standing disagreement about how radical Adam Smith should be taken to be. Recently, Jonathan Israel’s work on the enlightenment situates Smith as a moderate enlightenment thinker. This article challenges that assessment. Smith sees aristocrats as largely devoid of competence, wisdom, and virtue and thinks they do not wield significant political power in commercial societies. He is also highly critical of their economic power; and us…
The radical realist critique of Rawls
Despite the rapidly growing literature on realism, there’s little discussion of the ideology critique of John Rawls offered by one of its leading lights, Raymond Geuss. There is little understanding of what (most of) this critique consists in and few discussions of how Rawls’ approach to political theorising may be defended against it. To remedy this situation, this article reconstructs the realist ideology critique of Rawls advanced by Raymond G…
The model of the legislator
Prefiguration
This chapter explores prefigurative politics in anarchist, Marxist and syndicalist theory and strategy. It discusses what prefigurative politics is; the role it has played in the world’s socialist movements; the main arguments for why prefiguration is necessary for achieving a free, equal and democratic society; the importance of certain kinds of intersectionality; and debates about the usefulness of taking over the existing state. If we are ever…
The Socialist Alternative
Surveillance Capitalism or Information Republic
Recent years have seen growing concerns about corporate surveillance. Critics of surveillance capitalism often use the language of domination and unfreedom to describe these new socio‐technological conditions. Yet there has been little sustained normative analysis that has diagnosed the new forms of domination introduced by surveillance capitalism or considered the remedies needed to remove them. That is what this article provides. We draw on the…
Freedom, Socialism, and Property‐Owning Democracy
What should a free economic system look like? Socialists have long held that a universal human emancipation requires replacing capitalism with socialism. However, it has recently been argued that Property‐Owning Democracy (POD) safeguards freedom while allowing us to keep key features of capitalism. I challenge that claim by showing that the institutional features that make capitalist workplaces unfree are shared with POD. As a result, POD is ins…
Karl Marx's Realist Critique of Capitalism
Karl Marx's Realist Critique of Capitalism
Radicalizing Rights
Strikes often lack a reasonable chance of success unless they violate some basic liberties (of contract, movement, etc.). This creates a dilemma for liberal democracies that recognize a right to strike: either the right is toothless, or the basic liberties do not have priority and so are not basic. Alex Gourevitch argues that grounding the radical right to strike in an interest in freedom resolves the dilemma. We point out an ambiguity in this so…
Politics and the vocation of political theory
Political theory is theory of and for politics11 This starting-point is controversial (see Cohen, 2008; Estlund, 2014), but that is a discussion for another time. To be clear, I here use "political theory" synonymously with "political philosophy."; but if this is so, what is "politics"? As Elizabeth Frazer (2008) has rightly pointed out, there are a number of different ways of spelling out what the "political" in "political theory" might mean—is …
Algorithmic domination in the gig economy
Digital platforms and application software have changed how people work in a range of industries. Empirical studies of the gig economy have raised concerns about new systems of algorithmic management exercised over workers and how these alter the structural conditions of their work. Drawing on the republican literature, we offer a theoretical account of algorithmic domination and a framework for understanding how it can be applied to ride hail an…
Genealogy and political philosophy
The value of genealogies for political philosophy
Genealogies are an increasingly important part of contemporary political philosophy. However, even recent genealogies differ a great deal in terms of their ends and methods. Strikingly, this has received virtually no discussion in the literature. This article begins to fill that gap. It does so by comparing and contrasting the genealogies of Bernard Williams, Quentin Skinner, and Raymond Geuss, exploring their different goals, methods, and value …
Law (21 works) · Political science (21 works) · Politics (20 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Philosophy (18 works) · Epistemology (15 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (14 works) · Economics (12 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (12 works) · Law (11 works)