2007 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Paper Allegiance to Race: The Politics of African American
Academic Intellectuals
Rachael A. Murphey-Brown, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill
Overview: The focus of this research is the nature of the
interaction between racial identity and academic culture, and the
extent to which such a relationship explains critically engaged
political behaviors among African American academic
intellectuals.
Disc. Ramla M. Bandele, Indiana University Purdue University,
Indianapolis
Patrick Rivers, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
31-1 CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES IN MEDIEVAL
POLITICAL THOUGHT
Room Sandburg 1, 7 th Floor, Thur at 4:25 pm
Chair Shaojin Chai, University of Notre Dame
Paper Resistance in Christian and Muslim Political Thought
Bettina Koch, Virginia Tech University
Overview: The paper compares John of Salisbury’s, William of
Ockham’s, and Ibn;’s theories of resistance. All three authors
argue for the subjects’ right and duty to resist (under certain
circumstances) political and religious authorities.
Paper Human Nature and Human Need in the Medieval Italian
Republican Tradition
Mary Elizabeth Sullivan, Texas A&M University
Overview: This paper examines how medieval republican thinkers
conceived of human nature and how these conceptions shaped
their beliefs on the origins and purposes of government.
Paper Patterns of Kingship in a Late Byzantine Mirror of Princes
Florin Leonte, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
Overview: Manuel II Palaeologus’ Mirror of Princes, reflects the
intellectual complexity typical in late Byzantium.This paper gives
an account of the of its peculiarities and the differences from other
inherited models like that of Agapetus.
Paper Councils and Communitarism
Harvey Brown, University of Western Ontario
Overview: An examination of ideas of representation in Conciliar
writing and some lessons for modern thought.
Paper Images of Democracy in the Medieval Commentaries on
Aristotle's Politics
Noah I. Dauber, Harvard University
Overview: The commentaries on the politics presented viewed
democracy not as the rule of elected representatives but as the
collective judgment of magnates in councils and the rule of the
popolo in the Italian city-states.
Disc. Quentin Taylor, Rogers State University
32-4 ENGAGING MARX
Room LaSalle 1, 7 th Floor, Thur at 4:25 pm
Chair Joyce M. Mullan, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Paper Reexamining Marx’s Ontology Through Utopianism
Nivedita Bagchi, University of Virginia
Overview: This paper examines Marx’s view of human nature
using the Marxist utopias by Edward Bellamy and William
Morris. It concludes that the controversy over Marx’s view of
human nature is inevitable because it is inherent in Marx’s
conception of history.
Paper Sacrifice, Subjectivity, Sovereignty: Revisiting the Stirner –
Marx Polemic
Banu Bargu, Cornell University
Overview: This paper examines the role of sacrifice and its
relation to sovereignty in Marx’s thought. Through an analysis of
materialist subjectivity and the contradictory meanings of politics,
I show how sovereignty becomes a revolutionary paradox.
Paper Marx’s Theory of Justice: A Non-Sociological Interpretation
Matthew D. Dickhoff, University of Conneticut
Overview: This paper argues that Marx’s conception of justice
rests firmly within the eudemonist tradition and is predicated upon
the existence of free, self-actualizing, emancipated labor; that is,
labor within a communist society.
Paper Ambiguity and Theory: Class Consciousness in the Paris
Commune and Beyond
Peter A. LaVenia, SUNY, Albany
Overview: The Paris Commune of 1871 seemed to spring into
existence out of thin air, as did the recent uprising in Oaxaca,
Mexico. This paper will attempt to examine the development of
class consciousness in two cities where there were never strong,
dominant revolutionary parties prior to their anti-capitalist
uprisings. What does this mean for Marx and later Marxists
conceptions of class consciousness?
Paper The Faculty of Reason in Marx and Rawls
James R. Noland, Texas A&M University
Overview: If we were to construe the model of moral reasoning
Rawls presents in A Theory of Justice more broadly as a general
model of the conditions for, and process of, free reasoning, we
would find a model strikingly similar to that assumed and
employed in Marx’.
Disc. Sujith S. Kumar, London School of Economics
32-18 THE LIMITS OF REPUBLICAN POLITICS IN THE
THOUGHT OF MACHIAVELLI AND ROUSSEAU
Room Clark 3, 7 th Floor, Thur at 4:25 pm
Chair Daniel Kapust, University of Georgia, Athens
Paper Machiavellian Necessity and the Founding of Republican
Rome
Jacqueline R. Hunsicker, University of Texas
Overview: This paper will explore the complicated interaction of
the legal and extra-legal elements of foundings in Machiavelli's
account of republican Rome by examining the role of the
lawgiver, the character of the laws, and the education of the
citizenry.
Paper The Legislator, the General Will, and the Limits of
Enlightenment
Gregory A. McBrayer, University of Maryland
Overview: This paper examines some of the anti-republican
elements of Rousseau's thought, most notably the role of the
Legislator. Nonetheless, I argue, Rousseau is a staunch proponent
of republican politics.
Paper Family and Nation, Religion and the Self: Rousseau and the
Transformations of Love
Rene M. Paddags, University of Maryland
Overview: This paper examines how Rousseau uses love to
circumscribe Republican politics, and how this understanding of
love remains intrinsically limited.
Paper Unity, Equality, and the Common Good in Aristotle's Politics
and Machiavelli's Discourses
Dwight Wilson, University of Georgia
Overview: Much discussion has centered on "situating"
Machiavelli's thought; this paper places Machiavelli within an
essentially classical framework, arguing that his concern with the
common good shares much in common with Aristotelian political
Science.
Disc. Ann Charney Colmo, Dominican University
Daniel Kapust, University of Georgia, Athens
33-3 REVISITING EMPIRE: POST-COLONIAL
READINGS OF BURKE, MILL, AND
TOCQUEVILLE
Room Clark 10, 7 th Floor, Thur at 4:25 pm
Chair Joanna V. Scott, Eastern Michigan University
Paper Tocqueville’s Foreign Policy: Democracy and the Colonization
of Algeria
Ewa Atanassow, University of Chicago
Overview: This paper situates Tocqueville's controversial defense
of the colonization of empire in light of his more familiar critique
of the problems of modern democracy.
Paper Elder Brothers, Mother Countries, and Extended Families: J.
S. Mill's Critique of the Imperial Father
Richard Boyd, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Overview: This paper argues that the ambiguities of Mill's
commitment to the British Empire can only be understood in light
Page | 125