What is Political Realism?

• In Event: Realism: War, Participation, and Restraint?

Abstract

Political realism assumes a disposition that reality imposes limits on human activity and that realistic science of human affairs should elucidate the errors in claims that are not grounded in reality and promote the understanding how really politics works and what it can obtain in reality. Removing all the forms of the word ‘real,’ it is an attempt to accurately observe natural and social limits and how people respond to them. Importantly, it does not presume a specific set of policy proposals. Although it is criticized for being non-normative (or even anti-ethical) and slavishly pro-status quo, it need not be so at all. This essay will examine the writings of three contemporary political realists, Dalmacio Negro Pavón, Carlo Galli, Álvaro d’Ors, all of whom were considerably influenced by Carl Schmitt, one of the most influential political realists of the 20th century. The first two offer a Roman Catholic vision of political order while Galli is a Marxist but all examine with perspicacity the strengthening and weakening of political orders, if anything expressing preferences either for earlier orders or those that might be to come. By teasing out differences among three contemporary realists, this paper aims to provide context of realism in political science. Too often realism only emerges as a term in International Relations and, in that sub-discipline, it immediately becomes a partisan identity which is intellectually flattened in many intra- and inter-paradigmatic debates. It is too easy to lose track of how many Marxist and Realist theories are politically realist (EH Carr). It is also important to recognize political realism as contributing to the imaginary of many political scientists outside of international relations (Achen and Bartels 2017). This is particularly important when so many in political science have, deliberately or not, adopted a constructivist ontology (Mahoney 2021, Rama forthcoming).

Author

• Anthony Petros Spanakos, Montclair State University