Parapolitics

The term parapolitics was first conceived and elaborated by Professor Raghavan Iyer of Oxford University in his work "Parapolitics: Toward the City of Man." It goes beyond the confines of past and present modalities of encounter and embraces a richer view of the political than is found in the politics of stability, power and self-preservation.

Parapolitics is best understood as the noetic activity of continually rethinking the foundations as well as the frontiers of political principles, systems and issues.

In this sense, the ‘parapolitical’ transcends conventional politics while still being reflected in it.

The dialectic of parapolitical engagement calls for establishing critical distance, understanding the costs of commitment and recognizing and accepting limits and possibilities in relation to all perspectives, policies and programs.

"Parapolitics signifies the imaginative application of seminal ideas vitalizing political theory and practice; the elaboration of fundamental principles into paradigms of relationships among persons and between civil means and humane ends; the quest for political understanding and action based upon expanding self-awareness; and the ever-receding perspective of ideals rooted in the ethics, metaphysics and psychology of self-transcendence." [Raghavan Iyer, "Parapolitics: Toward the City of Man", Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1979, p. 27)]

Peter Dale Scott employs the term "parapolitics," in a completely different manner than Iyer, as one manifestation of "deep politics":

"...the investigation of parapolitics, which I defined (with the CIA in mind) as a 'system or practice of politics in which accountability is consciously diminished.'...I still see value in this definition and mode of analysis. But parapolitics as thus defined is itself too narrowly conscious and intentional... it describes at best only an intervening layer of the irrationality under our political culture's rational surface. Thus I now refer to parapolitics as only one manifestation of deep politics, all those political practices and arrangements, deliberate or not, which are usually repressed rather than acknowledged."

The term is used to describe either covert political activity that is hidden from the public or a complete (de facto) political system, typically comprising elements of the military and intelligence apparatus, hidden from the public; political actions of subterfuge, secrecy, and deceit; and is increasingly used in discussions on democracy to describe coalitions of institutions and corporations who operate above or outside of the elected government.

References

External links

* [http://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/" Lobster - The Journal of Parapolitics".]
* [http://www.8bitmode.com/rogerdog/lobster.htm Early issues of "Lobster" free online.]