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Introduction: Walking the Tightrope

Andrew Kuper

in Democracy Beyond Borders: Justice and Representation in Global Institutions

In the face of globalization, an international political system based on states is unable to meet daunting political challenges that confront our world. Is it possible to develop a global order that ... More

In the face of globalization, an international political system based on states is unable to meet daunting political challenges that confront our world. Is it possible to develop a global order that would enable more justifiable and effective rule for the world’s people? In particular, can the principles and practices of justice and representative democracy be extended, to answer this challenge, beyond the state contexts for which they were devised? This book argues that we should end our dubious romance with the nation-state in favour of a multi-form global system called Responsive Democracy. To this end, the book presents core components of (a) a theory of global justice that arises out of a critique of the influential political philosophy of John Rawls; (b) a theory of democratic representation that constitutes an alternative to the approach taken by Jurgen Habermas and his deliberative democratic followers; and (c) a theory of how political and moral ideals that are necessarily framed in abstract terms can help orient practice in messy, non-ideal conditions. Together, these three currents of this text form a novel approach to global justice and democracy. The concrete implications of this approach to constitutionalism, institutional design, and politics will be explored for four leading global institutions.Less

Conclusion: Responsive Democracy

Andrew Kuper

in Democracy Beyond Borders: Justice and Representation in Global Institutions

The conclusion compares the theories of global justice and democracy developed by Rawls, Habermas, and Kuper. It does so along ten dimensions: (1) Sources of Normativity, (2) Moral Scope, (3) ... More

The conclusion compares the theories of global justice and democracy developed by Rawls, Habermas, and Kuper. It does so along ten dimensions: (1) Sources of Normativity, (2) Moral Scope, (3) Political Scope, (4) Spheres of Governance, (5) Political Interests, (6) Constraints on Governance, (7) Political Judgement, (8) Political Discretion, (9) Political Participation, and (10) Sites of Governance. The chapter argues that Kuper’s theory of Responsive Democracy has advantages along all these axes. These advantages are due to, above all, deep differences in the three theorists’ assumptions about power, knowledge, and the role of ideals in politics.Less

The place of parties

Robert E. Goodin

in Innovating Democracy: Democratic Theory and Practice After the Deliberative Turn

This chapter develops a principled role for political parties. What would be lacking in a polity that is perfectly democratic but that has no parties? The answer is: the politics of ideas, ... More

This chapter develops a principled role for political parties. What would be lacking in a polity that is perfectly democratic but that has no parties? The answer is: the politics of ideas, systematically pursued. Democracy requires that a community is collectively self-legislating; a ‘ratio’ is required to have truly ‘given a law to yourself’, and to be ‘self-legislating’ in that sense; and collective ‘ratio’ is necessarily absent from the uncoordinated votes of independent actors in a No-Party Democracy. The ‘giving law to ourselves’ requirement, further unpacked, suggests a need for at least (and perhaps at most) two parties, and further imposes a requirement that they be ‘ideationally unified’ rather than catch-all parties.Less

Political Legitimacy 1

Allen Buchanan

in Justice, Legitimacy, and Self-Determination: Moral Foundations for International Law

This second part of the book turns to an examination of the conditions under which it is morally justifiable to exercise political power to enforce international law in the pursuit of justice. Ch. 5 ... More

This second part of the book turns to an examination of the conditions under which it is morally justifiable to exercise political power to enforce international law in the pursuit of justice. Ch. 5 develops a justice‐based conception of political legitimacy, where “political legitimacy” is defined as follows: An entity has political legitimacy if and only if it is morally justified in exercising political power, where the exercise of political power may, in turn, be defined as the (credible) attempt to achieve supremacy in the making, application, and enforcement of laws within a jurisdiction. It is argued that an entity that exercises political power is morally justified in doing so only if it meets a minimal standard of justice, understood as the protection of basic human rights. The conception of political legitimacy offered is meant to be perfectly general, and applies to any entity that wields political power, whether at the state, regional, or international level; it is used again in Chs 6–8. The eight sections of the chapter are: I. Political Legitimacy and the Morality of Political Power; The Irrelevance of the Idea that We Owe Compliance to the Government; III. Explaining the Preoccupation with the Government's Right to be Obeyed; IV. Toward a Theory of Political Legitimacy; V. Why Should Some Persons Rather than Others Wield Political Power?; VI. Democracy and Mutual Obligations among Citizens; and VIII. Conclusions.Less

Liberal Democracy and the Crisis of Representation

Carl A. Raschke

in Force of God: Political Theology and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy

This chapter argues that the crisis of representation proves itself to be intertwined with a crisis in the theory of sovereignty, suggesting a deeper challenge to liberalism.

The Lion's Den at Foggy Bottom: Act I: The Seiple Years (1998–2000)

Thomas F. Farr

in World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty Is Vital to American National Security

Robert Seiple, a Republican evangelical, was chosen by President William Clinton to lead his administration's religious freedom initiative. Initially the administration hoped that Seiple's ... More

Robert Seiple, a Republican evangelical, was chosen by President William Clinton to lead his administration's religious freedom initiative. Initially the administration hoped that Seiple's appointment would forestall the IRF Act itself. When the Act was passed anyway, Seiple became the first IRF Ambassador at Large, a position established by the Act. Within the Department, however, the bureaucracy reverted to its default position of isolating the new initiative within the bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, itself out of the mainstream of foreign policy. Seiple fought for a permanent staff but ultimately acquiesced in functional and bureaucratic isolation, choosing instead to travel widely. His legacy lies in the dens of persecution abroad, and with his having won the “battle over China,”—i.e., convincing Secretary Madeleine Albright to designate China as a “country of particular concern” under the IRF Act. Seiple also began the “Islamic Roundtable” at State, a prescient idea whose time was yet to come.Less

Government, Money, and Taxation

Raymond Plant

in The Neo-liberal State

A central theme of this chapter is the role of monetary theory within the neo‐liberal account of the role of the state. For a neo‐liberal thinker such as Mises, monetary theory consists of a set of a ... More

A central theme of this chapter is the role of monetary theory within the neo‐liberal account of the role of the state. For a neo‐liberal thinker such as Mises, monetary theory consists of a set of a priori truths derived from the concept of money itself. Thus, the quantity of money theory or monetarism is not one hypothesis among others within economics, but has a more profound status and basis than that. Such a monetary theory when allied to the points made in the first part of Chapter 8 along with other economic theories (such as crowding out and neo‐liberal microeconomic theories) undermine in a fundamental way Keynesian ideas. Such ideas have been central to Social Democracy and again therefore such a critique of Keynes is an attempt to undermine a basic means of arriving at social democratic ends such as social justice which have already been the subject of critical analysis. One central role for the state from a neo‐liberal view is the provision of public goods that is to say goods which rely on cooperation to produce but which cannot be partitioned so that only those who cooperate in their production can benefit (clean air would be an example). The market will not produce such goods because each individual has a strong incentive from a rational utility maximizing point of view not to contribute and they will therefore not be produced. The details of this argument are considered and analysed.Less

Weak Ties in Zambia and Kenya

Adrienne LeBas

in From Protest to Parties: Party-Building and Democratization in Africa

Chapter 6 argues that civic life in both Zambia and Kenya was characterized by weak social ties, which impeded party-building before and after democratic transitions began. The structure of these ... More

Chapter 6 argues that civic life in both Zambia and Kenya was characterized by weak social ties, which impeded party-building before and after democratic transitions began. The structure of these ties differed. In Zambia, the loose cross-regional networks of organized labor provided likely opposition supporters with a focal point and a means of coordinating votes. In Kenya, on the other hand, civic life was atomized to the district level, which made the coordination of protest across space or across ethnic groups far more difficult. In Zambia, trade unions provided a mobilizing structure that allowed for a successful protest movement as opposition to the ruling party increased. In Kenya, the absence of this mobilizing structure led opposition leaders to rely on ethnic mobilization. In the two countries, different network structures had different implications for the coordination of protest, but they were similarly unsuited for the building of strong, durable opposition parties.Less

The Dutch Republic in Europe's Republican Tradition, c.1590–1650

James D. Tracy

in The Founding of the Dutch Republic: War, Finance, and Politics in Holland, 1572-1588

Historians of republicanism have focussed on states where princely rule was overthrown (15th‐century Florence, 17th‐century England). Yet even in princely realms town magistrates claimed to be part ... More

Historians of republicanism have focussed on states where princely rule was overthrown (15th‐century Florence, 17th‐century England). Yet even in princely realms town magistrates claimed to be part of a underline respublica mixta, a state combining the principles of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Dutch writers understood the United Provinces as a underline respublica mixta—that is, a stable, balanced constitution. Some embraced the democratic principle, invoking the memory of ancient Athens. Others (partisans of the House of Orange) bemoaned the weakness of the monarchical principle. Still others, like Holland's Hugo Grotius, saw the town oligarchies as forming a proper, aristocratic republic, like Sparta or Venice. Thus understood, the new polity was hardly democratic; but in a Europe dominated by strong monarchies, it was a beacon of republican liberty.Less

Late Variations on a Famous Theme, 1914–1938 1

P. J. Cain

in Hobson and Imperialism: Radicalism, New Liberalism, and Finance 1887-1938

This chapter shows the complex ways in which Hobson's views on imperialism were influenced by his encounter of the First World War and the beginning of the next. During the First World War, his views ... More

This chapter shows the complex ways in which Hobson's views on imperialism were influenced by his encounter of the First World War and the beginning of the next. During the First World War, his views gradually shifted back towards those he had put forward in Imperialism: A Study, as evident in The New Protectionism and especially in Democracy after the War. After the war and through to the mid-1930s, his views moved in the opposite direction, back to those expressed in An Economic Interpretation of Investment though without ever quite matching the heady optimism of that work. After the war, and to some extent because of it, Hobson's views as expressed in Imperialism: A Study slowly became more acceptable in academic circles and on the left of politics. The chapter ends with a brief summary of Hobson's views on imperialism over the period 1887-1938.Less

The Significance of Congar's Legacy

Elizabeth Teresa Groppe

in Yves Congar's Theology of the Holy Spirit

This chapter concludes the analysis with reflection on the contemporary significance of Congar’s integration of pneumatological anthropology and pneumatological ecclesiology. The author uses Congar’s ... More

This chapter concludes the analysis with reflection on the contemporary significance of Congar’s integration of pneumatological anthropology and pneumatological ecclesiology. The author uses Congar’s theology of the Holy Spirit as the basis for the formulation of constructive proposals on three issues facing the theological discipline today: the discussion as to whether the Catholic Church is a hierarchy or a democracy, the suitability of “persons in communion” as a framework for ecclesiological discourse, and reflection on the personhood of the Holy Spirit and the theology of appropriations.Less

Nationalist Political Language: New Hope or Old Hatreds?

MICHAEL WHEATLEY

in Nationalism and the Irish Party: Provincial Ireland 1910-1916

Political rhetoric, whether defined as the calculated use of public language by practitioners of ‘high’ politics or the everyday, background noise of local politicians, suffused the Irish provincial ... More

Political rhetoric, whether defined as the calculated use of public language by practitioners of ‘high’ politics or the everyday, background noise of local politicians, suffused the Irish provincial press. ‘Nationalist’ political language covered a strikingly wide variety of attitudes — from conciliation to threat; from democratic radicalism, to Whiggish imperialism, to visceral Anglophobia. Examples of the full range of this rhetoric could be found in the language of mainstream politicians and newspapers throughout the pre-war period. Locally, however, although virtually all professed their loyalty to Redmond, only a minority sympathised instinctively with the conciliation that he advocated. The passive ‘background noise’ of nationalist rhetoric was suffused with a vocabulary of heroic struggle, grievance, injustice, and enemies. A clear strain of Anglophobia was expressed by politicians, clerics, and newspapers. The language that was to be used during the more general political crises of 1914 or 1916–18 was already fully developed.Less

Reformation Churches and a Modern Protestant Moral Order

Nicholas Hope

in German and Scandinavian Protestantism 1700-1918

Addresses the major issue laid bare by the new Protestant religious statistics: whether historic Reformation churches, even the widespread lay revivals, had any place at all, even a moral role, in a ... More

Addresses the major issue laid bare by the new Protestant religious statistics: whether historic Reformation churches, even the widespread lay revivals, had any place at all, even a moral role, in a new market economy and urban and industrial culture. Marxist Social Democratic programmes, which proclaimed religion to be a private matter, provided a fundamental challenge to Reform.Less