14. Power

This chapter examines the roles that the concept of power play in the understanding of politics as well as the different modes of power. Recent political theory has seen a variety of views of power proposed, and these views have significantly different implications for conceptualizing the scope and form of political activity. Two main views concerning power are the locus of contemporary debate. The first, ‘agency-centred’ view, emerges in the Anglo-American debate that follows discussions of community power in American democracy. The second, ‘non-agency-centred’ view, emerges from the post-structuralist work of Michel Foucault. At stake, in the debate between them, are how we distinguish between injustice and misfortune, as well as how we approach the issues of freedom and responsibility. The chapter explores this debate and presents a case study on racialized inequality in America, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Foucault and Steven Lukes.

4. Democracy

This chapter examines various conceptions of the normative grounds of democracy. After some preliminaries, it discusses considerations that favour and disfavour democracy from the perspective of instrumentalism. It then reviews some arguments for the intrinsic value of democracy and goes on to analyse one of the most fundamental challenges that a theory of democracy must face: the problem of citizenship. It also explains some of the institutional prerequisites of democratic institutions if they are to meet the challenge of citizenship. Finally, it presents a case study on deliberative polling as a way of realizing democratic ideals, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph Schumpeter, Robert Dahl, James Buchanan, and Gordon Tullock.

2. Liberty

This chapter examines the normative dimensions of liberty by relating the descriptive concept to normative theories of civil and political liberty, as well as security, defended by key thinkers in historical and contemporary debates. Purely descriptive concepts of liberty must be distinguished from normative concepts. Thomas Hobbes offered a valid descriptive concept of liberty as doing as one wishes. For John Stuart Mill, civil liberty or security must always include a basic right to do whatever one wishes, in relation to a natural domain of ‘purely self-regarding’ conduct. This chapter first considers the link between liberty and rights before discussing negative and positive liberty, civil liberty and political liberty, and the interrelationships among justice, security, and liberty. It concludes with an analysis of the right to absolute self-regarding liberty. A case study concerning the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and the war on terror is presented.

11. Environment

This chapter examines the role of the environment in the history of political theory. The philosophy of nature is an ancient subject. From the pre-Socratics to the present, philosophers have sketched diverse pictures of nature and held various views about nature's relationships to human flourishing. For Aristotle, nature and goodness were closely allied. For Thomas Hobbes, the state of nature was something to be overcome, but the laws of nature directed us how to do it. Jean-Jacques Rousseau idealized the state of nature and thought that it was required for human flourishing. The chapter first considers the doom and gloom that pervaded academic writing about the environment in the late 1960s and early 1970s before discussing themes such as democracy and environmental crisis, global environmental change, climate change, environmentalism, liberalism, and justice. A case study on managing climate change is presented, along with a Key Thinkers box featuring Anil Agarwal.

10. War and intervention

This chapter examines the main theoretical approaches to war and the circumstances under which it is permissible to wage war. War is one of the most morally difficult, and morally pressing, aspects of human existence. It nearly always involves killing and maiming on a vast scale. Despite its destructive nature, and despite the rise of rights talk on the international stage and the spread of democracy across large parts of the world, war persists. The chapter first considers the just war tradition and alternatives to just war theory before discussing two theoretical approaches to the ethics of war: collectivism and individualism. It also explores three principles that govern the fighting of war: jus ad bellum, jus in bello, and jus post bellum. A case study on Afghanistan and the ‘war on terror’ is presented, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Michael Walzer and Jeff McMahan.

Introduction

This edition examines the most important, visible, and influential strands in political theory over the last fifteen years. It considers problems of political obligation, liberty, the limits of toleration, the nature of democracy, requirements of equality and social justice, the concept of crime and approaches to punishment, and the promise and problems of multiculturalism. It also explores problems that cross state borders, and in some cases call into question the moral legitimacy of those borders. Through exploration of ‘just war theory’, the text analyses the moral principles governing inevitable armed conflicts between states. Finally, it discusses approaches to features of the human condition that theories addressing intra- and inter-state relations must be sensitive to. This introduction explains what political theory is and emphasizes the difference that good arguments in political theory might make to the real world. It also provides an overview of the plan of this text.

13. Generations

This chapter examines questions of generations and intergenerational justice. It first considers the notion of generational sovereignty and what is required for a democracy to take the interests of future generations into account. It then explores whether meaningful accounts can be provided of the idea of responsibility for our ancestors' deeds, or whether we have obligations to future generations, and if so, how they can be accounted for. It also asks whether ‘age’ should be seen as a distinct focus point for theories of intergenerational justice and what differentiates it from, for example, gender or ‘race’. A case study on intergenerationally fair pensions is presented, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Thomas Jefferson and Derek Parfit.

8. Human rights

This chapter examines issues arising from analyses and critiques of human rights, including the nature and significance of rights in general, and the functions of human rights. It considers the philosophical and practical justifications for believing (or not believing) in human rights, different theories concerning how we might determine the content and scope of human rights, and how human rights should be implemented. Key themes discussed in this chapter include natural rights and the rights of man. A case study on torture and counter-terrorism is presented, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring John Locke and Immanuel Kant. The chapter suggests that normative political theorists should promote a vision of human rights that relies primarily on political participation, progressive human rights legislation, and morally informed international diplomacy, rather than the transfer of political power from governments to courts.

7. Multiculturalism

This chapter examines debates about multiculturalism in political theory. In the 1990s, some argued that it was impossible not to be in favour of multiculturalism. However, recent events, such as the bomb attack at Burgas airport in Bulgaria and the shootings by a lone gunman in France (both occurred in 2012), have led some to fear that supporting cultural diversity undermines a strong national identity. These critics have called vigorously for assimilation, as opposed to multicultural thinkers who prefer the notion of integration. This chapter considers themes such as thick and thin multiculturalism, cultural rights, multiculturalism and oppression, and the politics of recognition. A case study on the Muslim veil is presented, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Yael Tamir, Will Kymlicka, Charles Taylor, and Bhikhu Parekh.

5. Equality and social justice

This chapter explores the relationship between equality and social justice. The demands of social justice are not always clear. One question that needs to be addressed is whether social justice condemns all inequalities, or whether it is primarily concerned with the provision of equal opportunity or the elimination of extreme poverty. The chapter first provides a historical background on social justice before discussing the political rejection of social justice and its revival. It then considers equality of opportunity, social justice and social relations, and concludes by reflecting on prospects for achieving social justice. A case study on social justice and disability is presented, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Friedrich von Hayek, Brian Barry, Richard Henry Tawney, and Iris Marion Young.