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Single Idea 21906

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 1. Ideology ]

Full Idea

Liberals who focus on the state and Marxists who focus on the economy are macropolitical theorists. They overlook the small elements that comprise our political lives. To understand how we are constructed and power works we must turn to the smaller scale.

Gist of Idea

Political theory should not focus on the state or economy, but on the small scale of power

Source

report of G Deleuze / F Guattari (A Thousand Plateaus [1980]) by Todd May - Gilles Deleuze 4.04

Book Ref

May,Todd: 'Gilles Deleuze' [CUP 2006], p.127


A Reaction

This seems to be precisely in tune with the ideas of Foucault. I'm not sure that a study of power within the family or the office throws much light on macropolitics. How the micro intrudes into the micro seems more interesting.


The 10 ideas with the same theme [general ideas about theories of political principle]:

The Stoics saw the whole world as a city [Stoic school, by Long]
The best government blends democracy, monarchy and aristocracy [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity [Weil]
Ideology is 'socially necessary illusion' or 'socially necessary false-consciousness' [Adorno, by Finlayson]
Ideologies are mythologies which guide our actions [Solomon]
Political theory should not focus on the state or economy, but on the small scale of power [Deleuze/Guattari, by May]
An ideology judges things now, and offers an ideal, with a strategy for reaching it [Dobson]
In the 1950s they said ideology is finished, and expertise takes over [Lukes]
Political choice can be by utility, or maximin, or maximax [Wolff,J]
Constitutional Patriotism unites around political values (rather than national identity) [Shorten]