Ruling Oneself Out

A Theory of Collective Abdications

Nonfiction, History, Western Europe, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, History & Theory, Social Science, Sociology
Cover of the book Ruling Oneself Out by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz ISBN: 9780822388722
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: April 21, 2008
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
ISBN: 9780822388722
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: April 21, 2008
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

What induces groups to commit political suicide? This book explores the decisions to surrender power and to legitimate this surrender: collective abdications. Commonsensical explanations impute such actions to coercive pressures, actors’ miscalculations, or their contamination by ideologies at odds with group interests. Ivan Ermakoff argues that these explanations are either incomplete or misleading. Focusing on two paradigmatic cases of voluntary and unconditional surrender of power—the passing of an enabling bill granting Hitler the right to amend the Weimar constitution without parliamentary supervision (March 1933), and the transfer of full executive, legislative, and constitutional powers to Marshal Pétain (Vichy, France, July 1940)—Ruling Oneself Out recasts abdication as the outcome of a process of collective alignment.

Ermakoff distinguishes several mechanisms of alignment in troubled and uncertain times and assesses their significance through a fine-grained examination of actors’ beliefs, shifts in perceptions, and subjective states. To this end, he draws on the analytical and methodological resources of perspectives that usually stand apart: primary historical research, formal decision theory, the phenomenology of group processes, quantitative analyses, and the hermeneutics of testimonies. In elaborating this dialogue across disciplinary boundaries, Ruling Oneself Out restores the complexity and indeterminate character of pivotal collective decisions and demonstrates that an in-depth historical exploration can lay bare processes of crucial importance for understanding the formation of political preferences, the paradox of self-deception, and the makeup of historical events as highly consequential.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

What induces groups to commit political suicide? This book explores the decisions to surrender power and to legitimate this surrender: collective abdications. Commonsensical explanations impute such actions to coercive pressures, actors’ miscalculations, or their contamination by ideologies at odds with group interests. Ivan Ermakoff argues that these explanations are either incomplete or misleading. Focusing on two paradigmatic cases of voluntary and unconditional surrender of power—the passing of an enabling bill granting Hitler the right to amend the Weimar constitution without parliamentary supervision (March 1933), and the transfer of full executive, legislative, and constitutional powers to Marshal Pétain (Vichy, France, July 1940)—Ruling Oneself Out recasts abdication as the outcome of a process of collective alignment.

Ermakoff distinguishes several mechanisms of alignment in troubled and uncertain times and assesses their significance through a fine-grained examination of actors’ beliefs, shifts in perceptions, and subjective states. To this end, he draws on the analytical and methodological resources of perspectives that usually stand apart: primary historical research, formal decision theory, the phenomenology of group processes, quantitative analyses, and the hermeneutics of testimonies. In elaborating this dialogue across disciplinary boundaries, Ruling Oneself Out restores the complexity and indeterminate character of pivotal collective decisions and demonstrates that an in-depth historical exploration can lay bare processes of crucial importance for understanding the formation of political preferences, the paradox of self-deception, and the makeup of historical events as highly consequential.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book The Spectacle of History by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Global Icons by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Modernism and the Nativist Resistance by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Religions/Globalizations by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book A Not So Foreign Affair by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Democratic Dilemmas in the Age of Ecology by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book The FBI in Latin America by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Performance by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Black France / France Noire by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Islam and Secularity by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Lift High the Cross by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Segregating Sound by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Literary Authority and the Modern Chinese Writer by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book Unsettling Accounts by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
Cover of the book The Making of Federal Coal Policy by Ivan Ermakoff, Julia Adams, George Steinmetz
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy