Journal article
The state and civility: a crucial nexus
European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, Vol.4(2), pp.135-155
2017
Abstract
The study of civility is branching out. A wide range of new studies have been published in the last twenty years. While the increase in the diversity of approaches usefully expands the scope of the concept, it is also a cause for concern. Much of the new work pays little attention to civility’s complex history as a practice and simply assumes its fundamental capacity to lead interaction between human beings in a peaceful direction, leaving this body of work in no position to fully appreciate the crucial role of the state. Our main argument here is that civility emerged alongside the modern state in early-modern Europe to form an ongoing state–civility nexus, a nexus by which the state produces and maintains conditions that allow civility to flourish, in turn allowing civility to help the state maintain itself, particularly by restraining the state’s raw power. We pursue this argument by exploring two sets of writings. One set is composed of work by early-modern writers, especially Thomas Hobbes, with some attention paid to four others: Justus Lipsius, Jean Bodin, Samuel Pufendorf, and Christian Thomasius. The second set is composed of work by twentieth-century writers, especially Norbert Elias, with some attention paid to two others: Max Weber and Edward Shils.
Details
- Title
- The state and civility: a crucial nexus
- Authors/Creators
- G. Wickham (Author/Creator) - Murdoch UniversityA.L.B. Evers (Author/Creator) - Murdoch UniversityJ-A Goodie (Author/Creator) - Murdoch University
- Publication Details
- European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, Vol.4(2), pp.135-155
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Identifiers
- 991005541401207891
- Copyright
- © 2017 European Sociological Association
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Law
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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