Political Innovation and Conceptual Change (Ideas in Context, Series Number 11)

This book sets out to defend the claim that politics is a linguistically constituted activity, and to show that the concepts that inform political beliefs and behavior have historically mutable meanings that have undergone changes related to real political events. The contributors go on to analyze the evolution of no less than thirteen particular concepts, all central to political discourse in the western world. They include revolution, rights, democracy, property, corruption, and citizenship.

Authoritative contributions present a history of the meaning of key political concepts and explain their importance to our understanding of political innovation.