Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Peace and discipline. A study in political theory on peace education in international politics: the North-Atlantic region (1945-2007)." "Tom Sauer" "Faculty Research SW, International Politics" "This research project seeks to reflect on the meaning of peace, and on the role of peace education in bringing about international peace. We will suggest an understanding of peace as 'disciplined order' as opposed to its conventional definition (in IR theory) as the 'absence of war.' Inspiration is drawn from classical political theory, strands of which have highlighted the role of education in shaping virtuous citizens, and consequently in bringing about a peaceful society. The empirical validity of the model will be tested in the case of the reigning North-Atlantic peace." "Wittgenstein and Political Theory" "Toon Braeckman" "Research in Political Philosophy and Ethics Leuven (RIPPLE)" "The proposed research aims to investigate the relation between Wittgenstein’s philosophy and political theory. This theme remains marginal within the Wittgensteinian scholarship, facing the key challenge of the sparsity of explicit discussions of political issues in Wittgenstein’s writings. An extra challenge is raised by the fact that even in those cases that political theory is engaged with his philosophy, this is mostly done through a methodological rather than a substantive employment of its key insights and concepts. My main objective is to provide a novel approach to the relation between Wittgenstein and the political, by focusing not only on Wittgenstein’s methods, but also on his positions.The principal idea to be developed is that Wittgenstein’s philosophy may indeed provide a substantial contribution to political theory and especially to the analysis and critique of late capitalism. My innovative response to the challenges mentioned above will comprise an original research which will:make explicit the implicit political import of Wittgenstein’s later philosophyinvestigate his influence on contemporary political theory, my case study being the works of Hardt and Negrienrich the discourse regarding the institution of society by providing it with a distinctive Wittgensteinian directionThe project combines elements from different philosophical disciplines (philosophy of language, political theory) and traditions (analytic, continental). Although I have a background in the philosophy of Wittgenstein and the analytic tradition, I have a limited training in political theory and continental philosophy. Thus, the proposed project, under the supervision of Prof. Antoon Braeckman who specializes in continental political theory, provides me with a great opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge, which will assist me not only in its implementation, but also in the development of my academic career." "Subsidiary social provision before the welfare state. Political theory and social policy in nineteenth-century Belgium" "Jan De Maeyer" "KADOC Research, KADOC - Documentation and Research Centre on Religion, Culture and Society, Centre for Political Research" "This study is about the origins of the Belgian welfare state; more specifically, about both the policy origins and the ideological origins of the Belgian welfare state. The historical origins of the Belgian modern welfare state are often traced back to the introduction of social insurances in national legislation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. However, this legislation only confirmed a system that had been developing for a long time and does not in itself say much about how and why it had developed in such or such direction. This study will therefore dig a little deeper and will be a story about political theory and social policy in the long nineteenth century, a century that connects the pre-revolutionary ancien régime and its predominantly local, mixed private/public arrangements of social policy to the national establishment of a range of social insurances. It will make clear that, if Belgium with its system of ‘subsidized liberty’ today serves as a conventional conservative welfare regime characterized by non-state provision in the form of powerful non-profit private providers, this can be traced back largely to nineteenth-century political theory and social policy.Reflecting its main aim, this dissertation rests on two research questions, from which a third naturally follows. Firstly, in which intellectual, social and political – both national and transnational – discourse (within or outside the realm of Catholic social thought where it was eventually first coined) did the so-called ‘subsidiarity principle’ originate? Secondly, in what ways and in what sort of configuration of a ‘mixed economy of social welfare’ did the government (in its different levels) relate to individuals, voluntary associations and private institutions in the fields of poor relief, popular education and social insurance? Thirdly, following from the two preceding questions, in what ways did this kind of discourse or theory affect, influence or justify policy decisions in the fields of poor relief, popular education and social insurance or, conversely, in what ways did policy structures or decisions strengthen or provoke this sort of discourse or theory? Indeed, as apparent from these research questions, the thematic focus of this dissertation is delineated to the three fields which can be said to have been three early core tasks of social policy: poor relief, popular education, and social insurance. Chronologically speaking this dissertation will be confined to the long nineteenth century (ca.1800-ca.1920), not only because it was the period in which both policy and ideas had fundamentally developed before they were defined as ‘subsidised liberty’ and ‘subsidiarity’, respectively, but also because this period has been somewhat neglected in the Belgian historiography compared to the focus on social policy in early-modern times on the one hand and the twentieth-century development of the welfare state on the other.Part one is devoted to the intellectual history of subsidiarity. In chapter one I first work towards my own definition of subsidiarity and thoroughly consider the methodological and theoretical difficulties in tracing back subsidiarity as an idea that was as yet not explicitly defined. Then I provide ample evidence to my argument that the ideas later characterizing subsidiarity are essentially shaped by the nineteenth-century context and that their gradual emergence is largely due to two intellectual traditions, that is late-eighteenth- and nineteenth century Classical liberalism and nineteenth-century Catholic social thinking. Chapter two charts the Belgian landscape of national and transnational intellectual networks engaging with discussions on state and society. It shows how some of the same ideas discussed in chapter one prevailed in these networks and were discussed in the emerging transnational European space. After the overview of these networks and debates in chapter two, chapter three finishes off part one by elaborating on the thought of five key figures within these networks. It demonstrate how some of the main lines of the later subsidiarity principle as defined in chapter one were already visible in their vision on society and in their discourse. Though in changing proportions and to greater or lesser extent, these five thinkers shared the preference for a multi-layered society between the individual and the state, in which much was to be expected from the natural human right of association in its diverse expressions and in which the state had to play a subsidiary role.Part two again contains three chapters, dealing with the three fields of poor relief, popular education and social insurance, respectively. All three chapters are more or less structured along chronological lines, but without losing their focus to the mixed private/public relations between government(s) and other actors. Chapter four, on poor relief, offers a typology of the different mixed private/public types of cooperation on the local level within what I have broadly defined as the public poor relief system, and goes on to study the transformative impact on this local system caused by ideological and political tensions on the national level as well as late-nineteenth-century processes of professionalization and reform. Chapter five does the same for popular education. It again offers a typology, in this case distinguishing between the different mixed private/public types of primary schools. Basically it shows how Catholics reacted to the trauma of sudden laicizing and modernizing reforms by the liberals in the late 1870s and the resulting ‘school war’, by radically changing their education strategy into building their own private Catholic network of schools and subsequently reinforcing it with state subsidies under thirty years of Catholic government power. Chapter six on social insurance, too, demonstrates the importance of Catholic government power during this period (between 1884 and 1914). Maintaining an ideological preference for mutual aid associations as the best way for the workers to learn bourgeoisie ideals and participating in society, Catholics refused alternatives for organising social insurance (most famously the German compulsory social insurances introduced by Bismarck) and instead reinforced their own institutions by making clever use of their government power, in accordance with their strategy of ‘subsidised liberty’.Upon arriving at the general conclusion, it should have been made clear that this study was first and foremost an attempt to come to a fairly comprehensive understanding of political theory and social policy in Belgium in the nineteenth century, to contribute to our historical understanding of the Belgian welfare state, and to make an original contribution to its historiography. The conclusion first elaborates on one of the main concluding arguments, namely that the three fields under scrutiny shared a core of ‘subsidiary social provision’, meaning that the way in which these fields of policy were put into place and organized was the result of a larger preference for mixed private/public forms of provision, ‘subsidiary’ in being supported by the respective governments within their regulatory framework, and legitimized and underpinned by a favourable discourse widely accepted on the national and transnational level. A connection will be drawn not only between the early-nineteenth-century local mixed private/public system and the late-nineteenth-century national mixed private/public system of ‘subsidized liberty’, but also between the social policies in practice and their ideological justifications in ideas. The impact of this discourse and especially the specific uses of ‘subsidized liberty’ and its link to subsidiarity will be amply discussed. Furthermore, in a looking back on the period under scrutiny as a whole, it will be clear that the nineteenth century was a decisive era in blending traditional with modern aspects of social policy and thus shaping the welfare state as we know it today. The conclusion then finishes off with some reflections on the remnants of the system of ‘subsidiary social provision’ in the current welfare state." "The Political Theory of American Populism" "Stefan Rummens" "Research in Political Philosophy and Ethics Leuven (RIPPLE)" "‘Populism’ is the central concept of our political era. Winning majorities, ousting incumbents, attacking courts and even locking up opponents, parties speaking on behalf of “the people” have flourished in the past decade. Yet these ‘populist’ parties share little with the movement that invented the term – the American Populists of the late nineteenth-century. Few academic fields rival the recent output of work on populism, and yet political philosophy still suffers from a significant historical deficit and a consequent set of critical biases. This postdoctoral project returns to the late nineteenth-century American Populists, reconstructing their political thought to enrich our contemporary populism debate. With American Populism as its focal point, this project shows how the late nineteenth-century offers philosophical resources to today’s critical characterisations of populism. Comprising four major research journal publications and one monograph, the project centres on two questions: (1) What was the political philosophy of the original American Populist movement? and (2) How does this political philosophy affect and destabilize the underpinnings of contemporary work on populism in political philosophy?" "The ties that bind. An empirical evaluation of the political theory of liberal nationalism." "Bart Meuleman" "Centre for Sociological Research" "While Europe has become an immigration continent, research has demonstrated that native citizens perceive immigrants as a threat for their national identity. Despite the prominence of national identity in public debates on social cohesion, empirical research evaluating the beneficial effects of national identity for social harmony remains surprisingly scarce. Nevertheless, there are several arguments, largely advocated by the political theory of liberal nationalism, why it can be expected that national identity has positive externalities for bringing about social cohesion. While this theory is largely framed around affect (identifying with the nation), what is largely missing in current, mainly theoretical, scholarship is a validation of the theory by looking, in a comparative perspective using survey data, precisely at what kind of ties are able to bind citizens together. The aim of my research is, by applying multilevel analysis on the 2008 wave of the European Values Study, examine how people living within a national community think about its social contours and, more specifically, how these conceptions of national identity affect, across different national contexts, relevant political and social attitudes, as there are trust and related types of horizontal solidarity as well as vertical relations to the nation-state and supra-national organizations." "Modern time-consciousness: philosophy and politics of history - Leo Strauss on history and truth in the relation of theory and praxis." "Bart Raymaekers" "Research in Political Philosophy and Ethics Leuven (RIPPLE)" "This project aims to analyze the political philosophy of the German-American philosopher Leo Strauss (1899-1973) in the context of modern debates concerning history, time-consciousness, and the relation between theory and praxis. The project will include both a systematic and a historical dimension in the fields of political philosophy and philosophy of history.The first part of the project will clarify a set of problems centering on the relation of philosophy and politics in the post-Hegelian situation of a pervasive historial consciousness. The second part will investigate the thought of Leo Strauss as an attempt to give answers to these problems.The issues at stake include some of the most pressing problems for philosophical reflection on politics, such as historical relativism and the status of truth in the relationship between philosophy and politics. The work of Strauss faces these problems in highly relevant and still unappreciated ways. Simultaneously, these issues and Strauss's approach to them provide the key to a fuller understanding of Strauss's not easily accessible work. By offering a perspective that is at thispoint not available, this project will productively contribute to current scholarship on Strauss, while always bearing in mind the systematic import of his work." "Addressing the People in Theory and Practice: Assembly Politics in the Greek Cities of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods" "Andries Johan Zuiderhoek" "Department of History" "This project examines political communication in the popular assemblies of the Greek cities of the Hellenistic and Roman periods to offer new insights into the debate concerning the extent of popular political participation. Although inscriptions mention the assembly as part of the decision-making process until the end of the third century AD, scholars have argued that, from the second century BC onwards, the people were no longer able to initiate or debate political legislation and were limited to ratifying decisions taken elsewhere. While a general tendency towards an oligarchic form of government is undeniable, little is known about the internal functioning of the assembly, since the inscriptions, our primary source of evidence, are mostly silent on the political processes whose outcome they document. This project therefore turns to an extensive but hitherto ignored corpus of sources, the rhetorical handbooks. The content of these works shows that learning how to persuade the people in the assembly was an integral part of elite education throughout the Hellenistic and early Roman periods. An analysis of this material, combined with the few assembly speeches still extant, could show that, contrary to current opinion, debate and deliberation were integral aspects of assembly politics in this period. As such, this project has the potential to modify modern notions about the power of the people and the democratic nature of the Greek cities in the Hellenistic and Roman periods." "No stars in their eyes? An analysis of the organisation of political parties vis-à-vis the EU" "Bram Wauters" "Department of Political Sciences" "This project comprises the operating resources of the Research Fund Assistants - Political and Social Sciences" "The intergenerational transmission of political attitudes and behaviors. A panel study among adolescents and their parents." "Marc Hooghe" "Centre for Political Research" "Between Arts, Politics and Spirituality: Young adults and their everyday politics in post-apartheid Windhoek" "Michael Eilenberg, Steven Van Wolputte" "Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology" "This dissertation is an ethnographic account of the everyday politics of young adults in post-apartheid Windhoek, Namibia. Starting from three particular ethnographic encounters I show how young Namibians, through everyday politics, sets the future in motion by challenging the current state of the country. In doing so they create alternative channels for political and social engagement and expression. Throughout I challenge portrayals of young Africans stuck in liminal positions, waiting to obtain socially acknowledged adulthood. I show how young people instead act as catalysing agents of novelty, carving out the future from the (past-in-the-)present.  In the first three chapters we encounter Frans, a freelance journalist, consultant and political activist; Decolonising Space, an art and activist collective working on spatial issues of unfinished decolonisation in urban Namibia; and the Mountain Iyahs, a group of alternative spiritual practitioners who has found sanctuary in the rugged hand of the Namibian bush. These three (very) different accounts all illustrate how young Namibians, far from waiting for the world to change, constantly carve out their ways through life with a lens clearly pointed towards the future.The following three chapter takes a broader thematic perspective. I start by addressing issues of mistrust, warring imaginaries and persistent racial and ethnic antagonism more than 30 years after apartheid’s demolition, and how these issues continues to cause tensions in young peoples’ everyday lives. After this I delve deeper into how young Namibians redefine notions of race and spirituality through everyday negotiations that find expression in exchanges with peers. I also reflect on how I became part of these ontological and epistemological (re)negotiations. In the last chapter before my conclusion I deal with intergenerational negotiations between young adult Namibians and a political elite and elderly population with liberation struggle credentials. I suggest that these liberation struggle credentials are mobilised as an exclusionary mechanism meant to keep young Namibians from obtaining a position to amplify their voices and concerns. Yet, rather than passively watching by while being denied a voice, the young people I encountered all sought to create an alternative political order to the one they feel increasingly excluded from. They do this through various forms of everyday politics."