Feminism, Fundamentalism, and Liberal Legitimacy

1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Exdell
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Private Institution ◽  
Male Privilege ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

In recent years feminist philosophers have criticized mainstream liberal theory for ignoring issues of justice within the gender structured family and for failing to see how male privilege in this sphere works to deny women equality in economic and political life. Some argue that the source of this failure is liberalism's commitment to the distinction between domestic and public life, and the idea that the family is inherently a private institution to which standards of justice do not apply. In Political Liberalism Rawls briefly acknowledges these concerns, andreassures his readers that within his theoretical framework 'the alleged difficulties in discussing problems of gender and the family can be overcome. To satisfy these critics Rawls would have to respond to Susan Okin's Justice, Gender, and the Family, which carefully examines both the shortcomings and feminist potential of his earlier writings. In Political Liberalism he does not. After his passing remark in the book's introduction, Rawls has nothing more to say on the subject. He assumes 'that in some form the family is just,' and focuses on the traditional issues of liberal political theory in the hope that this approach will 'at least provide guidelines for addressing further questions' (ibid.).

Filmer, Sir Robert (1588–1653)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann P. Sommerville
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Limited Government ◽  
The People ◽  
The Family ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

Filmer was one of the most important political thinkers in seventeenth-century England, and the author of Patriarcha. Locke replied to this and other works by Filmer in the Two Treatises of Government – perhaps the most famous of all works of liberal political theory. Filmer argued that notions of mixed or limited government were false and pernicious, and that the powers of all legitimate rulers were derived not from the people but directly from God, to whom alone rulers were accountable. Filmer’s contemporaries commonly held that the authority of a father and husband over his family stemmed not from the consent of his wife and children but from the natural and divinely appointed order of things. Filmer harnessed such ideas to the cause of royal absolutism by arguing that the state and the family were essentially the same institution.

Desperately Seeking Democracy: Unreflexive Liberalism and the ‘Privacy Bias’ in Journalism Ethics

2005 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Right To Know ◽  
Privacy Rights ◽  
Public Accountability ◽  
Journalism Ethics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Traditions ◽  
Weak Notion ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

Because journalism ethics draw deeply, and perhaps unreflexively, on liberal political traditions, there is a lot of confusion about what public accountability entails. When interpreted from the standpoint of liberal theory, the perception of the need for public accountability is generally framed by a simplistic opposition between the public's right to know and the individual's right to privacy. Central to the liberal framing of the accountability is a weak notion of ‘publicity’ anchored in notions of representation and revelation. Furthermore, there is also a strong tradition within liberal theory to treat ethics as a matter of private concern, rather than something that can be publicly resolved. For these reasons, the balance of democratic consideration always seems to sit more comfortably with privacy rights than it does with considerations of accountability to the public. This paper explores some of these dilemmas surrounding journalism ethics and public accountability by examining their theoretical underpinnings in liberal political theory and comparing them with a model of public accountability grounded in publicity construed as public participation.

Relational Rights and Responsibilities: Revisioning the Family in Liberal Political Theory and Law

Hypatia ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Minow ◽  
Mary Lyndon Shanley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Adequate Account ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The Family ◽  
Contemporary United States ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

This article discusses three main orientations in recent works of legal and political theory about the family—contract-based, community-based, and rights-based—and argues that none of these takes adequate account of two paradoxical features of family life and of the family's relationship to the state. A coherent political and legal theory of the family in the contemporary United States requires recognition of the relational rights and responsibilities intrinsic to family life.

Liberalism and Liberty: the Fragility of a Tradition

1988 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 207-223
Author(s):  
Keith Graham
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Liberal Political Theory ◽  
The Way

My discussion in this lecture is structured as follows. In section 1 I consider the nature of philosophical enquiry and its affinity to liberalism. In section 2 I lay out some of the basic components of liberal theory and explore their interrelations. In section 3 I discuss two challenges to liberalism: one concerning the conception of liberty which it involves and one concerning the way in which it introduces the idea of legitimate political authority. In section 4 I suggest that these problems, to do with the values of liberalism, arise on the basis of a prior conception of individuals which is in need of modification. In a brief concluding section 5 I indicate the need for a post-liberal political theory.

scholarly journals Indvandring, offentlig mening og politisk teori

Politik ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian F Rostbøll
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Sharp Contrast ◽  
The Other ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Open Borders ◽  
The One ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

Regarding issues of immigration, there is a sharp contrast between Danish public opinion and public policy on the one hand and liberal political theory on the other hand. This article analyzes whether it is a problem for liberal theory that argues for more open borders to be so far removed from public opinion and vice versa. Considering issues of realism, epistemology, and democracy it is discussed how directly policy-related political theory ought to be. 

Visions of Community in the Writings of John Locke

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quia  Mou
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Procedural Rights ◽  
Michael Sandel ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

Liberal political theory is often accused of hindering the development of communities because it encourages people to be individualistic. As one of its founding fathers, critiques of liberalism date back to  the writings of John Locke in the seventeenth century. This research project looks at the writings of Locke within their historical context. In examining Locke’s views on religious toleration, social policy and  economics, this project proposes to show how Locke envisioned a particular form of community. This study also incorporates contemporary debates on liberalism. Specifically, it addresses communitarian  critiques put forth by Michael Sandel and Charles Taylor, and invokes liberal defences, articulated by Will Kymlicka and Alan Buchannan. It proposes that many of today’s defences of liberal political theory can be applied to the writings of John Locke to support and sustain the development of communities within his own time. A second claim against liberal theory is that it favours particular communities instead of  granting fair procedural rights to all communities. To test this objection, this project will also look at the biases from Locke’s religious, political and social backgrounds and how they impacted his beliefs.

On Macpherson's Developmental Liberalism

1982 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian H. Angus
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Institutional Support ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Rigorous Analysis ◽  
Liberal Tradition ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Liberal Individualism ◽  
Conceptual Foundations ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

The work of C. B. Macpherson is extremely significant for those seeking to understand the cul-de-sac which liberal political theory and institutions have entered. Considering the experience of socialist societies in this century, the necessity for a nonmarket political theory to retain a positive connection to Western liberal values should be beyond dispute. Any postmarket society requires, not pious reassurances, but institutional support for individual rights that are the most vehemently defended in the liberal tradition. But of course this is not enough. Contemporary society is already undermining liberal individualism through massive organizations and manipulated consumption. The inability of liberal theory to analyze effectively and propose alternatives to the contemporary decline of the individual suggests that the cul-de-sac is rooted in the conceptual foundations of liberalism itself. Macpherson's rigorous analysis of the market assumptions of liberal theory pinpoints this conceptual inadequacy and attempts to maintain a commitment to liberal values in a postmarket society.

Aristotle on the Conditions for and Limits of the Common Good

1999 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 625-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Political Relationships ◽  
External Goods ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
The Common ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

Contemporary debates over liberal political theory should encourage renewed investigation of the common good, and it is appropriate to begin by interrogating Aristotle's account. Aristotle argues that injustice stands in the way of the common good. Injustice is motivated by both overgrasping for scarce external goods, such as money, honor, and power, and by excessive desires. Aristotle argues that the common good requires a reorientation away from external goods to satisfying activities that do not diminish in the sharing. He sketches an analogical account of familial and political relationships that leads us to wonder what the political conditions are for the common good. Reflecting on these conditions not only points to the strict limits of the common good but also speaks to both sides in debates over liberal theory.

Virtue and the Making of Modern Liberalism. By Peter Berkowitz. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. 235p. $27.95.

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-202
Author(s):  
Kenneth L. Grasso
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Limited Government ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Operation And Maintenance ◽  
The Family ◽  
Liberal Societies ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

"For quite a while," Peter Berkowitz notes, "leading aca- demic liberals and their best-known critics formed an unwit- ting alliance, promulgating the view that liberal political theory" ignores the whole subject of virtue and cultivation (p. 170). If that view is correct, this neglect not only would spawn "fatal theoretical lacunae" (p. 4) but also would raise serious doubts about liberalism's capacity to sustain the "qualities of mind and character" (p. 172) required for "the operation and maintenance" of "free and democratic institutions" (p. 6). In recent years, however, a new generation of liberals have challenged this widely held view. Thinkers such as William Galston and Stephen Macedo acknowledge that liberal re- gimes depend "upon a specific set of virtues," which "they do not automatically produce" (pp. 27­8). Their work points toward the "dependence" of liberal societies on "extraliberal and nongovernmental sources of virtue" (p. 28), such as "the family, religion and the array of associations in civil society" (p. 6). Simultaneously, they insist that "limited government is not the same as neutral government" (p. 173), and they affirm "that the liberal state, within bounds, ought to pursue liberal purposes" and, thus, "may, within limits, foster virtues" that serve these purposes (p. xii).

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