UCLA Political Science

Political Theory Workshop on 2/17/2023 (Lisa Disch)
2023-02-17 16:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Speaker: Lisa Disch, University of Michigan
Title: Responsiveness in Reverse
Topic: PT Workshop
Time: Friday, February 17th; 4:00pmThe password-protected paper is both attached and available on the PT website at
https://polisci.ucla.edu/events/workshops/political-theory-workshop
The password is (case-sensitive) UCLAtheory
Abstract:
Classic accounts of representative democracy describe an interest-first model according to which constituencies form around things they want and elected representatives respond to their demands. Research into political knowledge and preference formation shows that in practice, responsiveness goes the other way. In mass democracies, acts of political representation often do not take constituencies and their interests as a starting point. Representatives of all kinds participate in forming group identities, crafting political demands, and defining political cleavages. In such a context, the model of interest-first representation and the responsiveness ideal set representative democracy up to fail: they create expectations about “competence” that most individuals cannot and need not meet. I propose a mobilization conception of political representation and defend a dynamic account of constituency making to shift those expectations.

Political Theory Workshop (3/3/23) - Alexander Diones (Loyola Marymount University)
2023-03-03 16:00 - 18:00 | CA
Speaker: Alexander Diones, Loyola Marymount University
Title: Criticism and Self-Criticism: The Combahee River Collective and the Critique of Global Maoism
Topic: PT Workshop
Time: Friday, March 3rd; 4:00pm
The password-protected paper is both attached and available on the PT website at
https://polisci.ucla.edu/events/workshops/political-theory-workshop
The password is (case-sensitive) UCLAtheory
Abstract:
How do we conceive of solidarity when we’re conditioned to treating one another as antagonists? To answer this question, I turn to the Combahee River Collective’s “Statement,” particularly its theory of what the authors call “criticism and loathing.” Building on recent scholarship on the collective’s place in the intellectual history of global Maoism, this essay argues that the account of criticism contained in this phrase should be thought of as both a reformulation of Maoist theories of vanguard politics and a claim about the relation of identity and solidarity.

34th Bollens-Ries-Hoffenberg Lecture
2023-10-19 17:00 - 19:30 | James West Alumni Center, Founders Room, UCLA, James West Alumni Center, Founders Room, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Click to RSVP
