2: Foundations of Political Theory

R. Claire Snyder-Hall, George Mason University, rcsnyder@gmu.edu

The APSA 2012 conference theme, “Representation and Renewal,” invokes many issues relevant for Foundations of Political Theory. Each subfield has its own contributions to make to our understanding of those concepts, which were extensively elaborated in the main conference call. Foundations asks how philosophical approaches to political analysis help enlighten our understanding of representation and renewal. We welcome analyses from the wide array of political traditions that comprise our subfield. While we encourage paper and panel proposals that address the conference theme, we also welcome studies of other important issues within political theory.

The theme of representation and renewal comes at an opportune time, as we move through a period of political and economic upheaval around the world and head into the 2012 elections in the United States. How are various political, economic, and identity interests represented domestically and globally? What type of representation is offered by ostensibly democratic and non-democratic institutions at home and abroad? What types of power-relations do such institutions enable? Which voices are amplified and which muted? Who is seated at proverbial tables – even at the APSA conference itself?

We also face a time rife with calls for political, economic, and spiritual renewal at home and abroad. How do we evaluate these various calls for renewal? How does political theory illuminate the crises that give rise to such calls? How might political theory be used to stimulate new or renewed ways of thinking about change, as we draw on the array of discursive traditions that comprise our field? What do our diverse methodological approaches add to our understanding of the world around us, both contemporaneously and historically?