Populism, localism and democratic citizenship

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-476
Author(s):  
Stephen Macedo
Keyword(s):  
John Rawls ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
The Sun ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
American Constitution ◽  
Special Obligations ◽  
Local Practices ◽  
Social Bases

This article articulates and explores a localist conception of citizenship that stands in contrast to more liberal, neoliberal and cosmopolitan conceptions. A localist orientation, and some real sympathy, is evident in specifically ethnographic accounts of voters who supported Trump, Brexit and populism more broadly, including such accounts by Arlie Hochschild, Robert Wuthnow, Kathy Cramer and Justin Gest. This localist orientation echoes the Antifederalist opponents of the American Constitution, Jacksonian Democrats, Tocqueville’s account of American democracy and the American populists. I consider both the virtues and vices of localism. The possible benefits include local practices of nested reciprocity, special obligations, specifically local ‘social bases of selfrespect’ – in the terminology of John Rawls – and feelings of belonging and home (what the Germans call Heimat). However, localism also has its downsides: its resources can empower prejudice and exclusion. I end with a reflection on localism and exclusion in Lorraine Hasberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.

Two Concepts of Fairness

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Tomasi
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Economic Freedom ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Justice As Fairness ◽  
Classical Liberal ◽  
The Difference

This chapter considers two concepts of fairness, starting the discussion by focusing on market democracy's thick conception of economic freedom in relation to social justice. Market democracy breaks with traditional classical liberal and libertarian traditions in founding politics on a deliberative ideal of democratic citizenship, even as it makes room for a variety of rival conceptions of the nature of public reason. The chapter offers a market democratic interpretation of John Rawls' notion of justice as fairness. It also examines what free market fairness says about a society in which citizens are experiencing the blessings of liberal justice, along with its alternative perspective to social democracy's emphasis on instilling in the citizenry a sense of democratic solidarity. Finally, it compares the interpretations of social democracy and free market fairness regarding justice as fairness and the difference principle, respectively.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
J. Benjamin Hurlbut
Keyword(s):  
John Rawls ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Embryo Research ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scientific Authority ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Human Embryo Research

The introduction introduces the topic and central argument of the book: that at the heart of the human embryo research debates was the question of how the public should reason together about a domain of science and technology that touches upon the most fundamental dimensions of human life. It introduces the methodological approach and coproductionist theoretical framework of the study. It introduces the idea of the “constitutional position of science” in American democracy, and illustrates the unacknowledged but constitutional position of scientific authority in John Rawls' idea of public reason.

Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lauren Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Human Identity ◽  
Social Bases

Self-respect is central to many liberal accounts of social justice, as it is necessary for individuals to effectively pursue their plans of life. In particular, extant work on self-respect has focused on its social bases—that is, how social norms can shape the opportunities people have for developing and maintaining a sense of self-respect. However, much of this work overlooks the role information technology plays in such social processes. Given its pervasiveness—from search engines to automated facial and body scanners—and impact on people’s lives, scholars ought to pay closer attention to the ways human identity and dignity are not only socially, but also sociotechnically informed. To that end, this chapter recovers and expands on John Rawls’ “social bases of self-respect” to introduce the idea of the “sociotechnical bases of self-respect” to better account for the place of information technology in shaping possibilities for the development of individuals’ dignity.

The Theoretical Foundations for Health Care as a Social Right of Citizenship

2017 ◽  
pp. 60-103
Author(s):  
Gunnar Almgren
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
Justice As Fairness ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Fairness Theory ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Universal Health

This chapter provides readers with a concise explanation of the two works, that in synthesis with each other, provide the theoretical framework for the book’s central arguments pertaining to ends to be realized in radical health care reform: TH Marshall’s Theory of Citizenship and the Welfare State and John Rawls’ “Justice as Fairness” Theory of Justice. After acquainting the reader with the major concepts considered in this chapter (such as democratic society, citizenship, health, health care and universal health care), and then the more conventional justifications for a universal right to health care, the chapter turns to the justifications for particular social rights that are advanced by both Marshall and Rawls in accordance with the requirements of democratic citizenship –ending with the particular justifications for health care as a social right of citizenship.

Thomas Hooker—Puritanism and Democratic Citizenship

1963 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sydney E. Ahlstrom
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New England ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact ◽  
George Bancroft

In a special advertising supplement to the New York Times (May 6, 1962) the State of Connecticut sponsored an old claim: “The world's first written constitution, creating government by consent of the governed, appeared in Connecticut in 1639.” The diverse implications of this venerable assertion and their relation to the Rev. Thomas Hooker are the subject of the present essay. Intimations that Hooker deserved remembrance as a champion of liberty date at least to William Hubbard's General History of New England, written in the 1670's. But full-blown theories came after 1776, and especially after Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull's discovery in 1860 of a remarkable notebook of sermon notes taken down in cipher between April, 1638, and April, 1641, by Henry Wolcott, Jr. of Windsor. Herein was found an outline of Hooker's now famous sermon to the Connecticut Court on May 31, 1638, as that body began its historic deliberations on a “Frame of Government.” George Bancroft would reflect the impact of this find in the revised edition of his widely read History of the United States. He saw in Hooker's pronouncements the “seed” whence flowered the “first of the series of written American constitutions.” Paraphrasing Ezekiel Roger's epitaph, Bancroft refers to Hooker as “the one rich pearl with which Europe more than repaid America for the treasures from her coast.” John Fiske in his work on The Beginnings of New England (1889) would claim even more stridently that Thomas Hooker “deserves more than any other man to be called the father [of American democracy].” George Leon Walker accepted Fiske's judgment and subtitled his biography “Preacher, Founder, Democrat.”

Rawls's “Political” Philosophy and American Democracy

1993 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Klosko
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Political System ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Overlapping Consensus ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Liberal Societies ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
Liberal Culture

John Rawls has recently argued that political philosophy can significantly contribute to making democratic societies stable. He seeks moral principles that can ground what he calls an overlapping consensus and argues that his well-known principles of justice can serve in this capacity. I criticize both Rawls's general claims about the role of political philosophy and his particular defense of the principles of justice. Both arguments commit Rawls to specific empirical claims about existing liberal societies that are highly questionable. In particular, the Kantian moral views that Rawls believes to be central to liberal culture are controverted by extensive empirical research on the actual beliefs of liberal citizens. Despite the problems with Rawls's arguments, I suggest that a rather different overlapping consensus appears to contribute to stable democracies. This centers on support of the political system rather than more substantive moral principles.

Chromospheric activity as a function of age in main-sequence stars

1966 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 40-43
Author(s):  
O. C. Wilson ◽  
A. Skumanich
Keyword(s):  
Main Sequence ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Main Sequence Stars ◽  
Tentative Conclusion ◽  
Chromospheric Activity ◽  
General Field ◽  
Large Clusters

Evidence previously presented by one of the authors (1) suggests strongly that chromospheric activity decreases with age in main sequence stars. This tentative conclusion rests principally upon a comparison of the members of large clusters (Hyades, Praesepe, Pleiades) with non-cluster objects in the general field, including the Sun. It is at least conceivable, however, that cluster and non-cluster stars might differ in some fundamental fashion which could influence the degree of chromospheric activity, and that the observed differences in chromospheric activity would then be attributable to the circumstances of stellar origin rather than to age.

Galactic orbits of stars

1966 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 93-97
Author(s):  
Richard Woolley
Keyword(s):  
Globular Cluster ◽  
Potential Field ◽  
High Velocity ◽  
Velocity Vector ◽  
Variable Stars ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Proper Motions ◽  
Rr Lyrae ◽  
The Galaxy

It is now possible to determine proper motions of high-velocity objects in such a way as to obtain with some accuracy the velocity vector relevant to the Sun. If a potential field of the Galaxy is assumed, one can compute an actual orbit. A determination of the velocity of the globular clusterωCentauri has recently been completed at Greenwich, and it is found that the orbit is strongly retrograde in the Galaxy. Similar calculations may be made, though with less certainty, in the case of RR Lyrae variable stars.

Seti Space Missions

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 761-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Maccone
Keyword(s):  
Electromagnetic Waves ◽  
Space Missions ◽  
Gravitational Lens ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Space Antenna ◽  
Focal Distance ◽  
Large Space ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Space Antennas ◽  
New Space

AbstractSETI from space is currently envisaged in three ways: i) by large space antennas orbiting the Earth that could be used for both VLBI and SETI (VSOP and RadioAstron missions), ii) by a radiotelescope inside the Saha far side Moon crater and an Earth-link antenna on the Mare Smythii near side plain. Such SETIMOON mission would require no astronaut work since a Tether, deployed in Moon orbit until the two antennas landed softly, would also be the cable connecting them. Alternatively, a data relay satellite orbiting the Earth-Moon Lagrangian pointL2would avoid the Earthlink antenna, iii) by a large space antenna put at the foci of the Sun gravitational lens: 1) for electromagnetic waves, the minimal focal distance is 550 Astronomical Units (AU) or 14 times beyond Pluto. One could use the huge radio magnifications of sources aligned to the Sun and spacecraft; 2) for gravitational waves and neutrinos, the focus lies between 22.45 and 29.59 AU (Uranus and Neptune orbits), with a flight time of less than 30 years. Two new space missions, of SETI interest if ET’s use neutrinos for communications, are proposed.

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