BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: A HISTORICAL LEXICON OF SOCIO-POLITICAL CONCEPTS

Author(s): WERNER CONZE

Source: Social Research, Vol. 34, No. 4 (WINTER 1967), pp. 741-743
Published by: The New School
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40970753 .
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 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:
A HISTORICAL LEXICON OF
SOCIO-POLITICAL CONCEPTS
BY WERNER CONZE

In 1968the firstof fivevolumesof the Lexiconnamedabove

will be publishedas partof a comprehensive enterprisein con-
ceptual history(Begriffsgeschichte). The other volumeswill
probably follow in 1969-1972. The editorsare Otto Brunner
(Hamburg),WernerConze(Heidelberg)and ReinhartKoselleck
(Heidelberg).About 130 articles,some of considerablelength,
are envisaged.This meansthatthe projectdoes not involvea
largenumberof briefinformational articles,but
or definitional
rathera limitednumberof investigations of thehistoricaldevel-
opmentofcertainkeyconcepts.An initially smallteamofauthors
hasgrownintoa sizablenumberofcontributors.
The editorsweremotivated in thisenterpriseby therecogni-
tion thatthe use of socio-politicalconceptsmay be changing,
unclearand consciously or unconsciously biased,not only in
everyday politicalusagebut even in the scholarly literature on
historyand politics.The causesof thisare probablyto be sought
in the constantchange,differentiation and ambivalencein the
use ofconceptstypicalof themodernworld.The editorsagreed
thatmoreor less all socio-political conceptshave been funda-
mentally in
put questionby the modern revolution,as prepared
in the Enlightenment
intellectually and realizedin the revolu-
tionaryevents,particularly in America and France,that cul-
minatedin theadventofindustrialism. Sometraditional concepts
as
(such democracy or civil society)were fundamentally trans-
formed.Otherconcepts (suchas thesocialdesignationsofpeasants
or workers) wererevaluedand thusunderstood in a new way.

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742 SOCIAL RESEARCH
Other concepts appeared as neologismsreferringto altogether
new phenomena(such as Enlightenment or liberalism).
In view of this startingpoint the articles of the projected
lexicon have been subsumedunder the theme of the change of
socio-politicalconceptsand the appearance of new concepts in
the revolutionary age betweenthe middle of the eighteenthand
themiddleof the nineteenthcenturies.These twocenturieswere
made the directobjectsof research,while the traditionalhistory
of theconceptsin question(oftengoingback to the Greekclassics)
was generallytakenover fromthe existingliterature.The devel-
opmentssince the middle of the nineteenthcenturyhave gen-
erallybeen treatedquite briefly.
The followinglist of concepts,as dealt with in a number of
relatedarticles(about one-thirdof the total numberof articles),
indicatesthescope of the project:
worker,peasant,citizen(Brger),proletariat.
Aristocracy,
Labor, vocation,education(Bildung), property,estate(Stand),
class.
Enlightenment, emancipation,progress,crisis,nature,natural
law.
Utopia, utopianism.
Fraternity,unity,liberty,justice,equality.
Anarchy,democracy,monarchy,despotism,dictatorship,state,
republic,society,civil society,community(Gemeinschaft).
Liberalism,conservatism, socialism.
Imperialism,capitalism, feudalism.
Politics,party,representation.
Tolerance, authority.
Fatherland(Vaterland),nation, federation(Bund), race, revo-
lution,restoration.

In all thesecases the purpose is not to defineconceptsin the

de-
sense of a political dictionary,to describe or systematically
velop them, but rather to interpretthem in
historically terms of
theirtemporalsequence and with regardto the changingcondi-

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 CURRENT TRENDS 743
tionsand challengesof theirusage. In otherwords,the purpose
is to place the conceptsin termsof the relativityof differentor
contradictory positionsand valuations. Thus neither philosoph-
ical dictionariesnor mere "word histories"could be followed,
although of course theywere consulted. In brief,the project
entailsthe attempt,by means of the historicalmethod,to under-
standthe conceptuallanguageof the socio-politicalworldduring
the revolutionarychange of the modern period, and to under-
standit in itshistoricalcontingence,varietyand relativity.
To achieve thisgoal a special methodologyhad to be worked
out in detail. The introductionto the firstvolume will explicate
this. Whetherthismethodologyhas been fullyapplied in all the
contributionsremainsto be seen.
The lexiconis limitedto the Germanlanguagearea. Of course,
relations to other languages, particularlyEnglish and French,
will be takenintoaccountas thetopicsdemand. For a laterperiod
an internationalexpansion of this enterprisein conceptual his-
toryis envisaged.

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