Quentin Skinner: From Historian of Ideas to Political Scientist

This article is an assessment of Quentin Skinner's contribution to the study of political change and to the contemporary debate in political philosophy. We argue that the significance of Skinner's work to a large extent has been neglected by political scientists, as they have tended to regard him solely as a historian of ideas rather than as a political scientist. However, Skinner's approach not only offers valuable methodological lessons but a historically grounded framework that accounts for the relationship between human agency and the structural language-context, that make actions meaningful. This allows for a conception of historical change that is neither narrowly structuralist nor exclusively focused on the individual agent. In his most recent historical works, Skinner has entered the main debate of contemporary political philosophy, i. e. the debate between liberals and communitarians. Here, his analysis of the classical republican tradition of political thought, attempts a revitalization of the debate beyond the stereotypes of liberalism and Aristotelianism. This work points towards the possibility of developing a radical reconception of modern liberal democracy.     

Analytische Soziologie in Tocquevilles <Emphasis Type="Italic">Über die Demokratie in Amerika</Emphasis>

Zusammenfassung Die analytische Soziologie versucht, komplexe soziale Prozesse zu erkl?ren, indem sie diese sorgf?ltig seziert und den Blick auf die wichtigsten, konstituierenden Aspekte richtet. Erst durch Sezieren und analytisches Abstrahieren lassen sich die entscheidenden Elemente und Mechanismen sozialer Prozesse erkennen und verstehen. Im Folgenden arbeiten wir gemeinsame Merkmale von Tocquevilles über die Demokratie in Amerika und der gegenw?rtigen analytischen Soziologie heraus und behaupten vor diesem Hintergrund, dass der von Tocqueville verfolgte Erkl?rungsansatz in vielerlei Hinsicht als Vorl?ufer der analytischen Soziologie gelten kann. Um die spezifischen Kennzeichen von Tocquevilles Zugang verdeutlichen zu k?nnen, werden seine Charakteristika jenen anderer klassischer Ans?tze gegenübergestellt. Ein Grund dafür, warum es sich auch nach 200 Jahren noch lohnt, Tocqueville zu lesen, ist, dass sein Zugang als frühes Beispiel für die Erkl?rungskraft des analytischen Ansatzes in der Soziologie gelten kann. Angesichts der methodologischen und theoretischen Fortschritte seit dem Erscheinen von über die Demokratie in Amerika ist das Werk allerdings eher als Klassiker interessant, als dass es den Rang einer Pflichtlektüre für das Studium der Soziologie reklamieren k?nnte.

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Summary Analytical sociology seeks to explain complex social processes by carefully dissecting them and then bringing into focus their most important constituent components. It is through dissection and analytical abstractions that the important cogs and wheels of social processes are made visible and intelligible. By identifying some common features between Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and contemporary analytical sociology, we argue that the explanatory approach that Tocqueville pursued in many respects is a forerunner to analytical sociology. These features are contrasted with those of other classical approaches in order to highlight the defining characteristics of Tocqueville’s approach. One reason why Tocqueville is still worth reading, 200 years after his birth, is as an early example of the explanatory power of the analytical approach to sociology. However, the methodological and theoretical advances that sociology has undergone since the publication of Democracy in America makes it more interesting as a classic than as a useful source of reference for today’s sociologystudents.

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Résumé La sociologie analytique tente d’expliquer des processus sociaux complexes en les décomposant soigneusement pour porter ensuite son regard sur leurs aspects constitutifs les plus importants. Grace à cette démarche, on peut identifier et comprendre les éléments et les mécanismes essentiels constituant les processus sociaux. Nous dégageons dans cet article les caractéristiques communes à De la démocratie en Amérique de Tocqueville et à la sociologie analytique contemporaine. Dans cette perspective, nous prétendons que l’approche explicative développée par Tocqueville peut, à bien des égards, être considérée comme un précurseur de la sociologie analytique. Pour pouvoir mettre en évidence les traits saillants de la démarche adoptée par Tocqueville, nous comparons ses caractéristiques à celles d’autres approches classiques. L’une des raisons pour lesquelles il vaut encore la peine de lire Tocqueville 200 ans après est que sa démarche peut être considérée comme une illustration avant la lettre de la puissance explicative de la méthode analytique en sociologie. Compte tenu des progrès méthodologiques et théoriques réalisés depuis sa parution, De la démocratie en Amérique a cependant plut?t valeur de classique que d’œuvre en mesure de revendiquer le statut de lecture obligatoire pour l’étude de la sociologie.

     

“Forward to David the Builder!” Georgia's (re)turn to language-centered nationalism

After the Rose Revolution, President Saakashvili tried to move away from the exclusionary nationalism of the past, which had poisoned relations between Georgians and their Armenian and Azerbaijani compatriots. His government instead sought to foster an inclusionary nationalism, wherein belonging was contingent upon speaking the state language and all Georgian speakers, irrespective of origin, were to be equals. This article examines this nation-building project from a top-down and bottom-up lens. I first argue that state officials took rigorous steps to signal that Georgian-speaking minorities were part of the national fabric, but failed to abolish religious and historical barriers to their inclusion. I next utilize a large-scale, matched-guise experiment (n?=?792) to explore if adolescent Georgians ostracize Georgian-speaking minorities or embrace them as their peers. I find that the upcoming generation of Georgians harbor attitudes in line with Saakashvili's language-centered nationalism, and that current Georgian nationalism therefore is more inclusionary than previous research, or Georgia's tumultuous past, would lead us to believe.     

Personal networks and crime victimization among Swedish youth

We combine routine activity theory, lifestyle-victimization theory, and a social network perspective to examine crime victimization. In particular, we study to what extent crime victimization is associated with having close contacts who have been victimized and/or who engage in risky lifestyles. We use the data (collected in 2014) of 1,051 native Swedes and 1,108 Iranian and Yugoslavian first- or second-generation immigrants in Sweden who were all born in 1990. They were asked to describe their personal characteristics, various behaviours, and past personal experiences with crime victimization, as well as those of the five persons with whom they most often spend their leisure time. Our findings support the network perspective: crime victimization is negatively associated with the number of close contacts an individual mentions but is substantially more likely for those who have many close contacts who have themselves been victimized. In terms of a risky lifestyle that may enhance the likelihood of being victimized, we found only that individuals who get drunk frequently were at somewhat higher risk of being victimized. To guard young individuals against crime victimization, it might thus be worthwhile to focus more on with whom they associate than on their potentially risky lifestyles or attitudes.     

Integration of the Swedish Local Elite: The Role of Professional and Private Networks

This article uses social network data to study the integration of local elites in four Swedish municipalities. Four research questions are asked. First: How integrated are the elites? While the results modify the picture that there are two rather distinct elites in Sweden – that is, a political elite dominated by the labour movement and an economic elite dominated by business and the large business organizations – it is interesting to note that integration between elite spheres is lowest for the relation between politicians and business representatives. To a considerable degree, integration between political and economic elites is indirect, mediated through the administrative elite. The second question is: Are the inner elite circles dominated by the political, economic or administrative elite? The study indicates that local elites in Sweden are strongly dominated by political elites, and also by administrative elites. This is reassuring, since it would indicate a democratic deficit if the structural power of decision making in municipalities resided predominantly in economic actors and administrators. The third question is: What is the role of friendship relations in creating elite integration? The study indicates that private relations among elites both reinforce professional networks and extend them in important ways. The final question is: Is elite integration contingent on political stability and/or the structure of local business? The results are surprisingly stable across the four municipalities, even though the largest distinction was found between elite core and periphery in the politically most stable municipality, which was also the one with the lowest economic diversity.     

Accepting Alien Rule? State-Building Nationalism in Georgia’s Azeri Borderland

Abstract

How did ethnic Azeris in the Marneuli, Bolnisi and Dmanisi districts, located inside Georgia but bordering Azerbaijan, react to the reorganisation of political space along national lines after the Soviet Union’s dissolution? ‘Beached’ in foreign states bent on nationalising their domains, minorities throughout Eurasia sometimes rejected and sometimes accepted their alien rulers. This essay examines reactions to this predicament among Georgia’s Azeris. Drawing on elite interviews and data from a matched-guise experiment, it concludes that locals have come to accept their host state after its state-building nationalism took an inclusive turn and the distinction between aliens and natives faded.     

Criminal organizing applying the theory of partial organization to four cases of organized crime

We explore how the idea of partial organization can provide insights in the study of organized crime. Studying criminal organizing with a theoretical framework used for other social organizing phenomena can help us see the interplay between different forms of criminal collaboration under a single analytical lens, and start a discussion on whether criminal organizing is intrinsically different from other types of social organizing. We analyze four cases of criminal collaboration in Sweden between 1990 and 2015: the Syriac mafia, the Hells Angels Mc Sweden, the street gang Werewolf Legion, and the Hallunda robbery. While the outlaw motorcycle gang, and to a certain extent the street gang, are complete organizations, the mafia is based around and heavily parasitic on other institutions. We have also shown that time-bounded projects are found in the criminal context, with these emerging from strong network relations. Our results show that most of the elements of criminal organizing are not formalized and that partial organization is at least as important and powerful as complete organization.