A rhetoric of reduction : Bertrand de Jouvenel's pure theory of politics as persuasion

Abstract

Bertrand de Jouvenel's pure theory of politics includes an important Microscopic view of politics. In this study I am searching for Reasons why de Jouvenel thought that we should find politics from every situation where "A tells B to do H". I call this attitude a "rhetoric of reduction", which is not so pure as de Jouvenel believed, but a product of a certain intellectual and political situation. I discuss the formation of pure politics in its context and I also try to find out what de Jouvenel may have been doing in saying what he said. The study shows how the pure politics was formed from the main idea of Du Pouvoir (1945): the dialectic of command,which combines several ideas of Weber, Hegel, and Marx. However, the pure politics was formed in a situation where political theorists discussed the end of ideology, depoliticisation, and the death of political theory and political philosophy. The pure theory of politics was meant to be a counter-move, a new beginning, against these end debates