expansivist

English

Etymology

expansive +‎ -ist

Adjective

expansivist (comparative more expansivist, superlative most expansivist)

1. Tending toward maximizing the applicability or scope (of something)
   • 1989, Richard J. Erickson, Legitimate Use of Military Force Against State-sponsored International Terrorism, page 182:

     The prevailing view, which corresponds to that of the expansivist school, considers "protection of one's own nationals" as part of the customary right of self-defense under article 51 and sees "self" in self-defense as including the nationals of a state.

   • 1989, William F. Grover, The President as Prisoner, page 18:

     This expansivist view is presidency-weighted, regarding the maximization of presidential power as virtually the sine qua non of American politics.

   • 2008, Rosamond Rhodes, Leslie P. Francis, Anita Silvers, The Blackwell Guide to Medical Ethics, page 328:

     First, this expansivist view would make public health limitless in scope.

   • 2012, Ken Booth, The Kosovo Tragedy: The Human Rights Dimensions, page 32:

     Charny's expansivist understanding of genocide even goes as far as claiming that massive deaths resulting from the meltdown of a nuclear reactor would count as genocide.

   • 2019, Don Erickson, A Life Lived and Laid Down for Friends, page 50:

     As for Mark and Matthew, they are speaking to exclusivist adherents to the Yahweh faith of Israel and arguing for an inclusivist, expansivist approach to that faith. It is in their interest to expand the narrower “for you” to a more inclusivist, expansivist “for many” and “for the forgiveness of sins.”

Noun

expansivist (plural expansivists)

1. One with an expansivist attitude toward or definition of something.
   • 1989, William F. Grover, The President as Prisoner, page 8:

     Tracing their twentieth century origins back to Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, expansivists were energized by FDR's leadership.

   • 2012, Ken Booth, The Kosovo Tragedy: The Human Rights Dimensions, page 41:

     Widely labelled a genocide by politicians, journalists, and some genocide studies scholars, the judgment of these expansivists is called into question because Kosovar Albanians were in the main expelled from Serbia rather than liquidated.

   • 2015, Timothy P. Jackson, Political Agape: Christian Love and Liberal Democracy, page 126:

     In the extreme, expansivists assert that we should stop talking of “discovering truth” altogether.

   • 2020, Georg Brandes, William Banks, Human Rights and Oppressed Peoples:

     Ishay's work in general is laudable in that she is the most inclusive and comprehensive of the expansivists.