What Does It Mean to Globalize Political Theory?

• In Event: Globalizing Political Theory

Abstract

We suggest that as an alternative substantive and methodological approach to the study of political theory, globalizing political theory emphasizes the global nature of political theory as an activity that responds to local political problems but may also speak to those in differing times and places. We argue that political theory is most vital, urgent, and inclusive, when it attends to the very specific local problems that give rise to it. We illustrate our approach by providing examples of globalizing political theory in two specific thematic areas. First, the complex relationship between religion and politics is explored through an analysis of the influential writings of Sayyid Qutb, one of the leading figures in radical Islamist thought to underline his critique of the modern world as morally bankrupt, highlighting his transformation of key concepts in the Islamic tradition and exploring them in the local context of Egyptian politics. The second thematic area is that of Marxism and Socialism where it challenges two assumptions of traditional Marxism– that capitalism did not spread outward from Europe to the rest of the world, as Marx described, but rather depended upon the underdevelopment of the Global South, and second, to challenge the Eurocentric modernizing assumptions of Marxism, which equated European economic and political models with development in general. To do so, it examines how Ernesto “Che” Guevara highlighted Marx’s earlier “humanistic” work and Cuba’s unique history both of neo-colonial dependency and anti-imperialist struggle to emphasize the role of consciousness in socialist transformation.

Authors

• Katherine Adams Gordy, San Francisco State University

• Smita A. Rahman, DePauw University