On the People's Terms: A Republican Theory and Model of Democracy (The Seeley Lectures)

According to republican theory, we are free persons to the extent that we are protected and secured in the same fundamental choices, on the same public basis, as one another. But there is no public protection or security without a coercive state. Does this mean that any freedom we enjoy is a superficial good that presupposes a deeper, political form of subjection? Philip Pettit addresses this crucial question in On the People's Terms. He argues that state coercion will not involve individual subjection or domination insofar as we enjoy an equally shared form of control over those in power. This claim may seem utopian but it is supported by a realistic model of the institutions that might establish such democratic control. Beginning with a fresh articulation of republican ideas, Pettit develops a highly original account of the rationale of democracy, breathing new life into democratic theory. The Human Is A Central Reference Point For Human Rights. But Who Or What Is That Human? And Given Its Long History Of Exclusiveness, When So Many Of Those Now Recognised As Human Were Denied The Name, How Much Confidence Can We Attach To The Term? This Book Works Towards A Sense Of The Human That Does Without Substantive Accounts Of 'humanity' While Also Avoiding Their Opposite - The Contentless Versions That Deny Important Differences Such As Race, Gender And Sexuality. Drawing Inspiration From Hannah Arendt's Anti-foundationalism, Phillips Rejects The Idea Of 'humanness' As Grounded In Essential Characteristics We Can Be Shown To Share. She Stresses Instead The Human As Claim And Commitment, As Enactment And Politics Of Equality. In Doing So, She Engages With A Range Of Contemporary Debates On Human Dignity, Humanism, And Post-humanism, And Argues That None Of These Is Necessary To A Strong Politics Of The Human -- From The Publisher. The Politics Of The Human -- Humans, With Content And Without -- On Not Justifying Equality : Rorty And Arendt -- Dignity And Equality -- Humanism And Posthumanism. Anne Phillips. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "According to republican political theory, choosing freely requires being able to make the choice without subjection to another and freedom as a person requires being publicly protected against subjection in the exercise of basic liberties. But there is no public protection without a coercive state. And doesn't state coercion necessarily take from the freedom of the coerced? Philip Pettit addresses this question from a civic republican perspective, arguing that state interference does not involve subjection or domination if there is equally shared, popular control over government"-- Provided by publisher Drawing on the work of historians like Quentin Skinner, neo-republican theory offers a new perspective on the theory of justice and democracy. This is the first extended statement of a republican theory of democracy. It gives a fresh account of the rationale of democracy and the institutions that democracy requires. Machine generated contents note: Introduction: the republic, old and new; 1. Freedom as non-domination; 2. Social justice; 3. Political legitimacy; 4. Democratic influence; 5. Democratic control; Conclusion: the argument, in summary.