David Kyuman Kim
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195319828
- eISBN:
- 9780199785667
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195319828.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Why does agency — the capacity to make choices and to act in the world — matter to us? Why is it meaningful that our intentions have effects in the world, that they reflect our sense of identity, ...
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Why does agency — the capacity to make choices and to act in the world — matter to us? Why is it meaningful that our intentions have effects in the world, that they reflect our sense of identity, that they embody what we value? What kinds of motivations are available for political agency and judgment in an age that lacks the enthusiasm associated with the great emancipatory movements for civil rights and gender equality? What are the conditions for the possibility of being an effective agent when the meaning of democracy has become less transparent? This book addresses these crucial questions by uncovering the political, moral, philosophical, and religious dimensions of human agency. The book treats agency as a form of religious experience that reflects implicit and explicit notions of the good. Of particular concern are the moral, political, and religious motivations that underpin an understanding of agency as meaningful action. Through a critical engagement with the work of theorists such as Judith Butler, Charles Taylor, and Stanley Cavell, this book argues that late modern and postmodern agency is found most effectively at work in “projects of regenerating agency” or critical and strategic responses to loss. Agency as melancholic freedom begins and endures, this text maintains, through the moral and psychic losses associated with a broad range of experiences, including the moral identities shaped by secularized modernity and the multi-fold forms of alienation experienced by those who suffer the indignities of racial, gender, class, and sexuality discrimination and oppression. This book calls for renewing the sense of urgency in our political and moral engagements by seeing agency as a vocation, where the aspiration for self-transformation and the human need for hope are fundamental concerns.Less
Why does agency — the capacity to make choices and to act in the world — matter to us? Why is it meaningful that our intentions have effects in the world, that they reflect our sense of identity, that they embody what we value? What kinds of motivations are available for political agency and judgment in an age that lacks the enthusiasm associated with the great emancipatory movements for civil rights and gender equality? What are the conditions for the possibility of being an effective agent when the meaning of democracy has become less transparent? This book addresses these crucial questions by uncovering the political, moral, philosophical, and religious dimensions of human agency. The book treats agency as a form of religious experience that reflects implicit and explicit notions of the good. Of particular concern are the moral, political, and religious motivations that underpin an understanding of agency as meaningful action. Through a critical engagement with the work of theorists such as Judith Butler, Charles Taylor, and Stanley Cavell, this book argues that late modern and postmodern agency is found most effectively at work in “projects of regenerating agency” or critical and strategic responses to loss. Agency as melancholic freedom begins and endures, this text maintains, through the moral and psychic losses associated with a broad range of experiences, including the moral identities shaped by secularized modernity and the multi-fold forms of alienation experienced by those who suffer the indignities of racial, gender, class, and sexuality discrimination and oppression. This book calls for renewing the sense of urgency in our political and moral engagements by seeing agency as a vocation, where the aspiration for self-transformation and the human need for hope are fundamental concerns.
Simon Caney
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198293507
- eISBN:
- 9780191602337
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829350X.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Having argued, in Ch. 2, that there are universal moral values, the next logical step is to ask what these universal moral values are; this question is pursued in Chs 3 and 4, which consider ...
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Having argued, in Ch. 2, that there are universal moral values, the next logical step is to ask what these universal moral values are; this question is pursued in Chs 3 and 4, which consider arguments for two different types of universal value and link together to provide an analysis of what universal principles of justice should apply at the global level. This chapter examines claims that there are universal principles of civil and political justice, that is, those principles that specify what rights people have to what freedoms, and argues for universal human rights to certain civil and political liberties. It is arranged in 13 sections: Section I presents an analysis of human rights, since this term plays a central and important role in a plausible account of civil and political justice; Section II puts forward a general thesis about justifications for civil and political human rights; this is followed, in Sections III–VII, by an analysis of four cosmopolitan arguments for human rights that criticizes three of them but defends the fourth; Section VIII considers an alternative non-cosmopolitan approach to defending civil and political human rights, presented by John Rawls in The Law of Peoples (1999b); the next three sections (IX–XI) of the chapter explore misgivings about civil and political human rights, including the objections that such human rights are a species of imperialism and do not accord sufficient respect to cultural practices (IX), produce homogeneity/uniformity (X), and generate egoism/individualism and destroy community (XI); Section XII considers a further objection—the realist charges that foreign policy to protect civil and political human rights is in practice selective and partial and a cloak for the pursuit of the national interest. Section XIII summarizes the overall case made for civil and political justice.Less
Having argued, in Ch. 2, that there are universal moral values, the next logical step is to ask what these universal moral values are; this question is pursued in Chs 3 and 4, which consider arguments for two different types of universal value and link together to provide an analysis of what universal principles of justice should apply at the global level. This chapter examines claims that there are universal principles of civil and political justice, that is, those principles that specify what rights people have to what freedoms, and argues for universal human rights to certain civil and political liberties. It is arranged in 13 sections: Section I presents an analysis of human rights, since this term plays a central and important role in a plausible account of civil and political justice; Section II puts forward a general thesis about justifications for civil and political human rights; this is followed, in Sections III–VII, by an analysis of four cosmopolitan arguments for human rights that criticizes three of them but defends the fourth; Section VIII considers an alternative non-cosmopolitan approach to defending civil and political human rights, presented by John Rawls in The Law of Peoples (1999b); the next three sections (IX–XI) of the chapter explore misgivings about civil and political human rights, including the objections that such human rights are a species of imperialism and do not accord sufficient respect to cultural practices (IX), produce homogeneity/uniformity (X), and generate egoism/individualism and destroy community (XI); Section XII considers a further objection—the realist charges that foreign policy to protect civil and political human rights is in practice selective and partial and a cloak for the pursuit of the national interest. Section XIII summarizes the overall case made for civil and political justice.
Rex Martin
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292937
- eISBN:
- 9780191599811
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292937.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Civil rights are universal rights, rights that hold good for all citizens or all persons in a given society; on the assumption that rights are beneficial to the holder, civil rights are justified by ...
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Civil rights are universal rights, rights that hold good for all citizens or all persons in a given society; on the assumption that rights are beneficial to the holder, civil rights are justified by the fact of their general and mutually perceived benefit. Typically, there are many rights in a society devoted to civil rights; the problem then, is that rights can conflict. Even though this problem of conflict of rights can be solved by careful drafting (legislative balancing, as it is called) or by assigning priorities in zones of conflict (through assigning weights to given rights), such devices can’t solve conflicts between different exercises of one and the same right (so‐called ‘internal conflict’). Thus, we need as well on‐site resolution of conflicts by administrators and judges. In sum, we need institutional measures to harmonize rights; only then can we eliminate conflict between rights. Natural rights, which disavow such measures in principle, would inevitably conflict and hence collapse into an incoherent set.Less
Civil rights are universal rights, rights that hold good for all citizens or all persons in a given society; on the assumption that rights are beneficial to the holder, civil rights are justified by the fact of their general and mutually perceived benefit. Typically, there are many rights in a society devoted to civil rights; the problem then, is that rights can conflict. Even though this problem of conflict of rights can be solved by careful drafting (legislative balancing, as it is called) or by assigning priorities in zones of conflict (through assigning weights to given rights), such devices can’t solve conflicts between different exercises of one and the same right (so‐called ‘internal conflict’). Thus, we need as well on‐site resolution of conflicts by administrators and judges. In sum, we need institutional measures to harmonize rights; only then can we eliminate conflict between rights. Natural rights, which disavow such measures in principle, would inevitably conflict and hence collapse into an incoherent set.
Rex Martin
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292937
- eISBN:
- 9780191599811
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292937.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
We return in this chapter, to the issue of the justification of political authority; it is argued here that the notion of political authority is internally justified in a given political system if ...
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We return in this chapter, to the issue of the justification of political authority; it is argued here that the notion of political authority is internally justified in a given political system if the main elements in that notion —that is, the title to issue rules, a reasonable presumption of compliance, and the government's rightful monopoly in the use of coercive force – are actually ingredient in the theoretic structure of the system under review. Thus, it is the coherence of the background theory (the coherence of a democratic system of rights), in which each of the authority elements can be shown to have a necessary place that justifies authority in that particular political system.In developing this line of argument, we come to see that the priority rule (from Ch. 7) has to be modified. We do so by introducing the notion of basic rights: such rights are those civil rights (e.g. freedom of political speech or liberty of conscience) that have passed the double test of being enacted by legislative majorities and of being affirmed and, then, supported over the years by checking devices (such as judicial review). They are rights that have survived the scrutiny of time and experience and public discussion; they have been winnowed by the self‐correcting character of the democratic process, and now continue to enjoy a very high level of social consensus support. Basic rights, as understood here, are the rights that have the top priority in a democratic system of rights.Less
We return in this chapter, to the issue of the justification of political authority; it is argued here that the notion of political authority is internally justified in a given political system if the main elements in that notion —that is, the title to issue rules, a reasonable presumption of compliance, and the government's rightful monopoly in the use of coercive force – are actually ingredient in the theoretic structure of the system under review. Thus, it is the coherence of the background theory (the coherence of a democratic system of rights), in which each of the authority elements can be shown to have a necessary place that justifies authority in that particular political system.
In developing this line of argument, we come to see that the priority rule (from Ch. 7) has to be modified. We do so by introducing the notion of basic rights: such rights are those civil rights (e.g. freedom of political speech or liberty of conscience) that have passed the double test of being enacted by legislative majorities and of being affirmed and, then, supported over the years by checking devices (such as judicial review). They are rights that have survived the scrutiny of time and experience and public discussion; they have been winnowed by the self‐correcting character of the democratic process, and now continue to enjoy a very high level of social consensus support. Basic rights, as understood here, are the rights that have the top priority in a democratic system of rights.
Marshall Ganz
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195162011
- eISBN:
- 9780199943401
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162011.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This book tells the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers' ground-breaking victory, drawing important lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural ...
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This book tells the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers' ground-breaking victory, drawing important lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural enterprises relied on migrant labor—a cheap, unorganized, and powerless workforce. In 1965, when some 800 Filipino grape workers began to strike under the aegis of the AFL-CIO, the UFW soon joined the action with 2,000 Mexican workers and turned the strike into a civil rights struggle. They engaged in civil disobedience, mobilized support from churches and students, boycotted growers, and transformed their struggle into La Causa, a farm workers' movement that eventually triumphed over the grape industry's Goliath. Why did they succeed? How can the powerless challenge the powerful successfully? Offering insight from a long-time movement organizer and scholar, the book illustrates how they had the ability and resourcefulness to devise good strategy and turn short-term advantages into long-term gains. The book covers the movement's struggles, set-backs, and successes.Less
This book tells the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers' ground-breaking victory, drawing important lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural enterprises relied on migrant labor—a cheap, unorganized, and powerless workforce. In 1965, when some 800 Filipino grape workers began to strike under the aegis of the AFL-CIO, the UFW soon joined the action with 2,000 Mexican workers and turned the strike into a civil rights struggle. They engaged in civil disobedience, mobilized support from churches and students, boycotted growers, and transformed their struggle into La Causa, a farm workers' movement that eventually triumphed over the grape industry's Goliath. Why did they succeed? How can the powerless challenge the powerful successfully? Offering insight from a long-time movement organizer and scholar, the book illustrates how they had the ability and resourcefulness to devise good strategy and turn short-term advantages into long-term gains. The book covers the movement's struggles, set-backs, and successes.
Rex Martin
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292937
- eISBN:
- 9780191599811
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292937.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The chapter first discusses the different ways in which human rights are moral rights. The notion of valid claims (initially discussed in Ch. 2) has more purchase as an account of human rights; for ...
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The chapter first discusses the different ways in which human rights are moral rights. The notion of valid claims (initially discussed in Ch. 2) has more purchase as an account of human rights; for one thing it provides a clear sense to what one means in saying that a human right is a moral right: one means that the right follows from, or comports with, accredited normative moral principles or with accredited procedures for moral reasoning. Nonetheless, three points are raised in challenge to the idea that human rights are essentially morally valid claims: (1) a valid claim can be normatively sound as regards its justification, but without widespread acknowledgement or affirmation, it won’t function as an effective right; (2) what the right requires must be conformed to by second parties, the duty holders—otherwise it’ll be at best a merely nominal right; (3) it isdesirable for ‘rights’ to have the same sense when we talk either about human rights or about legal rights.The really controversial part of the chapter is the claim that human rights hold principally against organized societies (and their governments); the job of governments here is to respond to these moral demands by formulating what is being demanded as civil rights, rights of all persons in that society, and then by enforcing these rights. A putative right that lacked these things would slip back into being a merely valid moral claim; thus, full‐bodied human rights are ways of acting or ways of being treated that have sound normative justification, that have authoritative political recognition or endorsement, and that are maintained by conforming conduct and, where need be, by governmental enforcement.Less
The chapter first discusses the different ways in which human rights are moral rights. The notion of valid claims (initially discussed in Ch. 2) has more purchase as an account of human rights; for one thing it provides a clear sense to what one means in saying that a human right is a moral right: one means that the right follows from, or comports with, accredited normative moral principles or with accredited procedures for moral reasoning. Nonetheless, three points are raised in challenge to the idea that human rights are essentially morally valid claims: (1) a valid claim can be normatively sound as regards its justification, but without widespread acknowledgement or affirmation, it won’t function as an effective right; (2) what the right requires must be conformed to by second parties, the duty holders—otherwise it’ll be at best a merely nominal right; (3) it isdesirable for ‘rights’ to have the same sense when we talk either about human rights or about legal rights.
The really controversial part of the chapter is the claim that human rights hold principally against organized societies (and their governments); the job of governments here is to respond to these moral demands by formulating what is being demanded as civil rights, rights of all persons in that society, and then by enforcing these rights. A putative right that lacked these things would slip back into being a merely valid moral claim; thus, full‐bodied human rights are ways of acting or ways of being treated that have sound normative justification, that have authoritative political recognition or endorsement, and that are maintained by conforming conduct and, where need be, by governmental enforcement.
Gary Scott Smith
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195300604
- eISBN:
- 9780199785285
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300604.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book examines the religious beliefs, commitments, affiliation, and practices (church attendance, prayer, Bible reading, and personal morality) of eleven presidents, discusses the influences upon ...
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This book examines the religious beliefs, commitments, affiliation, and practices (church attendance, prayer, Bible reading, and personal morality) of eleven presidents, discusses the influences upon and nature of their faith, and assesses how it contributed to their understanding of political ideology and practice. It also analyzes how these presidents’ religious views and values helped shape the way they formulated and promoted specific policies. In addition, the book examines how presidents dealt with religious constituencies, interest groups, and leaders, evaluated religious issues (such as religious liberty, the relationship between church and the state, government support for religion, the proper place of religion in public life, and the connection between religion and public morality and civic duty), and appraised key public policy matters (such as the proper tasks of government, civil rights, education, and war and peace). The book explores social and cultural factors that influenced these presidents, but it focuses primarily on the intellectual and moral presuppositions that helped guide their understanding of political and religious issues and their actions while in office. Special attention is paid to five themes: the separation of church and state, civil religion, America as a chosen nation, the nature of their convictions, and the issue of character. Does the concept of the separation of church and state require presidents to confine their religious values to their private lives and operate from a secular perspective in fulfilling their office? Is it proper for a president’s religious convictions to direct him in performing his duties, devising a philosophy of government, and implementing his policies? How have presidents served as both the nation’s pastor and prophet, called on at times to comfort and assure Americans and at others to challenge and inspire them? To what extent has the pervasive belief that America is divinely chosen to spread democracy, individual liberty, and justice to the world influenced presidents’ actions? How have their worldviews — blueprints for understanding, explaining, and managing reality — influenced presidents’ thoughts and actions? What factors, including religious training, biblical study, and spiritual nurture, have shaped the character of these presidents?Less
This book examines the religious beliefs, commitments, affiliation, and practices (church attendance, prayer, Bible reading, and personal morality) of eleven presidents, discusses the influences upon and nature of their faith, and assesses how it contributed to their understanding of political ideology and practice. It also analyzes how these presidents’ religious views and values helped shape the way they formulated and promoted specific policies. In addition, the book examines how presidents dealt with religious constituencies, interest groups, and leaders, evaluated religious issues (such as religious liberty, the relationship between church and the state, government support for religion, the proper place of religion in public life, and the connection between religion and public morality and civic duty), and appraised key public policy matters (such as the proper tasks of government, civil rights, education, and war and peace). The book explores social and cultural factors that influenced these presidents, but it focuses primarily on the intellectual and moral presuppositions that helped guide their understanding of political and religious issues and their actions while in office. Special attention is paid to five themes: the separation of church and state, civil religion, America as a chosen nation, the nature of their convictions, and the issue of character. Does the concept of the separation of church and state require presidents to confine their religious values to their private lives and operate from a secular perspective in fulfilling their office? Is it proper for a president’s religious convictions to direct him in performing his duties, devising a philosophy of government, and implementing his policies? How have presidents served as both the nation’s pastor and prophet, called on at times to comfort and assure Americans and at others to challenge and inspire them? To what extent has the pervasive belief that America is divinely chosen to spread democracy, individual liberty, and justice to the world influenced presidents’ actions? How have their worldviews — blueprints for understanding, explaining, and managing reality — influenced presidents’ thoughts and actions? What factors, including religious training, biblical study, and spiritual nurture, have shaped the character of these presidents?
Hans Dieter Seibel and Andrea Armstrong
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199291922
- eISBN:
- 9780191603716
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199291926.003.0021
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Allocating reparation benefits to victims of civil rights abuses with a lasting effect on their well-being is a tremendous challenge. By converting benefit payments into shares and beneficiaries into ...
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Allocating reparation benefits to victims of civil rights abuses with a lasting effect on their well-being is a tremendous challenge. By converting benefit payments into shares and beneficiaries into shareholders of microfinance institutions (MFIs), the former victims become active partners of aid and owners of local institutions. In many countries, indigenous savings and credit associations are the only civil society institutions which have survived the breakdown of society, representing the social capital for the reconstruction of local financial institutions. In other countries, such institutions have to be newly built. In either case, experienced international NGOs may be instrumental in building or reconstructing MFIs owned by recipients of reparation payments. Part of the funding in a reparation program may thus be allocated directly to the victims-turned-shareholders, the other part to institution-building. Based on satisfactory performance of the MFI, the share capital may be augmented by donor grants and bank borrowings to increase the volume of loans to the user-owners for income-generating activities. In terms of sustainable impact, there is no alternative to institution-building.Less
Allocating reparation benefits to victims of civil rights abuses with a lasting effect on their well-being is a tremendous challenge. By converting benefit payments into shares and beneficiaries into shareholders of microfinance institutions (MFIs), the former victims become active partners of aid and owners of local institutions. In many countries, indigenous savings and credit associations are the only civil society institutions which have survived the breakdown of society, representing the social capital for the reconstruction of local financial institutions. In other countries, such institutions have to be newly built. In either case, experienced international NGOs may be instrumental in building or reconstructing MFIs owned by recipients of reparation payments. Part of the funding in a reparation program may thus be allocated directly to the victims-turned-shareholders, the other part to institution-building. Based on satisfactory performance of the MFI, the share capital may be augmented by donor grants and bank borrowings to increase the volume of loans to the user-owners for income-generating activities. In terms of sustainable impact, there is no alternative to institution-building.
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- November 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199261185
- eISBN:
- 9780191601507
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199261180.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
Citizenship rights are rights that have been won: they are always the outcome of a historical process in which persons, groups, and nations strive to acquire and assert them. The liberal state is the ...
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Citizenship rights are rights that have been won: they are always the outcome of a historical process in which persons, groups, and nations strive to acquire and assert them. The liberal state is the bourgeois state. First rises in the nineteenth century, after the French and the American liberal revolutions, under the principles of the rule of law, and of the civil rights. The nineteenth century was also the century of bureaucratic reform, through which the state apparatus eventually gained a fully modern or capitalist character. Civil service reforms are studies in Prussia, France, England, and the US.Less
Citizenship rights are rights that have been won: they are always the outcome of a historical process in which persons, groups, and nations strive to acquire and assert them. The liberal state is the bourgeois state. First rises in the nineteenth century, after the French and the American liberal revolutions, under the principles of the rule of law, and of the civil rights. The nineteenth century was also the century of bureaucratic reform, through which the state apparatus eventually gained a fully modern or capitalist character. Civil service reforms are studies in Prussia, France, England, and the US.
Desmond King
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292494
- eISBN:
- 9780191599682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829249X.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Examines post‐Reconstruction race relations—focusing mainly from 1856–1964—and outlines the legal and political factors permitting its dissemination. King formulates segregation as an arrangement ...
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Examines post‐Reconstruction race relations—focusing mainly from 1856–1964—and outlines the legal and political factors permitting its dissemination. King formulates segregation as an arrangement whereby Black Americans, as a minority, were systematically treated in separate, but constitutionally sanctioned, ways. He examines various laws and policies that condoned segregation ever since the Supreme Court accepted the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine as a justification of segregation in 1896 up until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. King also examines the congressional and presidential politics of race relations under the administrations of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry Truman.Less
Examines post‐Reconstruction race relations—focusing mainly from 1856–1964—and outlines the legal and political factors permitting its dissemination. King formulates segregation as an arrangement whereby Black Americans, as a minority, were systematically treated in separate, but constitutionally sanctioned, ways. He examines various laws and policies that condoned segregation ever since the Supreme Court accepted the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine as a justification of segregation in 1896 up until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. King also examines the congressional and presidential politics of race relations under the administrations of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry Truman.
Jeffrey C. Alexander
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195162509
- eISBN:
- 9780199943364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162509.003.0029
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter explores more deeply the symbolic extension of interracial solidarity at the heart of the Civil Rights movement, investigating how its tensely wrought dramas triggered a sense of moral ...
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This chapter explores more deeply the symbolic extension of interracial solidarity at the heart of the Civil Rights movement, investigating how its tensely wrought dramas triggered a sense of moral violation among members of the surrounding civil sphere that led them to initiate forceful symbolic action for civic repair. It shows how this compensatory symbolic action triggered unprecedented changes in the civil sphere's regulatory institutions, creating overlapping waves of institutional and symbolic activity. However, even as we emphasize the neglected role of symbolic action and communicative institutions, placing them at the center of efforts to change the structure of civil society, we cannot forget the structures of a more coercive kind. To assert the significance of civil power is not to deny political and social forces; it is rather to place them into perspective. When social systems contain civil spheres, the sources and effects of power must be conceived in new ways. Power must be redefined.Less
This chapter explores more deeply the symbolic extension of interracial solidarity at the heart of the Civil Rights movement, investigating how its tensely wrought dramas triggered a sense of moral violation among members of the surrounding civil sphere that led them to initiate forceful symbolic action for civic repair. It shows how this compensatory symbolic action triggered unprecedented changes in the civil sphere's regulatory institutions, creating overlapping waves of institutional and symbolic activity. However, even as we emphasize the neglected role of symbolic action and communicative institutions, placing them at the center of efforts to change the structure of civil society, we cannot forget the structures of a more coercive kind. To assert the significance of civil power is not to deny political and social forces; it is rather to place them into perspective. When social systems contain civil spheres, the sources and effects of power must be conceived in new ways. Power must be redefined.
Simon Caney
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198293507
- eISBN:
- 9780191602337
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829350X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Examines which political principles should govern global politics. It explores ethical issues in justice that arise at the global level and addresses questions such as: are there universal values, ...
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Examines which political principles should govern global politics. It explores ethical issues in justice that arise at the global level and addresses questions such as: are there universal values, and if so, what are they; what human rights, if any, are there; are there global principles of distributive justice; should there be a system of supra-state institutions; is national self-determination defensible; when, if ever, may political regimes wage war; and is humanitarian intervention justified?The book outlines and defends an egalitarian liberal brand of cosmopolitanism to address these questions, maintaining that there are universal principles, arguing that these include universal civil and political human rights, and defending the application of global principles of distributive justice. On this basis, it makes a case for a system of supra-state political institutions to promote these universal principles of justice further. Having set out principles of ideal theory, the book then examines what principles should apply when injustices are committed. To do this it examines when political regimes may wage war and when they may engage in intervention, and thereby draws on cosmopolitan principles to derive and defend a cosmopolitan conception of just war and humanitarian intervention. In arriving at these conclusions, the book engages in a sustained analysis of the competing arguments on all the above issues, examining the arguments of nationalists, realists, and those who affirm the ideal of a society of states. To do this, the book explores and integrates the work of philosophers, political theorists, and international relations scholars, and illustrates its ethical argument and theoretical analysis with empirical examples. Furthermore, it argues that the issues examined in the book cannot be adequately treated in isolation from each other but must be treated as an interlinked whole.Less
Examines which political principles should govern global politics. It explores ethical issues in justice that arise at the global level and addresses questions such as: are there universal values, and if so, what are they; what human rights, if any, are there; are there global principles of distributive justice; should there be a system of supra-state institutions; is national self-determination defensible; when, if ever, may political regimes wage war; and is humanitarian intervention justified?
The book outlines and defends an egalitarian liberal brand of cosmopolitanism to address these questions, maintaining that there are universal principles, arguing that these include universal civil and political human rights, and defending the application of global principles of distributive justice. On this basis, it makes a case for a system of supra-state political institutions to promote these universal principles of justice further. Having set out principles of ideal theory, the book then examines what principles should apply when injustices are committed. To do this it examines when political regimes may wage war and when they may engage in intervention, and thereby draws on cosmopolitan principles to derive and defend a cosmopolitan conception of just war and humanitarian intervention. In arriving at these conclusions, the book engages in a sustained analysis of the competing arguments on all the above issues, examining the arguments of nationalists, realists, and those who affirm the ideal of a society of states. To do this, the book explores and integrates the work of philosophers, political theorists, and international relations scholars, and illustrates its ethical argument and theoretical analysis with empirical examples. Furthermore, it argues that the issues examined in the book cannot be adequately treated in isolation from each other but must be treated as an interlinked whole.
Gary Scott Smith
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195300604
- eISBN:
- 9780199785285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300604.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Like Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy attended church regularly while president and used religious rhetoric extensively in his speeches, especially in discussing his campaign for world peace. Eisenhower, ...
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Like Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy attended church regularly while president and used religious rhetoric extensively in his speeches, especially in discussing his campaign for world peace. Eisenhower, however, provided strong governmental support for the Judeo-Christian tradition, whereas Kennedy maintained a much stricter separation between church and state. The Democrat’s vitality, idealism, powerful rhetoric, and charisma inspired many younger Americans to social activism. Kennedy’s faith is difficult to analyze. As the nation’s only Catholic president, whose religious affiliation was a major issue in the 1960 election, he is central to an examination of religion and the presidency. Moreover, his assassination and funeral evoked a torrent of religious language, analysis, and emotion and reinforced the importance of civil religion in American society. On the other hand, his faith had much less influence on his thinking and policies than that of the other presidents analyzed in this book. In addition, beneath his exuberant, commanding public persona were private vices that contradicted his Catholic faith. Given Kennedy’s pragmatic style of governing, perspective toward Catholicism, and lack of a coherent philosophy, there does not seem to be much relationship between his policies and his faith. Nevertheless, he did present moral rationales for his stances on numerous issues, including education, juvenile delinquency, women’s rights, world hunger, poverty, and the Alliance for Progress. To assess Kennedy’s approach, three issues are examined: the Peace Corps, civil rights, and the limited test ban treaty. The most intense religious controversy during Kennedy’s tenure was provoked by the 1962 Supreme Court case that ruled that school-sponsored prayers as part of a regularly scheduled devotional exercise violated the Constitution.Less
Like Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy attended church regularly while president and used religious rhetoric extensively in his speeches, especially in discussing his campaign for world peace. Eisenhower, however, provided strong governmental support for the Judeo-Christian tradition, whereas Kennedy maintained a much stricter separation between church and state. The Democrat’s vitality, idealism, powerful rhetoric, and charisma inspired many younger Americans to social activism. Kennedy’s faith is difficult to analyze. As the nation’s only Catholic president, whose religious affiliation was a major issue in the 1960 election, he is central to an examination of religion and the presidency. Moreover, his assassination and funeral evoked a torrent of religious language, analysis, and emotion and reinforced the importance of civil religion in American society. On the other hand, his faith had much less influence on his thinking and policies than that of the other presidents analyzed in this book. In addition, beneath his exuberant, commanding public persona were private vices that contradicted his Catholic faith. Given Kennedy’s pragmatic style of governing, perspective toward Catholicism, and lack of a coherent philosophy, there does not seem to be much relationship between his policies and his faith. Nevertheless, he did present moral rationales for his stances on numerous issues, including education, juvenile delinquency, women’s rights, world hunger, poverty, and the Alliance for Progress. To assess Kennedy’s approach, three issues are examined: the Peace Corps, civil rights, and the limited test ban treaty. The most intense religious controversy during Kennedy’s tenure was provoked by the 1962 Supreme Court case that ruled that school-sponsored prayers as part of a regularly scheduled devotional exercise violated the Constitution.
Jeffrey C. Alexander
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195162509
- eISBN:
- 9780199943364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162509.003.0028
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter focuses on the white journalists who worked for progressive newspapers and magazines. From the beginning, there was a symbiotic interaction between the social dramas staged by civil ...
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This chapter focuses on the white journalists who worked for progressive newspapers and magazines. From the beginning, there was a symbiotic interaction between the social dramas staged by civil rights leaders and the “point men” of the communicative institutions who defined their jobs as interpreting such dramas to the civil sphere. That neither could exist without the other was a recognition, at once simple and profound, a recognition that became increasingly conscious and consequential as the black movement grew in influence and civil force.Less
This chapter focuses on the white journalists who worked for progressive newspapers and magazines. From the beginning, there was a symbiotic interaction between the social dramas staged by civil rights leaders and the “point men” of the communicative institutions who defined their jobs as interpreting such dramas to the civil sphere. That neither could exist without the other was a recognition, at once simple and profound, a recognition that became increasingly conscious and consequential as the black movement grew in influence and civil force.
Desmond King
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292494
- eISBN:
- 9780191599682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829249X.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Explores segregation in the military and resistance to its abolition ever since the founding of the country and the War of Independence to President Truman's 1947 Committee on Civil Rights and well ...
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Explores segregation in the military and resistance to its abolition ever since the founding of the country and the War of Independence to President Truman's 1947 Committee on Civil Rights and well into the 1960s. King examines original transcripts of testimony before Truman's committee and other investigations into segregation especially prior to and during the Second World War. He also looks at the policies and reports of the American Navy, Marine Corps, and the Army as well as those of Black American soldiers stationed abroad in Britain and Europe. Throughout the chapter, he traces the tensions arising from the war's premise to promote democracy in the new global community while tolerating the suppression of civil rights domestically.Less
Explores segregation in the military and resistance to its abolition ever since the founding of the country and the War of Independence to President Truman's 1947 Committee on Civil Rights and well into the 1960s. King examines original transcripts of testimony before Truman's committee and other investigations into segregation especially prior to and during the Second World War. He also looks at the policies and reports of the American Navy, Marine Corps, and the Army as well as those of Black American soldiers stationed abroad in Britain and Europe. Throughout the chapter, he traces the tensions arising from the war's premise to promote democracy in the new global community while tolerating the suppression of civil rights domestically.
David Erdos
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199557769
- eISBN:
- 9780191594380
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557769.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This book explores bill of rights outcomes in four countries — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom — whose development exhibits an interesting combination of both commonality and ...
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This book explores bill of rights outcomes in four countries — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom — whose development exhibits an interesting combination of both commonality and difference. Whilst sharing a core ‘Westminster’ political set‐up, more recent experiences display striking diversity. Comparative analysis of some thirty‐six democracies demonstrates that the historic lack of a bill of rights in Westminster countries is best explained by, firstly, the absence of a clear political transition and, secondly, by their strong British constitutional heritage. Detailed chapters then explore recent developments. In all the countries, postmaterialist socio‐economic change has resulted in a growing emphasis on legal formalization, codified civil liberties, and social equality. Pressure for a bill of rights has therefore increased. Nevertheless, by enhancing judicial power, bills of rights conflict with the prima facie positional interests of the political elite. Given this, change in this area has also required a political trigger which provides an immediate rationale for change. Alongside social forces, the nature of this trigger determines both the strength and substance of the bill of rights enacted. The statutory Canadian Bill of Rights Act (CBORA 1960), New Zealand Bill of Rights Act (NZBOR 1990), and the Human Rights Act (UK) (HRA 1998) were prompted politically by a relatively weak and backward‐looking ‘aversive’ reaction against perceived abuses of power under the previous administration. Meanwhile, the fully constitutional Canadian Charter (1982) had its political origins in a stronger, more self‐interested, and prospective need to find a new unifying institution to counter the destabilizing, centripetal power of the Québécois nationalist movement. Finally, the absence of any relevant political trigger explains the failure of national bill of rights initiatives in Australia. The conclusionary section of the book argues that this Postmaterialist Trigger Thesis (PTT) explanation of change can also explain the origins of bills of rights in other internally stable, advanced democracies, notably the Israeli Basic Laws on human rights (1992).Less
This book explores bill of rights outcomes in four countries — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom — whose development exhibits an interesting combination of both commonality and difference. Whilst sharing a core ‘Westminster’ political set‐up, more recent experiences display striking diversity. Comparative analysis of some thirty‐six democracies demonstrates that the historic lack of a bill of rights in Westminster countries is best explained by, firstly, the absence of a clear political transition and, secondly, by their strong British constitutional heritage. Detailed chapters then explore recent developments. In all the countries, postmaterialist socio‐economic change has resulted in a growing emphasis on legal formalization, codified civil liberties, and social equality. Pressure for a bill of rights has therefore increased. Nevertheless, by enhancing judicial power, bills of rights conflict with the prima facie positional interests of the political elite. Given this, change in this area has also required a political trigger which provides an immediate rationale for change. Alongside social forces, the nature of this trigger determines both the strength and substance of the bill of rights enacted. The statutory Canadian Bill of Rights Act (CBORA 1960), New Zealand Bill of Rights Act (NZBOR 1990), and the Human Rights Act (UK) (HRA 1998) were prompted politically by a relatively weak and backward‐looking ‘aversive’ reaction against perceived abuses of power under the previous administration. Meanwhile, the fully constitutional Canadian Charter (1982) had its political origins in a stronger, more self‐interested, and prospective need to find a new unifying institution to counter the destabilizing, centripetal power of the Québécois nationalist movement. Finally, the absence of any relevant political trigger explains the failure of national bill of rights initiatives in Australia. The conclusionary section of the book argues that this Postmaterialist Trigger Thesis (PTT) explanation of change can also explain the origins of bills of rights in other internally stable, advanced democracies, notably the Israeli Basic Laws on human rights (1992).
Desmond King
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292494
- eISBN:
- 9780191599682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829249X.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
King explores the position of Black Americans in the Federal government since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which he claims empowered the US Department of Justice extensively to investigate and ...
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King explores the position of Black Americans in the Federal government since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which he claims empowered the US Department of Justice extensively to investigate and prosecute discrimination and other abuses of citizens’ rights. He provides numerous table and data documenting improvements for Black Americans, both in terms of numbers and promotions within federal government employment positions. King concludes by examining multiple legacies of the US federal government's collusion in maintaining segregated relations for contemporary American politics.Less
King explores the position of Black Americans in the Federal government since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which he claims empowered the US Department of Justice extensively to investigate and prosecute discrimination and other abuses of citizens’ rights. He provides numerous table and data documenting improvements for Black Americans, both in terms of numbers and promotions within federal government employment positions. King concludes by examining multiple legacies of the US federal government's collusion in maintaining segregated relations for contemporary American politics.
Emilie M. Hafner-Burton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691155357
- eISBN:
- 9781400846283
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691155357.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, EU Law
This chapter reviews scholarly research on international human rights law, focusing on systematic studies that are based on historical statistics and carried out by social scientists. The systematic, ...
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This chapter reviews scholarly research on international human rights law, focusing on systematic studies that are based on historical statistics and carried out by social scientists. The systematic, scholarly study of international human rights law can be grouped into two main categories. First are studies on the process of international law, such as on how judges in human rights tribunals make decisions. Second are studies that look for relationships between the presence of law (and laws of different types) and actual changes in human behavior. The chapter concentrates on the second category of research and highlights its main weaknesses. It also discusses some of the findings of statistical research regarding civil and political rights as well as economic, social, and cultural rights. Finally, it examines the mechanisms of influence of the international human rights legal system.Less
This chapter reviews scholarly research on international human rights law, focusing on systematic studies that are based on historical statistics and carried out by social scientists. The systematic, scholarly study of international human rights law can be grouped into two main categories. First are studies on the process of international law, such as on how judges in human rights tribunals make decisions. Second are studies that look for relationships between the presence of law (and laws of different types) and actual changes in human behavior. The chapter concentrates on the second category of research and highlights its main weaknesses. It also discusses some of the findings of statistical research regarding civil and political rights as well as economic, social, and cultural rights. Finally, it examines the mechanisms of influence of the international human rights legal system.
George P. Fletcher
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195156287
- eISBN:
- 9780199872169
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195156285.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter addresses the problems arising from the clash of old and new ideologies during Reconstruction. Questions of federalism and states’ rights, and of equal protection and citizenship in ...
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This chapter addresses the problems arising from the clash of old and new ideologies during Reconstruction. Questions of federalism and states’ rights, and of equal protection and citizenship in light of abolition – illustrated in the landmark Slaughterhouse Case, and the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 – were ultimately referred to the Supreme Court. The author asserts that the Court's interpretation of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments in these cases served to undermine the cause of the new “secret” constitution.Less
This chapter addresses the problems arising from the clash of old and new ideologies during Reconstruction. Questions of federalism and states’ rights, and of equal protection and citizenship in light of abolition – illustrated in the landmark Slaughterhouse Case, and the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 – were ultimately referred to the Supreme Court. The author asserts that the Court's interpretation of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments in these cases served to undermine the cause of the new “secret” constitution.
Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199859948
- eISBN:
- 9780199951178
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199859948.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order—from political movements to market meltdowns—is one of the enduring problems of social science. This book draws together ...
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Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order—from political movements to market meltdowns—is one of the enduring problems of social science. This book draws together far-ranging insights from social movement theory, organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct a general theory of social organization and strategic action. This book proposes that social change and social order can be understood through what the book calls strategic action fields. It posits that these fields are the general building blocks of political and economic life, civil society, and the state, and the fundamental form of order in our world today. Similar to Russian dolls, they are nested and connected in a broader environment of almost countless proximate and overlapping fields. Fields are mutually dependent; change in one often triggers change in another. At the core of the theory is an account of how social actors fashion and maintain order in a given field. This sociological theory of action, what they call “social skill,” helps explain what individuals do in strategic action fields to gain cooperation or engage in competition. To demonstrate the breadth of the theory, the book makes its abstract principles concrete through extended case studies of the Civil Rights Movement and the rise and fall of the market for mortgages in the U.S. since the 1960s. The book also provides a “how-to” guide to help others implement the approach and discusses methodological issues.Less
Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order—from political movements to market meltdowns—is one of the enduring problems of social science. This book draws together far-ranging insights from social movement theory, organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct a general theory of social organization and strategic action. This book proposes that social change and social order can be understood through what the book calls strategic action fields. It posits that these fields are the general building blocks of political and economic life, civil society, and the state, and the fundamental form of order in our world today. Similar to Russian dolls, they are nested and connected in a broader environment of almost countless proximate and overlapping fields. Fields are mutually dependent; change in one often triggers change in another. At the core of the theory is an account of how social actors fashion and maintain order in a given field. This sociological theory of action, what they call “social skill,” helps explain what individuals do in strategic action fields to gain cooperation or engage in competition. To demonstrate the breadth of the theory, the book makes its abstract principles concrete through extended case studies of the Civil Rights Movement and the rise and fall of the market for mortgages in the U.S. since the 1960s. The book also provides a “how-to” guide to help others implement the approach and discusses methodological issues.
