Aurelian Craiutu
Biographic Data
| ID | 445596 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aurelian Craiutu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aurelian |
| FAMILY NAME | Craiutu |
| SIGNATURE | CRAIUTU A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Indiana University Bloomington |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6795-1842 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Moderation Amidst Ruins
This article shows that moderation played an important role in the reconstruction of Europe after 1945. It focuses on a group of thinkers affiliated with the Ordoliberal school, founded by Walter Eucken, who played a key role in the creation of the social market economy in post-war Germany. As pragmatic liberals and moderates, they were critics and defenders of the free market economy. In their economic and sociological writings, Walter Eucken, A…
Embracing Liberalism’s Complexity
Rediscovering Moderation at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century
This article argues that moderation is a difficult, complex, and elusive concept that challenges our political imagination. It has several faces—epistemological, moral, constitutional, political and religious—and forms a rich intellectual tradition that has yet to be explored in all its complexity. Moderation is “the silken string that runs through the pearl-chain of all virtues” (Joseph Hall). As such, it ought to be examined not only as a virtu…
Why Are So Many Western Intellectuals Abandoning Liberalism and What Can We Do About It
This article analyzes some of the reasons why so many Western intellectuals have seemed ready to abandon the principles of liberalism lately in search for alternative solutions. I begin by examining the fascination exercised by Viktor Orbán among conservatives in the US who emerged as staunch critics of liberalism. Next, I show that the doom industry has a long history and discuss the conceptual fluidity of liberalism and its implications for stu…
Political thought in Central and Eastern Europe: The open society, its friends, and enemies
A review essay of key works and trends in the political thought of Central and Eastern Europe, before and after 1989. The topics examined include the nature of the 1989 velvet revolutions in the region, debates on civil society, democratization, the relationship between politics, economics, and culture, nationalism, legal reform, feminism, and “illiberal democracy.” The review essay concludes with an assessment of the most recent trends in the re…
Two teachers of intellectual hygiene: Norberto Bobbio and Raymond Aron on the role of the intellectuals in modern society
This article examines Norberto Bobbio and Raymond Aron’s views on the role of the intellectuals in modern society and focuses on Bobbio’s Politics and Culture and Aron’s The Opium of the Intellectuals. Published in 1955, both books show how the two thinkers interpreted the duties and the responsibilities of intellectuals during the Cold War. Bobbio and Aron refused to embrace political Manichaeism and effectively practiced the art of dialogue and…
Norberto Bobbio: A Life for Democracy on the Battlefield of Ideologies
In Search of the Decent Society: Isaiah Berlin and Raymond Aron on Liberty
Jeremy Waldron has argued that Berlin ignored the importance of institutions and constitutions and worked with an impoverished conception of social and political design. Political structures, legal and political institutions, constitutional design, mechanisms of representation and the rule of law: all this remained untouched by Berlin, who seemed, in Waldron's opinion, largely uninterested in the actual political institutions of liberal society. …
Tocqueville’s “Sacred Ark
This article explores several key aspects of Tocqueville's "new science of politics". By focusing on its cross-disciplinary, comparative, normative, and political components, it highlights Tocqueville's conceptual and methodological sophistication as illustrated by his preparatory notes for Democracy in America and his voyage notes. The essay also defends Tocqueville against those critics who took him to task for working with an imprecise definit…
A history of modern political thought in East Central Europe: Volume I: negotiating modernity in the ‘long nineteenth century’
Response to Jonathan White and Lea Ypi’s review of Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes
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Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes
Aristotle listed moderation as one of the moral virtues. He also defined virtue as the mean between extremes, implying that moderation plays a vital role in all forms of moral excellence. But moderation's protean character—its vague and ill-defined omnipresence in judgment and action—makes it exceedingly difficult to grasp theoretically. At the same time, moderation seems to be the foundation of many contemporary democratic political regimes, bec…
Two Critical Spectators: José Ortega y Gasset and Raymond Aron
This essay examines the role of “critical spectatorship” in the writings of two distinguished European intellectuals, José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955) and Raymond Aron (1905–1983). We begin the paper by commenting on the struggle between civilization and barbarism, a fundamental topic in their works. We then examine the rhetoric of going beyond the political left and right, which both Ortega and Aron used in their writings. Next, we turn to the c…
Rethinking Modernity, Religion, and Tradition: The Intellectual Dialogue between Alexandre Stourdza and Joseph de Maistre
This review-essay discusses two recent books on the political vision of Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821) and Alexandre Stourdza (1791–1854) who defended two different types of conservatism in Western and Eastern Europe. A former advisor to Tsar Alexander I and later secretary of Jean Capodistrias, Stourdza stood for the principles of Eastern Christianity and emphasized their unique contribution to the development of the European spirit. Special atte…
In Rousseau's Shadow
Une vertu politique: La Modération
Forum
I would like to thank French History for publishing a review of my latest book, A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748–1830 (Princeton, NJ, 2012). Upon reading it, however, I feared that the reader of the review might not have had a fully accurate idea of the book’s goals, ideas, and method. That is why I am grateful for the opportunity to shed additional light on these topics. The conventional image of modera…
A Tale of Two Moderates
A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830
A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830
Political moderation is the touchstone of democracy, which could not function without compromise and bargaining, yet it is one of the most understudied concepts in political theory. How can we explain this striking paradox? Why do we often underestimate the virtue of moderation? Seeking to answer these questions, this book examines moderation in modern French political thought and sheds light on the French Revolution and its legacy. The book begi…
Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830
Tocqueville on America After 1840: Letters and Other Writings
Letters: 1840–1847
Jared Sparks to Alexis de Tocqueville London, September 5, 1840 Dear Sir, Some months ago, I received a copy of your able and excellent Report on the Emancipation of the Slaves in the French Colonies . It seemed to me to contain many things highly interesting and important to the American public. I procured a translation to be made by a lady who was much pleased with the task and executed it well. When I left the United States on the 1 st of July…
Doina Pasca Harsanyi, Lessons from America: Liberal French Nobles in Exile 1793–1798
On Margins, Marginals, and Marginalities: A Conversation with Ramin Jahanbegloo
Etre Francais est une evidence: on n’en souffre ni on ne s’en rejouit ... . Le paradoxe d’etre Persan (en l’occurrence, Roumain) est un tourment qu’il faut savoir exploiter, un defaut dont on doit ti
Democracy Past and Future
Democracy Past and Future. By Pierre Rosanvallon. Edited by Samuel Moyn. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. 312p. $40.00. One of France's leading political theorists and historians, Pierre Rosanvallon played a key role in what came to be known as the Second Left, and has spent most of his distinguished academic career rethinking the history of democracy in France. Under the guidance of Claude Lefort and François Furet, Rosanvallon learned…
Tocqueville's Paradoxical Moderation
This essay examines in detail Tocqueville's paradoxical moderation by focusing on his rich correspondence and notes for Democracy in America . As Tocqueville's critique of the politics of the July Monarchy shows, he was a political moderate and an immoderate mind, and this uncommon combination explains the ambiguities and contradictions in his view of democracy. After exploring Tocqueville's views on moderating democracy, the essay examines the m…
The ThirdDemocracy: Tocqueville's Views of America after 1840
Tocqueville'sDemocracy in Americaoffered the image of an accomplished and successful democratic regime. Although Tocqueville never wrote a third volume, he continued to be interested in American political events and exchanged a number of important letters with his American friends after 1840. Did Tocqueville change his views on America outlined in the two volumes published in 1835 and 1840? If so, did the evolution of his views of America affect …
Political thought in Central and Eastern Europe: The open society, its friends, and enemies
A review essay of key works and trends in the political thought of Central and Eastern Europe, before and after 1989. The topics examined include the nature of the 1989 velvet revolutions in the region, debates on civil society, democratization, the relationship between politics, economics, and culture, nationalism, legal reform, feminism, and “illiberal democracy.” The review essay concludes with an assessment of the most recent trends in the re…
Guizot's elitist theory of representative government
In nineteenth‐century Europe, democracy was not embraced with the same enthusiasm it now enjoys. Conservative critics questioned central democratic normative principles, while liberals tried to correct the limitations of actual democratic practice. While accepting the inevitability of democracy, nineteenth‐century liberals often resisted the idea that universal suffrage guaranteed the wisdom of the people's choices. Nothing better illustrates thi…
The Virtues of Political Moderation
Rethinking Political Power: The Case of the French Doctrinaires
Although the French Doctrinaires built up one of the most important political theories of the 19th century and had a decisive influence on Tocqueville, Marx, and J. S. Mill, they have remained largely unknown in the English-speaking world. This article examines the Doctrinaires’ theory of political power by concentrating on François Guizot’s Des moyens de gouvernement et d’opposition dans l’état actuel de la France(On the Means of Government and …
Embracing Liberalism’s Complexity
In Search of the Decent Society: Isaiah Berlin and Raymond Aron on Liberty
Jeremy Waldron has argued that Berlin ignored the importance of institutions and constitutions and worked with an impoverished conception of social and political design. Political structures, legal and political institutions, constitutional design, mechanisms of representation and the rule of law: all this remained untouched by Berlin, who seemed, in Waldron's opinion, largely uninterested in the actual political institutions of liberal society. …
Two Critical Spectators: José Ortega y Gasset and Raymond Aron
This essay examines the role of “critical spectatorship” in the writings of two distinguished European intellectuals, José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955) and Raymond Aron (1905–1983). We begin the paper by commenting on the struggle between civilization and barbarism, a fundamental topic in their works. We then examine the rhetoric of going beyond the political left and right, which both Ortega and Aron used in their writings. Next, we turn to the c…
On Margins, Marginals, and Marginalities: A Conversation with Ramin Jahanbegloo
Etre Francais est une evidence: on n’en souffre ni on ne s’en rejouit ... . Le paradoxe d’etre Persan (en l’occurrence, Roumain) est un tourment qu’il faut savoir exploiter, un defaut dont on doit ti
Introduction: The Paradoxes of Marginality
The main focus of this special issue is on marginality, a multifaceted concept that requires a cross-disciplinary approach. The papers selected here deal with marginality in the formation of the epistemic canon (“the mainstream”) and the production of knowledge in the humanities and social sciences. By employing the vocabulary of marginality (“marginal,” “margins,” “luminal,” “threshold,” as well as dichotomies such as “minor-major,” “center-peri…
Between Scylla and Charybdis: The ‘Strange’ Liberalism of the French Doctrinaires
Evaluation de la pertinence de la pensee politique des doctrinaires francais en general, et de Guizot en particulier, concernant les themes suivants : la relation entre la politique et la philosophie, l'imagination historique et sociologique, le pouvoir politique, la theorie des nouveaux moyens de gouvernement et la politique du centre. Defenseurs d'un liberalisme non-conventionnel dans le contexte historique de la France post-revolutionnaire, l'…
Books in review
The Virtues of Political Moderation
Rethinking Political Power: The Case of the French Doctrinaires
Although the French Doctrinaires built up one of the most important political theories of the 19th century and had a decisive influence on Tocqueville, Marx, and J. S. Mill, they have remained largely unknown in the English-speaking world. This article examines the Doctrinaires' theory of political power by concentrating on François Guizot's Des moyens de gouvernement et d'opposition dans l'état actuel de la France(On the Means of Government and …
Rethinking Political Power: The Case of the French Doctrinaires
Although the French Doctrinaires built up one of the most important political theories of the 19th century and had a decisive influence on Tocqueville, Marx, and J. S. Mill, they have remained largely unknown in the English-speaking world. This article examines the Doctrinaires’ theory of political power by concentrating on François Guizot’s Des moyens de gouvernement et d’opposition dans l’état actuel de la France(On the Means of Government and …
Guizot's elitist theory of representative government
In nineteenth‐century Europe, democracy was not embraced with the same enthusiasm it now enjoys. Conservative critics questioned central democratic normative principles, while liberals tried to correct the limitations of actual democratic practice. While accepting the inevitability of democracy, nineteenth‐century liberals often resisted the idea that universal suffrage guaranteed the wisdom of the people's choices. Nothing better illustrates thi…
The method of the French doctrinaires
This essay examines the method of the French Doctrinaires by focusing primarily on the historical writings of their most prominent representative, François Guizot (1787–1874). After a brief introductory presentation of the Doctrinaires’ group, the essay discusses the role of historical studies during the Restoration and provides an in-depth analysis of the Doctrinaires’ historical and sociological mode of argument. Special emphasis is put on the …
The ThirdDemocracy: Tocqueville's Views of America after 1840
Tocqueville'sDemocracy in Americaoffered the image of an accomplished and successful democratic regime. Although Tocqueville never wrote a third volume, he continued to be interested in American political events and exchanged a number of important letters with his American friends after 1840. Did Tocqueville change his views on America outlined in the two volumes published in 1835 and 1840? If so, did the evolution of his views of America affect …
Tocqueville's Paradoxical Moderation
This essay examines in detail Tocqueville's paradoxical moderation by focusing on his rich correspondence and notes for Democracy in America . As Tocqueville's critique of the politics of the July Monarchy shows, he was a political moderate and an immoderate mind, and this uncommon combination explains the ambiguities and contradictions in his view of democracy. After exploring Tocqueville's views on moderating democracy, the essay examines the m…
Democracy Past and Future
Democracy Past and Future. By Pierre Rosanvallon. Edited by Samuel Moyn. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. 312p. $40.00. One of France's leading political theorists and historians, Pierre Rosanvallon played a key role in what came to be known as the Second Left, and has spent most of his distinguished academic career rethinking the history of democracy in France. Under the guidance of Claude Lefort and François Furet, Rosanvallon learned…
Mihai Şora: A Philosopher of Dialogue
This article examines the political philosophy of Mihai Şora, one of the most important contemporary Romanian philosophers and the former minister of education in Romania's first post-communist government. After presenting Şora's unique intellectual trajectory that spans over six decades, the article explores in detail his theory of authenticity and alienation as well as his philosophy of dialogue and civil society. Şora's writings shed light on …
In Search of Happiness: Victor Jacquemont's Travel in America
This article examines Victor Jacquemont's reflections on American democracy and society occasioned by his travel in the United States in 1827. A close friend of Stendhal, Jacquemont (1801–32) was one of the most prominent representatives of the new French generation that came of age around 1820. After a presentation of Jacquemont's political and intellectual background, the essay examines his remarks on slavery and the future of the red race, the…
French liberalism and the aristocratic sources of liberty
Flirting with republicanism: Mme de Staël's writings from the 1790s
Madame de Stael, Œuvres Completes, Serie III: Œuvres historiques, Tome I, Des circonstances actuelles et autres essays politiques sous la Revolution, Lucia Omacini (Ed.), Honore Champion, Paris (20
Le Sphinx de la démocratie moderne
The Social Science of Democracy: A Discussion of Alexis de Tocqueville, the First Social Scientist
Alexis de Tocqueville, the First Social Scientist . By Jon Elster. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 212p. $80.00 cloth, $22.99 paper. Alexis de Tocqueville is surely one of the most widely cited, discussed, and celebrated political theorists in the world. Jon Elster's book, Alexis de Tocqueville: the First Social Scientist proceeds from a provocative premise: that Tocqueville's major works were lacking in “system” and were “hugely inco…
Tocqueville, Our Contemporary
A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830
A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830
Political moderation is the touchstone of democracy, which could not function without compromise and bargaining, yet it is one of the most understudied concepts in political theory. How can we explain this striking paradox? Why do we often underestimate the virtue of moderation? Seeking to answer these questions, this book examines moderation in modern French political thought and sheds light on the French Revolution and its legacy. The book begi…
Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830
Tocqueville on America After 1840: Letters and Other Writings
Letters: 1840–1847
Jared Sparks to Alexis de Tocqueville London, September 5, 1840 Dear Sir, Some months ago, I received a copy of your able and excellent Report on the Emancipation of the Slaves in the French Colonies . It seemed to me to contain many things highly interesting and important to the American public. I procured a translation to be made by a lady who was much pleased with the task and executed it well. When I left the United States on the 1 st of July…
Doina Pasca Harsanyi, Lessons from America: Liberal French Nobles in Exile 1793–1798
On Margins, Marginals, and Marginalities: A Conversation with Ramin Jahanbegloo
Etre Francais est une evidence: on n’en souffre ni on ne s’en rejouit ... . Le paradoxe d’etre Persan (en l’occurrence, Roumain) est un tourment qu’il faut savoir exploiter, un defaut dont on doit ti
Introduction: The Paradoxes of Marginality
The main focus of this special issue is on marginality, a multifaceted concept that requires a cross-disciplinary approach. The papers selected here deal with marginality in the formation of the epistemic canon (“the mainstream”) and the production of knowledge in the humanities and social sciences. By employing the vocabulary of marginality (“marginal,” “margins,” “luminal,” “threshold,” as well as dichotomies such as “minor-major,” “center-peri…
Political science (37 works) · Sociology (31 works) · Politics (30 works) · Law (29 works) · Philosophy (21 works) · Political Theory and Influence (20 works) · Law (19 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · European Political History Analysis (13 works) · Epistemology (12 works)