Power. Interest. Freedom. Responsibility. Connolly explores and confronts sets of interrelated concepts such as these - concepts whose meanings are persistently subject to debate in the context of political discourse. He illuminates the role played in political life and political enquiry by such conceptual contests. And in staking out his own position in these contests, he seeks both to politicize broad areas of social life and to weave norms of responsibility more thoroughly into politics. This classic text concludes with a chapter in which Connolly sets out his position on a number of key issues, and reconsiders his central themes in the light of recent works that complement or contradict them - clarifying his thesis and widening his field of vision to take in recent developments in the philosophy of language.
For this new edition, Connolly provides a fresh introductory chapter, bringing the text fully up-to-date.