Political rationality enables and legitimates governing instruments rather than serving them.
Evidence
Political rationality is not an instrument of governmental practice, but rather the condition of possibility and legitimacy of its instruments, the field of normative reason from which governing is forged. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 220
Categorization
- DEFINE: Sharpens the definition: rationality is the condition of instruments’ possibility and legitimacy.
- XREF: connects to: Economics is lateral to governing, not its internal rationality — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 1467; Liberal critique questions the necessity and legitimacy, not just cost, of governing. — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 1591; Legitimacy can be derived from constitutional practices rather than from justifications. — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 15 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Political rationality originates outside the state yet organizes and conditions it.
#expands(0.90) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 223 - Sovereign power makes principles rather than obeying them
#corroborates(0.90) - Economics serves power more effectively when it operates in innocence of serving it
#exemplifies(0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 241 - Legitimacy can be derived from constitutional practices rather than from justifications.
#qualifies(0.75) — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 15 - Ideas, not vested interests, ultimately shape political possibility.
#corroborates(0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 136