Rüdiger Voigt

Rüdiger Voigt (born April 7, 1941 in Flensburg ) is a German emeritus political and political scientist. He is the author and publisher of the political science publication series “Staatsverbundnisse” and “Staatsdiskurs”.

Rüdiger Voigt (2006)

Life

Voigt was born as the second son of the naval administration officer Kurt Voigt and his wife Erika. After graduating from high school, Voigt served in the German Navy from 1963 to 1965 .

From 1965 to 1968 Voigt studied law , political science and economics at the Universities of Kiel and Tübingen with a focus on public law , domestic politics and public finance . Voigt's dissertation at the chair for public law at the University of Kiel was supervised by Georg-Christoph von Unruh . She deals with the financial equalization between the state and municipalities and compares the Weimar Republic with the Federal Republic in the period from 1919 to 1969. In 1973 he completed his doctorate with the title “magna cum laude”.

After his legal traineeship in Kiel, Voigt worked from 1972 to 1976 as a research assistant at the chair for political science at the University of Siegen and then as an assistant professor for public law at the Free University of Berlin . After a call to the Berlin University of Applied Sciences for Administration and Justice , Voigt was appointed professor for social and economic policy at the University of Siegen in 1981. A few years later he became chairman of the research focus “Historical Mobility and Change in Norms”, in which political scientists, sociologists, historians, geographers and German scholars worked together. Professorship replacements took him to Hamburg and Constance .

In 1990 Voigt was appointed to the chair for administrative science at the University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich Munich and was elected director of the Institute for Political Science . He worked as a reviewer for the Volkswagen Foundation and the Austrian Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research. He has been visiting professor at the University of Sydney in the field of comparative law several times . From 1999 Voigt worked as an advisor to the Federal Ministry of Defense in the field of military infrastructure and controlling within the framework of ARGE INFRA .

Rüdiger Voigt has been retired since July 2007 and works as an author and editor. He publishes the series of publications “State Understandings”, “State Discourses” and “State-Sovereignty-Nation” in German and “Mobility and Norm Change” in English . He is married and has three sons.

Views

Voigt is considered to be a representative of a sovereignty-oriented state theory : In view of the catastrophic consequences of the failure of states on the periphery, the state's monopoly of force is of central importance for the protection of its citizens. “Every government is obliged to primarily represent the interests of its own nation, as is a matter of course for the US president, but also for the French president. Restrictions on sovereignty can only be accepted insofar as they do not violate the essence of the nation-state's right to final decisions and only if this results in a recognizable advantage for one's own nation . This includes the territorial integrity and unrestricted self-determination over the national territory ”.

Voigt criticizes the naive cosmopolitanism , the increasing arbitrariness of the concept of the state and the turning away from the principle of popular sovereignty in political theory and political science as well as the neglect of duty by politicians. With reference to Hermann Heller and Carl Schmitt , he sees the state as an “organized decision-making and action unit” as well as a community of fate of the people and the politicians as trustees of the people. For him, the categories of territory, sovereignty and nation are the foundations on which the occidental state rests and from which it gains its stability.

Voigt also advocates an interdisciplinary approach that includes elements from political, administrative and legal studies, sociology, philosophy and history. His more recent work deals with problems of state theory and the theory of war, the world order and administrative reform as well as political science media and symbol research.

Quotes

“While the state cuts a rather poor figure in the globalization trap, it becomes a dominant machine in war. It is obvious that this apparent omnipotence exerts a tremendous fascination for many top politicians and is therefore a great temptation. Isn't it possible - like Alexander the Great once did - to cut the Gordian knot of laborious and protracted negotiations with one blow of the sword? It is no coincidence that international law forbids war of aggression and only allows defense. The question of whether war is a legitimate political instrument is only seemingly answered. Because what is still defense, what is already an attack and, above all, who has the power to interpret this? "

Publications (selection)

• (Ed.): Handbook State , 2 volumes, Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-658-20743-4 .
• The arrogance of power. Arrogance comes before the trap . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2017, ISBN 978-3-8487-4052-9 .
• (Ed.): State Secrets. Arcane politics through the ages. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-16235-1 .
• (Ed. With Michael Hirsch ): Symbolic violence. Politics, power and the state with Pierre Bourdieu. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2017, ISBN 978-3-8487-3291-3 .
• (Ed. With Thomas Rau and Volker Reinhardt ): The mortal god. Thomas Hobbes' doctrine of the omnipotence of Leviathan as reflected in time. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2017, ISBN 978-3-8487-3405-4 .
• State sovereignty: a key concept in the state debate. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-13180-7 .
• (Ed.): State Thinking. On the state of state theory today . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2016, ISBN 978-3-8487-0958-8 .
• Thinking in contradictions. Carl Schmitt against the zeitgeist . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2015, ISBN 978-3-8487-1875-7 .
• Legality without legitimacy? Carl Schmitt's category of legitimacy . VS Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-06926-1 .
• Think the state. The Leviathan in the sign of crisis . Nomos, Baden-Baden, 3rd ext. 2014 edition, ISBN 978-3-8487-0957-1 .
• State of emergency. Carl Schmitt's doctrine of the provisional dictatorship. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2013, ISBN 978-3-8487-0465-1 .
• No alternative politics. Future of the state - future of democracy. Franz-Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-515-10326-8 .
• Security versus Freedom. Defense of the state order at any cost? Springer VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-531-19163-8 .
• Reason of state. Is Power Above Law? Nomos, Baden-Baden 2012, ISBN 978-3-8329-7054-3 .
• Friend-foe thinking. Carl Schmitt's category of the political. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-515-09877-9 .
• Handbook of State Thinkers . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-515-09511-2 .
• Think the state. The Leviathan in the sign of crisis . Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2nd edition 2009, ISBN 978-3-8329-3909-0 .
• The Janus head of the state. Why we cannot do without the state . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-515-09309-5 .
• The Hobbes crystal. Carl Schmitt's Hobbes interpretation under discussion . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-515-09398-9 .
• Open-plan thinking. Carl Schmitt's category of urban planning . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-515-09186-2 .
• War without space. Asymmetrical conflicts in a world without borders . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-515-09135-0 .
• The state of decisionism. Carl Schmitt in the international debate . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8329-2671-7 .
• The states of world society. Niklas Luhmann's understanding of the state . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8329-2571-0 .
• Res Publica and Democracy. The importance of Cicero for today's understanding of the state Nomos, Baden-Baden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8329-2281-8 .
• Think the state. The Leviathan in the sign of crisis . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8329-2457-7 .
• Concise dictionary on administrative reform . VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 978-3-531-13756-8 .
• World governance . VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14859-1 .
• War in the movie . Lit Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 978-3-8258-8406-2 .
• Europe after the Iraq War. End of the transatlantic era? Nomos, Baden-Baden 2004, ISBN 978-3-8329-0940-6 .
• Unmasking Power. Niccolò Machiavelli's understanding of the state and politics . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2004, ISBN 978-3-8329-0708-2 .
• Phoenix from the ashes. The birth of the state from the spirit of politics . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2003, ISBN 978-3-8329-0061-8 .
• Armed Forces and Defense Administration. A constitutional analysis of the relationship between Art. 87a and Art. 87b GG . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2003, ISBN 978-3-8329-0144-8 .
• Globalization of Law II: International Organizations and Regulations . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2002, ISBN 978-3-7890-8079-1 .
• War - an instrument of politics? Armed conflict in the transition from the 20th to the 21st century . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2002, ISBN 978-3-7890-7790-6 .
• Colonization of Law. On the colonial legal and administrative order . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2001, ISBN 978-3-7890-7347-2 .
• State myth. Carls Schmitt's understanding of the state . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2001, ISBN 3-7890-7061-0 .
• Farewell to the state - return to the state . IfS, Neubiberg 3rd edition 2000, ISBN 3-932031-10-5
• The leviathan . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2000, ISBN 978-3-7890-6757-0 .
• Globalization of law . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2000, ISBN 978-3-7890-6499-9 .
• Law - the plaything of politics? Legal Politology in the Age of Globalization . Nomos, Baden-Baden 4th edition 2000, ISBN 978-3-7890-6951-2 .
• The new nation state . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1998, ISBN 978-3-7890-5799-1 .
• Municipal finances in transition . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1998, ISBN 978-3-8100-1940-0 .
• Evolution of law . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1998, ISBN 978-3-7890-5517-1 .
• The state's new clothes. Lines of development of modern statehood . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1996, ISBN 978-3-7890-4380-2
• Cooperative Law . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1995, ISBN 978-3-7890-3889-1 .
• The cooperative state. Crisis Management through Negotiation? . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1995, ISBN 3-7890-3903-9 .
• Territorial reform in rural areas. An interim balance sheet of the municipal territorial and administrative reform in the new federal states . Kommunalverlag, Bornheim / Bonn 1994.
• Local science analyzes . University Press Dr. N. Brockmeyer, Bochum 1994.
• Enforcement and Effect of Legal Decisions. The importance of implementation and impact research for law . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1990.
• Implementation of court decisions . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1987.
• Legal politics. An introduction . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1985.
• Farewell to the law? Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1983.
• Counter-tendencies towards juridification . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1983.
• Juridification. Analyzes of the function and effect of parliamentarization, bureaucratisation and judicialization of social, political and economic processes . Athenäum Verlag, Königstein i. Ts. 1980.

Web links

• Literature by and about Rüdiger Voigt in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rüdiger Voigt: Think the state. The Leviathan in the Sign of the Crisis , Baden-Baden 2007, p. 320 ff.
2. ↑ Rüdiger Voigt: Phoenix from the ashes. The Birth of the State from the Spirit of Politics , 2003.
3. ↑ Interview by Reinhard Jellen with Michael Hirsch: Internet partner exchanges are Bourdieu machines . Heise online (here: Telepolis), October 21, 2017.