Terry O'Brien, Deputy Librarian, Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland
2010/62
Political Theory: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary and Classical Terms
Scott John Hammond
Greenwood Press
Westport, CT and London
2009
978 0 313 33920 2
£62.95/$89.95
Review
xvii + 357 pp.
Encyclopaedias, Political theory
Reference Reviews
24
2
2010
21-22
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0950-4125
As the author acknowledges, this is not the first overview of political thought. Nor is it likely to be the last. By their nature such publications will tend to have a commonality of entries with the remainder and other supplementary material selected subjectively by the author / editor. This is what enables one encyclopaedia to be different, in content terms, from another. What sets Political Theory: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary and Classical Terms apart from other publications is that contemporary and classical terms are included. This is reflected in the disparate entries spanning many divergent political theories over 2,000 years of thinking, ideas and concepts. Thus you will find expected entries such as Hobbes, Democracy, The Social Contract, Egalitarianism beside terms such as Afrocentrism, Doublespeak, Environmentalism, Apartheid; whilst Cicero will appear alongside Malcolm X, and his The Ballot or The Bullet (1964) speech, Socrates' classic “analogy of the jars” together with Lyotard's contemporary “incredulity toward metanarratives”. Significant figures such as John Adams, Burke, Marx, Kant, Plato and Rousseau co-exist beside more contemporary and probably less recognizable figures like Merleau-Ponty, Gramsci, Voegelin, Rawls and Buber.
The entries vary in length from a paragraph to between two and six pages depending on influence and significance to political theory, hence a classic text like The Republic gets extensive treatment whilst a classic term like plonexia (“an insatiable desire to exceed others in everything”) gets a brief discussion, but is nevertheless given practical examples of its application in the writings of Plato, Machiavelli, Hegel and Fukuyama amongst others. I found the related entries feature especially useful. Essentially a cross-reference device, the concept of civil disobedience is, for example, traced from its ancient Greek roots as depicted in Antigone, up to Thoreau, King and Chavez, leading us to the related entry Satyagraha – a principle advanced by Gandhi meaning truth or silent force. The Gettysburg Address has the funeral oration of Pericles and I have a dream speech by Martin Luther King Jr as related entries.
Although Hammond is a specialist in western political philosophy, the encyclopaedia does, despite primarily “western” leanings, have an international feel about it. Entries are wide-ranging in scope. There are some entries from the world of Muslim, Islam and Eastern philosophy (Sayyid Qutb, al-Ghazali, Ibn Khaldun), Latin and Greek terms are obviously common (auctoritas = authority, bella omnium contra omnes = everyman for himself). There is equally a wide assortment of examinations of theory: game theory, critical theory, dialectical theory, just war, entitlement theory as well as more abstract accounts on justice, freedom, tyranny. Well-known and key political ideas such as the allegory of the cave, the end justifies the means (or exitus actor probat), knowledge is power are included. Phrases like bread and peace, invisible hand, a city fit for pigs, prisoners dilemma, Paris was well worth a mass, nonsense on stilts (Bentham, 1816 and generally meaning faulty reasoning) have all entered the public lexicon, and with which many of us are familiar but not sure of the meaning or origin, are also found in this varied encyclopaedia of terms.
Hammond's love of ideas is clear to the reader, but he is very much aware of what he calls “the danger of ideas”. In this regard he is balanced and highlights the underlying tensions between theory and ideology in practice. Some critical analysis and discussion is evident and the approach is broadly discursive. In his entries on Nietzsche and Machiavelli, two thinkers of, shall we say, dubious repute, he emphasizes how ideas can be misappropriated and misconceived. In the case of Nietzsche (Hammond blames his sister in part at least), “… the connection between Nietzsche and Hitler, while perhaps based on distortion, falsehood … well illustrates the importance of ideas and, at times, their dangerous consequences, however intentional or inadvertent”. Machiavelli's work The Prince represented a new departure in political theory away from traditional notions of good and just, to a version of realpolitik and expediency. The ambiguity of the concept of how “not to be good”, (or how to appear to be good), not of course for its own sake but to “ensure both the glory of their country and the greatest possible freedom for themselves as individuals”, has caused Machiavelli to be interpreted and invoked in many ways.
This is a broad, readable, digestible and highly accessible publication. Containing most of the standard prerequisites of a reference book, Political Theory contains a brief preface, list of entries, a selected bibliography and index. The body of work is the 250 plus entries (250 seems to have become the reference industry standard). The author acknowledges shortcomings in his own knowledge and in the inclusions and omissions. This is to be expected in a 350-page publication, which after all, does not lay claim to compete with Copelston, but it is a more than adequate standalone introduction to the world of ideas. This reference will particularly appeal to undergraduates or those new to or with a modest understanding or interest in philosophy, politics and political theory. For those more experienced it may serve to “refresh memory and reignite interest”. Most entries include a short list of selected readings, usually significant publications or related primary texts. This is useful as the selected bibliography is fairly rudimentary and although valuable, is by nature of the subject matter, necessarily incomprehensive. Those cited include encyclopaedias, dictionaries, online references (such as the essential Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/) (RR 2001/311)), histories, commentaries and critiques. Greenwood publications tend to be polished, with a quality look and feel to their books. At a cost of around £60 and as with most Greenwood Press reference items also available as an e-book, this represents very good value and would be a welcome addition to public, reference, government and academic libraries.