Political Philosophy

The theory of the social contract answers a question that seems childish, but is actually fundamental: why should I obey the state? The state forces me to pay taxes, serve in the army, live by laws I did not choose. On what grounds?

The answer of contractualism: the state is legitimate because it is rational to consent to it. Three great contractualists—Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau—gave different answers to the questions of what the “natural” person is before the state and under what terms it is reasonable to agree to political a...

Hobbes in “Leviathan” (1651) describes the “state of nature”—life without the state—as a war “of all against all” (bellum omnium contra omnes). Man is a creature driven by fear of death and desire for power. Without coercion, no one keeps agreements. Life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and sh...

From this state, rational people emerge through the social contract: each transfers their natural rights to a sovereign (the state) in exchange for security. The sovereign receives absolute power—he is not bound by the contract, because he is not a party to it. The sovereign can do anything excep...

John Rawls, in “A Theory of Justice” (1971), created the most influential work of twentieth-century political philosophy. He posed the question: on what principles should a just society be built? And he proposed a method for finding them that avoids arbitrariness.

Context is important: utilitarianism, dominant in Anglo-Saxon ethics and political theory, claimed that a just society is one that maximizes aggregate welfare. Rawls demonstrated a fundamental flaw: utilitarianism allows sacrificing the interests of minorities for the benefit of the majority. It ...

Rawls offers a thought experiment: the original position — a situation in which people agree on principles for a just social order, not knowing who they will be within it. This is the veil of ignorance: behind it, no one knows their place in society, class, gender, race, abilities, life plans, or...

This is not mere fantasy: the method of the veil of ignorance describes how we reason when we are truly impartial. If you do not know whether you will turn out to be rich or poor, smart or not so smart, white or black — you will choose principles that do not disadvantage you in any scenario.

Definitions

Tradition as accumulated wisdom

— social institutions are the result of centuries of practice and adaptation. They contain knowledge that cannot be reproduced by a rationalist project. It is easy to destroy them — impossible to recreate.

Skepticism about reason

— rationalists — Enlighteners, revolutionaries — arrogantly believe that they can design a better society from abstract principles. But social reality is too complex. Unforeseen consequences of reforms are often worse than the original problems.

Continuity

— society is a partnership between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn. The current generation does not have the right to radically reorder what it has inherited.

Liberalism is the dominant political philosophy of the West over the last two centuries. Its core: the primacy of individual freedom. The liberal state is neutral with respect to different conceptions of the good — it does not prescribe how to live, but provides a framework in which everyone can ...

Classical liberalism (Locke, Smith, Mill, Hayek): minimal state, protection of property rights, free market, civil liberties. The threat to freedom is, above all, the state. The solution is to limit the state.

Social liberalism (later Mill, Rawls, Dworkin): formal freedom without real opportunities is an illusion. A poor person is formally free to travel first class, but in reality cannot. The state is obligated to create the conditions for the realization of freedom — through education, healthcare, an...

The key debate: when Berlin in "Two Concepts of Liberty" (1958) contrasted negative freedom ("freedom from" — absence of coercion) and positive freedom ("freedom to" — real capacity), this divided liberalism. Negative freedom leads to a minimal state; positive freedom leads to a welfare state.

Definitions

Discontent with elites

— in most Western countries, trust in politicians, parties, and parliaments is declining. Citizens feel that "their vote does not matter" — that real decisions are made in the interests of elites and big business.

Polarization

— the media ecosystem (especially social networks) creates "bubbles" and "echo chambers". Citizens live in different informational worlds, losing the ability for dialogue and mutual understanding. Political opponents cease to be "adversaries" and be...

Technocratism

— many key decisions are transferred to independent agencies — central banks, regulators, supranational organizations — outside democratic control. This increases the "quality" of decisions from the standpoint of expertise, but creates a "democratic...

Short-termism

— democratic governments respond to electoral cycles (4–5 years), whereas key challenges (climate change, pension systems, infrastructure) require long-term planning.

Schumpeter, in "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy" (1942), proposed a minimal definition of democracy: a political method in which citizens periodically choose between elite groups competing for power. Democracy is not the rule of the people in the literal sense, but a mechanism for the peacef...

This contrasts with the maximal (deliberative, participatory, republican) understanding: democracy is active citizen participation in self-governance, the formation of common will through public discussion. Habermas, Cohen, Mussud are theorists of deliberative democracy: the legitimacy of decisio...

In practice, modern democracies are a mixture: periodic elections (Schumpeterian minimum) plus constitutional limitations (protection of minorities), civil society (space for participation), free press (condition for meaningful choice), rule of law.

Discontent with elites: in most Western countries, trust in politicians, parties, and parliaments is declining. Citizens feel that "their vote does not matter" — that real decisions are made in the interests of elites and big business.

Definitions

Antipluralism

— the populist leader claims that only he represents the "true people." Opponents are not other citizens with different views, but traitors, enemies of the people, servants of the elites. Legitimate opposition is denied.

Moral Monism

— politics is not a clash of interests requiring compromise, but a battle of good against evil. Compromise with the "elite" is a betrayal of the "people."

Populist Style

— an appeal to the "common person" against "experts," "globalists," "mainstream media." Deliberate anti-intellectual rhetoric.

Jan-Werner Müller, in "What Is Populism?" (2016), proposed an analytic definition: populism is a particular kind of politics based on the opposition between the "morally pure people" and the "corrupt elite." Key features:

Antipluralism: the populist leader claims that only he represents the "true people." Opponents are not other citizens with different views, but traitors, enemies of the people, servants of the elites. Legitimate opposition is denied.

Moral Monism: politics is not a clash of interests requiring compromise, but a battle of good against evil. Compromise with the "elite" is a betrayal of the "people."

Populist Style: an appeal to the "common person" against "experts," "globalists," "mainstream media." Deliberate anti-intellectual rhetoric.

Definitions

Cosmopolitanism

— moral obligations are not limited by state borders. Every person has equal moral worth, regardless of citizenship. Nussbaum: “I am, above all, a citizen of the world, and only then a citizen of my country.” Pogge: we are obliged to build just inte...

Communitarianism

— special obligations to “one’s own” — family, community, nation — are real and morally justified. A mother sacrificing for her own children and not for others’ is not acting immorally. Nations have the right to self-determination and cultural disti...

The Peace of Westphalia (1648) laid the foundations of the modern system of international relations: states are sovereign equal units possessing exclusive authority over their own territory. The principle of non-interference in internal affairs is a key principle of international law.

This order ensured relative stability in relations between states but had a fundamental flaw: it completely ignored how states treated their own citizens. Sovereignty protected tyrants.

The Holocaust changed this. The Nuremberg Trials established the principle that crimes against humanity cannot be shielded by state sovereignty. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) enshrined, for the first time, international standards for the treatment of citizens.

The "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) is a doctrine adopted by the UN in 2005: when a state cannot or does not want to protect its citizens from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, crimes against humanity, the international community has a responsibility to intervene.

Definitions

Negative liberty

— freedom from external constraints. I am free to the extent that no one prevents me from doing what I wish. This is the liberal tradition of Locke, Mill, Hayek: minimize government intervention.

Positive liberty

— freedom to — the capacity to be master of one’s own life, to realize one’s potential. I am not free if I am formally unrestrained, but poor, uneducated, or sick. This is the tradition of Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and modern social democrats.

Isaiah Berlin (1958) — “Two Concepts of Liberty”: one of the most influential political lectures of the 20th century.

Negative liberty: freedom from external constraints. I am free to the extent that no one prevents me from doing what I wish. This is the liberal tradition of Locke, Mill, Hayek: minimize government intervention.

Positive liberty: freedom to — the capacity to be master of one’s own life, to realize one’s potential. I am not free if I am formally unrestrained, but poor, uneducated, or sick. This is the tradition of Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and modern social democrats.

Berlin warned: positive liberty is dangerous — it allows imposing “their true interests” on people in their name. This is a path to paternalism and totalitarianism.

Foucault radically rethinks power: it is not something that is “possessed” by the state or a class — it is a relationship that permeates all social interactions. “Power is everywhere — not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere.”

Disciplinary power (“Discipline and Punish”, 1975): prison, school, army, hospital — institutions that create “docile bodies” through surveillance, normalization, examination. Bentham’s Panopticon is an architectural metaphor: prisoners behave as if they are constantly being observed, even if tha...

Foucault introduces biopolitics: power increasingly governs not individual bodies, but the population — life, health, birth rate, mortality. The state governs “life” as a resource.

Corporate wellness programs, productivity monitoring, management of “human capital” — this is biopolitics in a corporate context.

Definitions

Relativism

— human rights are a Western construct imposed on other cultures. Response: some violations—torture, genocide—are condemned within most cultures; the adoption of the UDHR included non-Western countries.

Asian values

— priority of the collective over the individual, stability over liberties. Response: Amartya Sen showed that “Asian values” are a political construct of authoritarian regimes, not a cultural universal.

Human rights are the rights that every person possesses simply by virtue of being human, regardless of citizenship, culture, or law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) proclaimed: life, liberty, personal inviolability, protection from torture, equality before the law, freedom of tho...

Three key justifications: natural rights (Locke: from God/nature); Kantian dignity (the human as an end, not a means); interest theory (rights protect fundamental interests).

Relativism: human rights are a Western construct imposed on other cultures. Response: some violations—torture, genocide—are condemned within most cultures; the adoption of the UDHR included non-Western countries.

Asian values: priority of the collective over the individual, stability over liberties. Response: Amartya Sen showed that “Asian values” are a political construct of authoritarian regimes, not a cultural universal.

Populism is a political logic (Ernesto Laclau), not an ideology. It divides society into two camps: "the pure people" vs "the corrupt elite." The populist claims: he is the true voice of the people, everyone else is part of the elite.

Populism can be left-wing (Chávez, Podemos, Sanders) or right-wing (Trump, Orbán, Le Pen). What is common is not an economic program, but the logic: "us versus them," "I speak on behalf of the real people."

Three explanations: economic (globalization created losers who received no compensation); cultural (a backlash against progressive value changes, multiculturalism, feminism); institutional (growing distrust of parties, media, experts, parliaments).

Climate change is a unique political problem: its causes are distributed across the world and over time, its consequences disproportionately affect the poor and future generations, and its solution requires unprecedented global coordination.

Philosophical questions: who should pay for climate policy? Historical emitters (rich countries, industry since the 19th century) or current ones (China, India, emerging economies)? The “polluter pays” principle or “ability to pay”?

What is our duty to generations yet unborn? Rawls did not resolve this issue: his “veil of ignorance” did not include ignorance of which generation you are born into. How much can current consumption “cost” the future — and who decides?

Definitions

Sortition

— random selection of citizens for political decisions — like juries. Citizens' Assemblies have already been used in Ireland (same-sex marriage, abortion), Canada, France. The result: more balanced, less polarized decisions.

Democracy is experiencing a crisis: polarization, disinformation, declining turnout and trust, populism. What should be done?

Epistemocracy (Jason Brennan, “Against Democracy”, 2016): political decisions are too complex for the average voter. Votes should be weighted according to the level of competence. The problem: who determines competence? History knows the answer — those in power.

Sortition: random selection of citizens for political decisions — like juries. Citizens' Assemblies have already been used in Ireland (same-sex marriage, abortion), Canada, France. The result: more balanced, less polarized decisions.

Digital platforms can broaden participation or create a field for manipulation. “Liquid democracy”: delegate your vote to an expert on a specific topic — a hybrid system between direct and representative democracy.

John Stuart Mill (“On Liberty”, 1859) formulated a principle that became the basis of liberal thought: “The only purpose for which power can rightfully be exercised over any member of a civilized community against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” This is the harm principle.

Consequence: The state should not restrict actions that affect only the person himself—even if they are harmful to him. Drugs, risky sports, eccentric lifestyles—if there is no harm to others, the state has no right to intervene. “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovere...

Mill was a utilitarian: he justifies freedom not only by rights but also by utility. Freedom of speech is necessary because truth is best discovered through the clash of opinions. Censorship is dangerous because even erroneous opinions are useful—they force us to defend the truth rather than acce...

Mill valued democracy—but with reservations. He feared “the tyranny of the majority”: democracy can oppress minorities if the majority wills it. The harm principle protects against this: rights cannot be revoked by democratic voting.

Nationalism asserts: political and national units must coincide—every nation should correspond to a state, every state should include only members of one nation. This may seem obvious, but it is historically specific and problematic.

Ernest Gellner ("Nations and Nationalism", 1983): the nation is a product of nationalism, not the other way around. It is not the "awakening" of dormant nations—it is the creation of nations through ideology. Nationalism precedes nations: first the idea, then the reality. This is the "invention o...

A distinction that has become politically important: ethnic nationalism (membership in the nation is defined by blood and origin) and civic nationalism (membership is defined by citizenship and shared values).

German nationalism of the 19th century was primarily ethnic: "Volk"—an organic national unity. French nationalism after the Revolution was civic: "Frenchman" could be anyone who accepted republican values. The Declaration of 1789 appealed to the "French nation" as a political community, not an et...

The 19th century gave rise not only to liberalism, but also to its main critics—socialism, Marxism, and anarchism. All three addressed the same question: what is wrong with capitalism and the liberal state? Three different diagnoses—three different cures.

Utopian socialism (Owen, Saint-Simon, Fourier) preceded Marx. The idea: to rebuild society through exemplary communities, cooperatives, industrial planning. Owen in New Lanark (Scotland) created a model factory with social infrastructure—and made a profit. Fourier designed “phalansteries”—collect...

Marx criticized the utopians: they do not understand the laws of history. His “scientific socialism” claimed to have discovered the objective laws of history—just as Darwin discovered the laws of biology. Capitalism is doomed due to internal contradictions: concentration of capital, pauperization...

After capitalism—socialism (state ownership, planned economy) and then communism (the state withers away, free association of producers). “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” is the formula for communist distribution.

"The Open Society and Its Enemies" (1945) is a book written by Popper during the war years in New Zealand as a contribution to the anti-Nazi struggle. Its purpose: to show that Nazism and Communism share common philosophical roots — "historicism" and tribalism.

Historicism, according to Popper, is the belief that history moves toward a specific goal, that it is possible to discover "laws of history" and predict the future. Hegel and Marx are the main targets of criticism. Hegel: History unfolds as the self-knowledge of the Spirit; Prussia is the pinnacl...

An open society is liberal-democratic: criticism of power is legal, politicians are replaceable, citizens' rights are protected, knowledge is created through competition of ideas. A closed society is tribal or totalitarian: power is not subject to criticism, "truth" is proclaimed by the leader or...

The key principle of the open society: the possibility of "peaceful revolution" — change of government without violence. This is more important than the question of "who should rule." The good question is not "who should rule," but "how to organize institutions so that bad rulers can be removed."

Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) was one of the sharpest political thinkers of the 20th century and a committed Nazi. He joined the NSDAP in 1933 and participated in the legislative justification of Nazi laws. This makes reading him ethically uncomfortable—and intellectually necessary, because his ideas ...

Schmitt defined the political through the distinction of “friend — enemy.” This is not an ethical, aesthetic, or economic distinction—it is specifically political: the enemy is not a bad person and not a competitor, but the other, alien in a sufficiently intense sense as to require conflict. Poli...

The famous beginning of “Political Theology” (1922): “Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.” Sovereignty is manifested not in normal life, but in the state of emergency: whoever decides that the constitution is suspended—that is sovereign. Norms apply to normal situations; power over the ...

This is an important observation, independent of Schmitt’s Nazism: the state of emergency as an instrument for expanding the authority of the executive branch is a well-documented historical phenomenon. The USA after 9/11—the Patriot Act, CIA prisons, drone programs under the guise of “extraordin...

Hannah Arendt ("Vita activa", 1958) distinguishes three main types of human activity: labour — biological necessity, reproduction of life; work — creation of things, the "world of things", stable and public; action — political activity, carried out in the public sphere through word and deed.

Action is the most specifically human: only human beings begin something new, realizing freedom through initiative. Politics is the space of this action: the encounter of equals in a public space, where speech and persuasion, not coercion, decide common affairs.

Arendt idealizes the Athenian polis — with serious reservations about slavery and the exclusion of women. But her analytical contribution is as follows: politics is not the management of resources or security, but a space for human freedom. The reduction of politics to economic management ("gover...

Jürgen Habermas constructed the most ambitious project of political philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. "The Theory of Communicative Action" (1981) distinguishes strategic action (oriented toward success, the achievement of a goal) and communicative action (oriented toward mutual u...

Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) was a Martinican psychiatrist who fought on the side of Algerian liberation. His works “Black Skin, White Masks” (1952) and “The Wretched of the Earth” (1961) are key texts of postcolonial thought.

“Black Skin, White Masks”: Colonization creates psychological trauma in the colonized. The Black person internalizes white standards of beauty, values, and language—and begins to see himself through the eyes of the colonizer. This is a pathological “splitting”: to be Black and to strive for white...

“The Wretched of the Earth”: Fanon justified violence in the liberation struggle—not as a norm, but as psychotherapy for colonized peoples who have internalized their own inferiority. This is Fanon’s most controversial argument: Sartre supported him in the preface, but most critics did not.

Edward Said (“Orientalism”, 1978) applied Foucault’s conception of knowledge-power to relations between the West and the “East”. Orientalism is not a description of the “East”, but a discourse that creates the “East” as a construct: exotic, unchanging, irrational, sexualized, and in need of Weste...

Charles Taylor ("Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition", 1992) raised a question that has become central to the politics of the past 30 years: what if the source of political demands is not only material interest, but the need for recognition — recognition of one's identity, culture, a...

Taylor traces a historical shift: from aristocratic "honor" (status given by birth) to modern "dignity" (equal for all) and to authenticity (everyone has the right to unique self-expression). Modern identity is in part dialogical: I become myself through recognition by significant others.

If significant others do not recognize my identity — or impose a degrading image — this is not simply psychologically painful. It is politically unjust: public narratives shape groups’ self-perception.

Axel Honneth ("The Struggle for Recognition", 1992) developed the theory of recognition as the foundation of critical theory. Three spheres of recognition. Love (family, close relationships): provide basic trust and self-respect. Rights (civil equality): provide dignity as a legal subject. Solida...

Multiculturalism is a policy that recognizes and supports cultural diversity within a state. It has grown out of two sources: criticism of assimilationism (forcing minorities to adopt the dominant culture—a form of injustice) and the political theory of recognition (cultural identity is significa...

Will Kymlicka ("Multicultural Citizenship", 1995) developed a liberal argument for multiculturalism: culture is a condition of autonomy. To make meaningful life choices, one needs a "cultural context"—language, practices, narratives. Depriving people of this context is depriving them of the condi...

Consequence: liberalism must protect the rights of cultural minorities—especially indigenous peoples—not simply tolerate them, but actively support institutions of cultural reproduction.

Criticism from the right (Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations"): multiculturalism undermines a shared identity necessary for the functioning of the state. "Decadent multiculturalism" weakens the West in the face of more cohesive civilizations.

Early internet theorists were optimists: digital networks would democratize information, give voice to the oppressed, and create a virtual public space. The “Arab Spring” of 2010–11 supported this narrative: Twitter and Facebook as tools of revolution.

Reality turned out to be more complex. The “Arab Spring” in many countries ended with military coups or civil war. The internet became a tool for authoritarian governments (mass surveillance, prison for a tweet). Democratic societies encountered disinformation, polarization, and foreign interfere...

Digital platforms—private companies with billions of users—make political decisions: whom to ban, what content to promote, how algorithms work. This is power without democratic accountability.

Research shows: recommendation algorithms (YouTube, Facebook) systematically promote more extreme content—it elicits greater engagement. This is not conspiracy: it is simply optimization of engagement, which incidentally creates radicalization.

Many of the most important problems of today — climate change, nuclear weapons, pandemics, financial crises, internet regulation — are transboundary. They require coordination between states. But there is no world government — there exists an anarchic system of sovereign states.

Classical international theory: realism (Morgenthau, Waltz) — states maximize power and security, international institutions work only when they serve these interests. Liberalism (Keohane, Nye) — international institutions, regimes, interdependence reduce the likelihood of conflict and create sta...

Reality: partially both. The UN works in limited cases. The WTO genuinely regulates trade. But the Security Council is paralyzed by the veto power of the great powers. Climate agreements are voluntary and insufficient.

The doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P, 2005): state sovereignty is not absolute. If a state cannot or does not want to protect its own citizens from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity — the international community has the right and obligation to intervene.

Populism is not simply “the politics of popularity.” Jan-Werner Müller (“What is Populism?”, 2016) offers a precise definition: populism is a form of politics that claims a monopoly on representing “the real people” against “corrupt elites.”

Three characteristics: anti-pluralism (the populist leader is the only true representative of the people); constructing “the people” as morally pure and homogeneous; constructing “the elite” as morally impure and foreign.

Populism is not an ideology in the usual sense: it can be combined with left-wing (Chávez, Corbyn) or right-wing (Trump, Orbán) economic programs. It is a “thin ideology” — grafted onto broader narratives.

Three explanations that do not exclude one another. Economic: globalization has created “losers” — industrial workers in Western countries who feel betrayed. Cultural (Ronald Inglehart, Pippa Norris): the main dividing line is not income, but education and values. Educated urbanites are cosmopoli...