The fine art of government wilhelm hennis's comprehensive conception of politics and practical insight

European Journal of Political Theory

Volumn 3, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 99-107

  Rosa, Hartmut ^a,b   Kaiser, André ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE   (Germany)

^b FRIEDRICH SCHILLER UNIVERSITY JENA   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34247668093     PISSN: 14748851     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1474885104038992     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Regieren im modernen Staat consists of the following papers on comparative government issues (our translations): (i) Parliamentary Opposition and Industrial Society; (2) The Concept of the Citizen; (3) Public Opinion Research and Representative Democracy; (4) Constitutional Order and Interest Group Strategies; (5) The Federal Chancellor's Power of Direction and Governmental Engineering; (6) Goals of a Modern Machinery of Government Course; (7) Planning and Caring as Governmental Responsibilities; (8) Written Constitution and Constitutional Practice: A German Problem; (9) Review Essay on Baring's 'Machtwechsel'; (10) The Role of Parliament and Party Government; (i i) Why Governability is a Problem; (12) Party Democracy and Governability; (13) Politics Without Vocation? A Comment on the Parliamentary Commission on Constitutional Reform; (14) Is there an Integrational Function of the Constitution? Rudolf Smend's Theory and the 'Grundgesetz' Revisited; (15) Political Science as Vocation. Politikwissenschaft und politisches Denken is a collection of papers on political theory and the history of political ideas (our translations): (1) Politics and Practical Philosophy; (2) The Office of Representative and Democratic Theory; (3) Motives of Citizen Involvement; (4) Advice and Consultation in the Modern State; (5) The Concept of Political Style; (6) Democratization: A Problematic Concept; (7) The End of Politics?; (8) Legitimacy; (9) Tocqueville's 'New Political Science'; (10) The Spirit of Rationalism and Modern Politics; (11) Goya and the Project of Modernity.
2. Wilhelm Bleek (2001) Geschichte der Politikwissenschaft in Deutschland, p. 50. Munich: Beck.
3. In fact, the ways in which individuals 'govern themselves' and the corresponding 'governmentalities' are essential elements of government for Hennis just as much as for Foucault. Consequently, Hennis insists that political science is essentially a pedagogical and educational enterprise (Regieren, paper 2; Denken, paper 4). Cf. Michel Foucault (1991) 'Governmentality', in G. Burchell, C. Gordon and P. Miller (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, pp. 87-104. Brighton: Harvester/Wheatsheaf.
4. Michel Foucault (1981) 'Omnes et singulatum: Towards a Criticism of Political Reason', in S. McMurrin (ed.) The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, vol. 2, pp. 223-54. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
5. Denken, paper 3 (p. 160), paper 4; paper 9 (p. 302); cf. n. 18 below.
6. 'Daseinserhellung' is the term he uses; cf. Regieren, paper 6 (p. 150).
7. Cf. Regieren, p. iii.
8. Wilhelm Hennis (1998) 'Totenrede des Perikles auf ein blühendes Land: Ursachen der politischen Blockade', in Wilhelm Hennis, Auf dem Weg in den Parteienstaat. Aufsätze aus vier Jahrzehnten, p. 155. Stuttgart: Reclam.
9. Michael Walzer (1987) Interpretation and Social Criticism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
10. Michael Walzer (1988) The Company of Critics: Social Criticism and Political Commitment in the Twentieth Century. New York: Basic Books. For Hennis's view, cf. Denken, paper i (p. 55).
11. Some of his public interventions with regard to the ever-expanding party government state in Germany are collected in Wilhelm Hennis (1998) Auf dem Weg in den Parteienstaat: Aufsätze aus vier Jahrzehnten. Stuttgart: Reclam.
12. Cf. Bleek (n. 2), p. 50.
13. Denken, paper 8 (pp. 284-5, 294).
14. See paper I, his programmatic 'Politik und praktische Philosophie: Eine Studie zur Rekonstruktion der politischen Wissenschaft', in Denken, pp. 1-126, by far the longest essay in the collection.
15. Denken, paper 9. Here, Tocqeville's democratic theory is interpreted in a Rousseauian tradition - the democratic age is seen as potentially a 'new despotism'.
16. Wilhelm Hennis (1987) Max Webers Fragestellung: Studien zur Biographie des Werks. Tubingen: Mohr.
17. Wilhelm Hennis (1996) Max Webers Wissenschaft vom Menschen: Neue Studien zur Biographie des Werks. Tübingen: Mohr. Tr.
18. (1988) 'Max Weber', Essays in Reconstruction. London: Allen & Unwin.
19. (2000) Max Weber's Science of Man. Newbury: Threshold Press.
20. 'For me, Max Weber's "Political Writings" are plainly authoritative models for how political scientists should diagnose a country's circumstances', Hennis states in an interview (1999) 'Politikwissenschaft als Disziplin: Zum Weg der politischen Wissenschaft nach 1945. Wilhelm Hennis im Gespräch mit Gangolf Hübinger', Neue Politische Literatur 44: 367.
21. Of course, Weber knew that this question could not be answered by science, but he insisted - just as Hennis does - that science can play a vital role in examining the way we actually do live our lives, and how we came to be what we are, and hence how we could be (or could have been) different. Science can help to clarify the alternative courses of action open, but it is up to the political community to actually make the decisions. See Denken, paper 4.
22. See e.g. Hennis (1987, in n. 14), pp. 10-20. Denken, paper I (pp. 74-7).
23. See e.g. Denken, paper 5 (pp. 192-3). Cf. Denken, paper 3, and Regieren, paper 2. In this respect, Hennis's writing sometimes resembles the 'communitarian' arguments of Alasdair Maclntyre or Charles Taylor, e.g. when he argues that membership in a political community is a fundamental or constitutive good, not an instrumental one, and that therefore care for the shape of the political community is in everybody's self-interest: It might be taken for granted that we live in a state, but it is by no means self-evident what kind of state that might be. But nothing determines our private form or way of life as much as the public, political state of affairs in our political community. Part of that state of affairs is the spirit, the political attitude that predominates in that community. Therefore, the ethical well-being of the individual should be a sufficient cause for participation in public affairs and for a certain form of patriotism (Burgersinn). Denken, paper 3 (p. 160; our translation) It is remarkable, however, that Hennis formulated these arguments two decades before the rise of communitarianism. The quoted passage originates from 1962!
24. See Denken, papers 1, 4, 9, 10, and Regieren, papers 6, 15.
25. See e.g. Denken, papers 1, 4, 5, and Regieren, papers 3, 7.
26. Denken, paper 1 (p. 110) (our translation). For Hennis's reservations against Habermas, see Denken, paper 7 (p. 229), paper 8 (pp. 251, 264-72), paper n (pp. 356-9).
27. Cf. the still splendid paper on the difference between public opinion and aggregated individual opinions stimulated by opinion polling, Regieren, paper 3.
28. e.g. Regieren, papers 7, 8, 11, and Denken, papers 6, 7, 8.
29. Regieren, papers 8, 14.
30. e.g. in Regieren, paper 7 (p. 178).
31. Regieren, papers 4-7, 10-12.
32. Regieren, paper 6 (p. 151, our translation).
33. See Regieren, papers 1, 10.
34. Denken, paper 2, Regieren, papers 1, 10, 12.
35. Hennis (1998) 'Alternativen ohne Spielraum? Möglichkeiten und Unmöglichkeiten des politischen Systems', in Hennis (n. 9), pp. 66-8.
36. Regieren, paper 5 (pp. 130-9), paper 6 (p. 161).
37. Denken, paper 7; cf. Regieren, paper 2 (p. 29), paper 3 (pp. 39-40, 74-5, 81-2).
38. Fredric Jameson (1998) 'The Antinomies of Postmodernity', in Jameson, The Cultural Turn, p. 50. London and New York: Verso.
39. Regieren, paper 7 (pp. 175-6); Hennis (1977) 'Zur Begrundung der Fragestellung', in Wilhelm Hennis, Peter Graf Kielmansegg and Ulrich Matz (eds) Regierbarkeit: Studien zu ihrer Problematisierung, pp. 9-21. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
40. Regieren, paper 15 (p. 388).