The Strains of Commitment

The Strains of Commitment
Author: Keith G. Banting
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 0198795459

Building and sustaining solidarity is a compelling challenge, especially in ethnically and religiously diverse societies. Recent research has concentrated on forces that trigger backlash and exclusion. The Strains of Commitment examines the politics of diversity in the opposite direction, exploring the potential sources of support for an inclusive solidarity, in particular political sources of solidarity. The volume asks three questions: Is solidarity really necessary for successful modern societies? Is diversity really a threat to solidarity? And what types of political communities, political agents, and political institutions and policies help sustain solidarity in contexts of diversity? To answer these questions, the volume brings together leading scholars in both normative political theory and empirical social science. Drawing on in-depth case studies, historical and comparative research, and quantitative cross-national studies, the research suggests that solidarity does not emerge spontaneously or naturally from economic and social processes but is inherently built or eroded though political action. The politics that builds inclusive solidarity may be conflicting in the first instance, but the resulting solidarity is sustained over time when it becomes incorporated into collective (typically national) identities and narratives, when it is reinforced on a recurring basis by political agents, and - most importantly - when it becomes embedded in political institutions and policy regimes. While some of the traditional political sources of solidarity are being challenged or weakened in an era of increased globalization and mobility, the authors explore the potential for new political narratives, coalitions, and policy regimes to sustain inclusive solidarity.

The Original Position

The Original Position
Author: Timothy Hinton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2015-12-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1107044480

This volume explores and analyses the continued relevance and ramifications of the original position, the central idea of John Rawls's political philosophy.

The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon

The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon
Author: Jon Mandle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1112
Release: 2014-12-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1316193985

John Rawls is widely regarded as one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, and his work has permanently shaped the nature and terms of moral and political philosophy, deploying a robust and specialized vocabulary that reaches beyond philosophy to political science, economics, sociology, and law. This volume is a complete and accessible guide to Rawls' vocabulary, with over 200 alphabetical encyclopaedic entries written by the world's leading Rawls scholars. From 'basic structure' to 'burdened society', from 'Sidgwick' to 'strains of commitment', and from 'Nash point' to 'natural duties', the volume covers the entirety of Rawls' central ideas and terminology, with illuminating detail and careful cross-referencing. It will be an essential resource for students and scholars of Rawls, as well as for other readers in political philosophy, ethics, political science, sociology, international relations and law.

John Rawls: Reticent Socialist

John Rawls: Reticent Socialist
Author: William A. Edmundson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2017-07-10
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1107173191

The first detailed reconstruction of the late work of John Rawls, further developing his ideas of 'justice-as-fairness'.

Realizing Rawls

Realizing Rawls
Author: Thomas Pogge
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 1989
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780801496851

Religious Conviction in Liberal Politics

Religious Conviction in Liberal Politics
Author: Christopher J. Eberle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2002-05-02
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780521011556

A controversial defense of religious convictions in political activities.

Rawls's Egalitarianism

Rawls's Egalitarianism
Author: Alexander Kaufman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2018-06-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1316998533

This is a new interpretation and analysis of John Rawls's leading theory of distributive justice, which also considers the responding egalitarian theories of scholars such as Richard Arneson, G. A. Cohen, Ronald Dworkin, Martha Nussbaum, John Roemer, and Amartya Sen. Rawls's theory, Kaufman argues, sets out a normative ideal of justice that incorporates an account of the structure and character of relations that are appropriate for members of society viewed as free and equal moral beings. Forging an approach distinct amongst contemporary theories of equality, Rawls offers an alternative to egalitarian justice methodologies that aim primarily to compensate victims for undeserved bad luck. For Rawls, the values that ground the most plausible account of egalitarianism are real equality of economic opportunity combined with the guarantee of a fair distribution of social goods. Kaufman's analysis will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of political theory and political philosophy, particularly those working on justice, and on the work of John Rawls.

Theory of Collective Behaviour

Theory of Collective Behaviour
Author: Neil J. Smelser
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 444
Release: 2013-10-15
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1136277978

This is Volume XVII of eighteen of a series on the Sociology of Behaviour and Psychology. First published in 1962, this study offers a theoretical synthesis of collective behavior.

Just and Unjust Warriors

Just and Unjust Warriors
Author: David Rodin
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2010-08-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0191615625

Can a soldier be held responsible for fighting in a war that is illegal or unjust? This is the question at the heart of a new debate that has the potential to profoundly change our understanding of the moral and legal status of warriors, wars, and indeed of moral agency itself. The debate pits a widely shared and legally entrenched principle of war - that combatants have equal rights and equal responsibilities irrespective of whether they are fighting in a war that just or unjust - against a set of striking new arguments. These arguments challenge the idea that there is a separation between the rules governing the justice of going to war (the jus ad bellum) and the rules governing what combatants can do in war (the jus in bello). If ad bellum and in bello rules are connected in the way these new arguments suggest, then many aspects of just war theory and laws of war would have to be rethought and perhaps reformed. This book contains eleven original and closely argued essays by leading figures in the ethics and laws of war and provides an authoritative treatment of this important new debate. The essays both challenge and defend many deeply held convictions: about the liability of soldiers for crimes of aggression, about the nature and justifiability of terrorism, about the relationship between law and morality, the relationship between soldiers and states, and the relationship between the ethics of war and the ethics of ordinary life. This book is a project of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War.

A Perfectionist Theory of Justice

A Perfectionist Theory of Justice
Author: Collis Tahzib
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2022-07-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192662759

Many liberal political philosophers hold that the state should not impose or even promote any particular conception of the good life or human flourishing. It should not, for instance, enact laws and policies designed to elevate citizens' tastes, to refine their sensibilities or to perfect their characters. Instead, the state should restrict itself to maintaining a fair framework of rights and opportunities within which all citizens can pursue their own beliefs about what constitutes a good life. Against this backdrop, Collis Tahzib develops a version of perfectionist political philosophy. Whereas previous perfectionists have argued that the promotion of flourishing ways of life is permissible or legitimate, Tahzib casts perfectionism as a doctrine of justice. On this view, the implementation of laws and policies designed to promote sound ideals of the good life—ideals such as moral, intellectual and artistic excellence—is not merely a legitimate complement to justice but an essential constituent of justice. Over the years, perfectionism has faced various objections: that it is premised on values and judgements that are controversial within modern pluralistic societies; that it is unduly restrictive of freedom or autonomy; that it treats citizens as if they are children, unable to run their own lives; that it expresses the meddlesome mentality of a village busybody; that it mistakenly assumes that there are objective truths about human flourishing; and that it risks the abuse of power by incompetent, overzealous or corrupt state officials. These ideas represent some of the deepest, most vibrant and most powerful strains in liberal thought. In defending perfectionism against these charges, the arguments in A Perfectionist Theory of Justice make a novel and important contribution to longstanding debates about the philosophical foundations of liberalism.