Suchergebnisse

REPUBLICANISM SEES LIBERTY AS THE SOCIAL STATUS OF A CITIZEN WHO IS RECOGNIZED AND EMPOWERED, EQUALLY WITH OTHERS, BEFORE A SUITABLE RULE OF LAW; IT SEES LIBERTY AS A STATUS THAT IS SECURE ONLY AS FAR AS THE REPUBLIC IS PEOPLED AND RUN BY INDIVIDUALS WHO DISPLAY CIVIC VIRTUE, WHETHER SPONTANEOUSLY OR UNDER WELL DESIGNED INSTITUTIONAL PRESSURES; AND, FINALLY, IT SEES THE DISPENSATION OF LIBERTY AS SOMETHING THAT MAY IN PRINCIPLE REQUIRE A LARGE STATE PRESENCE IN AREAS LIKE EDUCATION, MEDICINE, AND SOCIAL SECURITY. LIBERALISM, IN ITS PURE FORM, PRESENTS LIBERTY AS A CONDITION IDEALLY ENJOYED, OUT OF SOCIETY, WHEN THERE IS NO ONE ELSE AROUND; IT HOLDS THAT, GIVEN THE POSSIBILITY OF INVISIBLE HAND MECHANISMS, CITIZENS AND POLITICIANS NEED NOT BE PUBLIC-SPIRITED FOR LIBERTY TO THRIVE; AND IT INTERPRETS THE DEMANDS OF LIBERTY IN A WAY THAT SUPPORTS A MINIMALIST ASSUMPTION ABOUT HOW GOVERNMENT OUGHT TO BEHAVE.

Recent scholarship has called attention to the republican dimension of Hans Morgenthau's approach to politics in the postwar era, but the role republicanism played in his thought remains ambiguous. This essay examines that role, and explores its tensions with other aspects of his understanding of politics. It argues that he expanded and deepened his approach to politics as he developed a republican critique of American domestic politics. However, his conception of international politics remained rooted in the reason-of-state tradition, and evinces little evidence of his increasing engagement with republicanism. In this selective use of republicanism, he left its tensions with other aspects of his thinking unresolved, but this usage also suggests his recognition of the inadequacy of the original formulation of his realist approach. In considering what IR theorists today may learn from republicanism, his example is highly instructive in any effort to reconstruct the foundations of realism.

A review essay on a book by Hans Blom, John Christian Laursen, & Luisa Simonutti [Eds], Monarchisms in the Age of Enlightenment: Liberty, Patriotism, and the Common Good (Toronto: U Toronto Press, 2007).