Epistocratic Paternalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-113
Author(s):  
David Estlund
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Taking Charge ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
Individual Self

Epistocracy—roughly, political rule by the wise—is similar to paternalism. In both cases, knowing better is not enough to justify taking charge. But also in both cases, the prohibition is unlikely to be absolute. If one person’s competence is low enough, and the other person would do enough better by taking over, then (simplifying) it is plausibly justified. Arguably it is partly on such grounds that children may be governed by others in ways that adults may not be. May political subjects likewise be ruled by those who know enough better? A right to collective self-rule is not enough by itself to answer this, any more than a right to individual self-rule tells us whether and when the competence disparity is enough to justify paternalism. This rough analogy exposes important issues in the project of defending a requirement of democracy as against epistocracy.

Reading Identity, Reading Essence: A Strategic Essentialist Approach to Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-101
Author(s):  
Saleha Ilhaam
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Strategic Essentialism ◽  
Reading Identity ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Self

The term strategic essentialism, coined by Spivak, is generally understood as “a political strategy whereby differences (within Group) are temporarily downplayed, and unity assumed for the sake of achieving political goals.” On the other hand, essentialism focuses that everything in this world has an intrinsic and immutable essence of its own. The adaption of a particular “nature” of one group of people by way of sexism, culturalization, and ethnification is strongly linked to the idea of essentialism. Mulk Raj Anand’s Bakha is dictated as an outcast by the institutionalized hierarchy of caste practice. He is essentialized as an untouchable by attributing to him the characteristic of dirt and filth. However, unlike other untouchables, Bakha can apprehend the difference between the cultured and uncultured, dirt and cleanliness. Via an analysis of Anand’s “Untouchable,” the present article aims to bring to the forefront the horrid destruction of the individual self that stems from misrepresentations of personality. Through strategic essentialism, it unravels Bakha’s contrasting nature as opposed to his pariah class, defied by his remarkable inner character and etiquette. The term condemns the essentialist categories of human existence. It has been applied to decontextualize and deconstruct the inaccurately essentialized identity of Bakha, which has made him a part of the group he does not actually belong to.

Between Race and Nation: Marcus Garvey and the Politics of Self-Determination

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Jagmohan
Keyword(s):  
White Supremacy ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Black Diaspora ◽  
Irish Nationalism ◽  
Independent State ◽  
Marcus Garvey ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
Argument Proceeds ◽  
The Right

This essay argues that Marcus Garvey held a constructivist theory of self-determination, one that saw nationalism and transnationalism as mutually necessary and reinforcing ideals. The argument proceeds in three steps. First it recovers Garvey’s transnationalist emphasis by looking at his intellectual debts to other diaspora struggles, namely political Zionism and Irish nationalism. Second it argues that Garvey held a constructivist view of national identity, which also grounds his argument that the black diaspora has a right to collective self-determination. Third it explicates Garvey’s further contention that the right to self-determination and the persistence of oppression give the African diaspora a pro tanto claim to an independent state, which he considered essential to vanquishing white supremacy and realizing collective self-rule.

Social Ethos and the Teaching of Politics in Post-1997 Hong Kong: A Teachers' Account

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 147-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Wai Wa Yuen
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
The Other ◽  
Public Examination ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
The One ◽  
Social Ethos

Government and Public Affairs (GPA), a political subject with public examinations, was founded in the mid-1980s. It was part of the attempt to prepare Hong Kong people for the development of representative government, which would be needed for self-rule after reunification with China in 1997. This article reports GPA teachers' perceptions of the prevailing social ethos after the change of sovereignty. The teachers explain how they will teach politics amidst an increasingly difficult social environment, marked by conservatism and promotion of nationalistic sentiment on the one hand and by political divisions and sensitivity towards political teaching on the other. The teachers' top priority becomes that of good public examination results and, partly because of this, a highly teacher-centred mode of teaching is commonly adopted. Teachers are aware of the risk of indoctrination in political teaching. However, this is only considered a problem relating to the government's attempt to influence people's minds and the teachers never think of themselves as possible indoctrinators. Besides, many of them believe that they should share their beliefs with students. Though the teachers in general support democracy, paradoxically, excessive commitment to the belief is found in some cases to bring forth pedagogies of an authoritative nature.

Ethical Autonomy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Swaine
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Limited Government ◽  
Reasonable Pluralism ◽  
Liberty Of Conscience ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
Moral Structure ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
Good Lives

This book examines the importance of personal autonomy for democratic citizenship and for good lives. It charts the evolution of autonomy and analyzes the proliferation of autonomy in free societies. The book pinpoints serious deficiencies in received ideals of autonomy for individual persons. It delivers an extended critique of personal autonomy, noting the excessive openness and lack of moral structure that personal autonomy provides. It elaborates an argument in favor of ethical autonomy, an alternative kind of autonomy that integrates individual self-rule with moral character. Ethical autonomy includes important restraints on an autonomous individual’s imagination, deliberation, and will. It supports central liberal commitments, it fits with reasonable pluralism, it enhances active and astute forms of democratic citizenship, and it is grounded in fundamental principles of liberty of conscience. This novel understanding enriches the values of freedom, toleration, respect, individual rights, limited government, and the rightful rule of law.

scholarly journals Individual Self, Relational Self, Collective Self: Hierarchical Ordering of the Tripartite Self

2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantine Sedikides ◽  
Lowell Gaertner ◽  
Erin M. O’Mara
Keyword(s):  
Relational Self ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Hierarchical Ordering ◽  
Individual Self

NELIDA FUCCARO, The Other Kurds: Yazidis in Colonial Iraq, Library of Modern Middle East Studies, vol. 14 (London: I. B. Tauris, 1999). Pp. 246. $55 cloth.

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-465
Author(s):  
SARAH SHIELDS
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
British Mandate ◽  
Mandatory Rule ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
National Identity Formation

The Other Kurds: Yazidis in Colonial Iraq offers an ambitious effort to reinterpret communal identities in Iraq during the British Mandate. Although this work focuses explicitly on Yazidis, Fuccaro engages the ongoing debate about the process of group identity formation in non-national states. In this monograph, Fuccaro argues that changing Yazidi communal identities are constructed within a broader context of government centralization, national identity formation, and British Mandatory rule. She shows that this context is crucial in understanding the reconstruction of Yazidi collective self-definitions.

Can Wars Be Fought Justly? The Necessity Condition Put to the Test

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Statman
Keyword(s):  
Jus In Bello ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
Widespread View

AbstractAccording to a widespread view, the same constraints that limit the use of otherwise immoral measures in individual self-defense apply to collective self-defense too. I try to show that this view has radical implications at the level of jus in bello, implications which have not been fully appreciated. In particular, if the necessity condition must be satisfied in all cases of killing in war, then most fighting would turn out to be unjust. One way to avoid this result is to adopt a contractualist view of killing in war, a view which interprets the necessity condition in a way that is more permissive with regard to killing combatants in war. At least in this respect, a contractualist view of killing in war has an advantage over other candidates in explaining how wars might be fought justly.

Decisions in Japan to use Military Force or Participate in Multinational Peacekeeping Operations

2019 ◽  
pp. 827-842
Author(s):  
Tadashi Mori
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Existential Crisis ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Article 9 ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Japanese Law ◽  
Individual Self

This chapter describes the law in Japan governing the country’s use of military force and participation in multinational peacekeeping operations. Although Article 9 of Japan’s post–World War II constitution seems to disallow the development of armed forces, the country has long maintained limited armed forces for purposes of self-defense. According to the Japanese government’s traditional constitutional interpretation, these forces can only be used when necessary to repel an armed attack on Japan. Under this interpretation, Japan can use armed force only for individual self-defense, not for collective self-defense or collective security. In addition, although Japanese law since the 1990s has allowed for some participation of Japanese forces in multinational peacekeeping operations, this allowance has been very limited. In 2015, however, Japan enacted two important statutes that broaden the government’s ability to use the country’s armed forces. One statute allows the country for the first time to exercise a right of collective self-defense, although the legislation only permits Japan to exercise this right for the purpose of ensuring its survival and protecting its people in situations that are called “existential crisis situations.” The other statute broadens the ability of Japanese forces to engage in various support activities in multinational peacekeeping operations. Because of Article 9 of the Constitution, however, Japan’s ability to use its military is still substantially more limited than for many other countries.

The Eighteenth-Century Debate

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.G.A. Pocock ◽  
Richard Whatmore
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Social Time ◽  
Humanist Tradition ◽  
The One ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
Republican Virtue

This chapter explores the reasons as to why the inherited complex of ideas concerning republican virtue and its place in social time was transmitted into the eighteenth century in the form so little changed and yet so radically challenged. It shows that the American Revolution and Constitution in some sense form the last act of the civic Renaissance, and that the ideas of the civic humanist tradition provide an important key to the paradoxes of modern tensions between individual self-awareness on the one hand and consciousness of society, property, and history on the other. The American founders occupied a “Machiavellian moment”—a crisis in the relations between personality and society, virtue and corruption—but at the same time stood at a moment in history when that problem was being either left behind or admitted insoluble.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document