Power and Globalization
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Power and Globalization Patterns of order in a globalizing world vorgelegt von Ulrike Höppner Dissertation zur Erlangung des Dr.phil. eingereicht am Fachbereich Politik- und Sozialwissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin Berlin, Mai 2011 1 Power and Globalization Gutachter/Supervisors Prof. Dr. Gerhard Göhler (Berlin) Prof. Dr. Klaus Schlichte (Bremen) Datum der Disputation: 23. August 2011 I have received extremely helpful comments on draft versions of individual chapters from the following friends and colleagues in alphabetical order: David Budde, Gerhard Göhler, Miriam Höppner, Maria Krummenacher, Gerhard Liedtke, Michal Polak, Konrad Raiser, Klaus Schlichte, Patricia Schulz, Graham Segroves, Stefan Skupien and Björn Uhlig. Versions and Copyright: This is the text as it was evaluated by the Dissertation committee in 2011 and graded summa cum laude. 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The illustration on the front page was created using wordle.net and the completed text of the dissertation. It shows the 120 most used words whereby size indicates frequency in the text. 2 Contents 1. The theoretical challenge of power.................................................................................................5 2. Reflections on the concept of power in political theory.................................................................16 2.1. Transitive and intransitive power...........................................................................................17 2.1.1. Intuitive Notions and the diversity of power conceptions...............................................17 2.1.2. Transitive conceptions of power....................................................................................20 2.1.3. Transitive and intransitive power – some preliminary thoughts.......................................32 2.2. Hannah Arendt’s concept of power........................................................................................37 2.2.1. Preconceptions: Totalitarianism and the human condition..............................................38 2.2.2. Dividing lines: violence and "the social"........................................................................45 2.2.3. Critical appreciation......................................................................................................62 3. Patterns of intransitive power.......................................................................................................68 3.1. Communication and Action...................................................................................................68 3.1.1. Speech and action..........................................................................................................69 3.1.2. Plurality, uniqueness and identity..................................................................................70 3.1.3. Intentions and emotions.................................................................................................72 3.2. Symbolic Representation.......................................................................................................74 3.2.1. A hermeneutic understanding of symbols......................................................................75 3.2.2. Symbols and intransitive power......................................................................................78 3.3. Imagination...........................................................................................................................81 3.3.1. Power and imagination in Arendt's thought....................................................................82 3.3.2. Approaches to imagination............................................................................................85 3.3.3. The skill of imagination.................................................................................................90 3.4. Defining intransitive power....................................................................................................95 4. The modern configuration of power..............................................................................................97 4.1. Methodological reflections.....................................................................................................97 4.2. The bias of the modern configuration of power....................................................................100 4.2.1. Hobbes' minimal conception of intransitive power.......................................................100 4.2.2. Rousseau's radical insight............................................................................................107 4.2.3. Developing the state....................................................................................................113 4.3. The sovereign nation-state...................................................................................................122 4.3.1. Political community as national community.................................................................123 4.3.2. The idea of sovereignty................................................................................................130 4.4. Implications concerning violence and the state.....................................................................137 4.5. Transitive and intransitive power in their modern configuration ..........................................142 4.5.1. The modern configuration summarized........................................................................142 4.5.2. Logics of liberalism and participation..........................................................................144 5. Changing configurations of power...............................................................................................149 3 Power and Globalization 5.1. Dynamics of globalization...................................................................................................150 5.1.1. Communication and connectedness.............................................................................153 5.1.2. Shared worlds, shared concerns...................................................................................158 5.1.3. Challenged individuals.................................................................................................161 5.1.4. Globalization and the modern configuration of power..................................................164 5.2. Tracing emergent patterns of power.....................................................................................166 5.2.1. Communication and action..........................................................................................168 5.2.2. Symbolic representation..............................................................................................186 5.2.3. The force of the imagination........................................................................................196 5.3. Evolving patterns of power and order..................................................................................205 5.3.1. Relating intransitive and transitive power.....................................................................206 5.3.2. Delineating power.......................................................................................................212 6. The slow revolution of our time..................................................................................................227 6.1. Considering two dimensions of power.................................................................................227 6.2. What might become............................................................................................................234 7. Bibliography...............................................................................................................................239 4 1. The theoretical challenge of power 1. The theoretical challenge of power Bruno Latour once dismissed power as “the illusion people get when they are obeyed” and argued for abandoning the concept altogether, for it failed to address the central question of how and why the energy transmitting orders through space was generated (Latour 1986: 268). And indeed, power debates have focused on the connection between order and obedience rather than on conditions upon which the possibility of issuing an order depends. The condition of power as the power to command is something else and not itself power. In a significant deviation, Hannah Arendt made the very creation of a common space of action the defining element of power. To her, power was the speaking and acting in concert which brought the common