Politics: A Work in Constructive Social Theory

Politics: A Work in Constructive Social Theory

Cover of False Necessity
Author	Roberto Mangabeira Unger
Genre	Political theory
Published	1987
Pages	661 (Vol. 1) 256 (Vol. 2) 231 (Vol. 3)
ISBN	978-1-85984-331-4 (Vol. 1) 978-1-84467-515-7 (Vol. 2) 978-1-84467-516-5 (Vol. 3)
Preceded by	The Critical Legal Studies Movement
Followed by	What Should Legal Analysis Become?

Politics: A Work in Constructive Social Theory is a 1987 book by Brazilian philosopher and politician Roberto Mangabeira Unger. In the book, Unger sets out a theory of society as artifact, attempting to complete what he describes as an unfinished revolution, begun by classic social theories such as Marxism, against the naturalistic premise in the understanding of human life and society. Politics was published in three volumes: False Necessity: Anti-Necessitarian Social Theory in the Service of Radical Democracy, the longest volume, is an explanatory and programmatic argument of how society might be transformed to be more in keeping with the context-smashing potential of the human imagination; Social Theory: Its Situation and Its Task, is a "critical introduction" that delves into issues of social science underpinning Unger's project; and Plasticity Into Power: Comparative-Historical Studies on the Institutional Conditions of Economic and Military Success, is a collection of three historical essays illuminating the theoretical points Unger advanced in the first two volumes. In 1997, an abridged, one-volume edition of Politics was issued as Politics, The Central Texts, edited by Zhiyuan Cui.^[1]