Gandhi's relationship to liberal political philosophy has recently become a source of controversy. On the one hand, advocates for a virtue-based reformed liberal interpretation of Gandhi are inattentive to the devotional aspects of his political thought. On the other hand, advocates for a Tolstoyan and Hindu devotional interpretation are equally inattentive to those aspects of his political thought embracing liberal institutions and values. However, I re-interpret the devotional Gandhi's relationship to liberalism in light of a distinction between ideal and non-ideal theory. This re-interpretation acknowledges Gandhi's profound disagreement with liberal ideals of justice in both domestic and international politics. Nevertheless, it also acknowledges his acceptance of liberal institutions in non-ideally facilitating progress toward his devotional ideal of enlightened anarchism by which humanity's spiritual progress renders the lawful uses of state violence unnecessary.
In: Garza Vazquez , O 2013 ' From the Idea of Justice to the Idea of Injustice:Mixing the Ideal, Non-ideal and DynamicConceptions of Injustice ' Bath Papers in International Development and Wellbeing , no. 27 , Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath .
Recent legal reforms in Mexico demonstrate that, it, like many other countries, still relies on anunderstanding of development as economic growth in order to justify social policies. The widespreadsocial costs of this framework, however, demand now more than ever before a framework of socialjustice that can counteract the justification and legitimisation of social policies solely based on sucha view of development. While there is a strong demand for social justice to inform political action, inrecent years, ideal theories of justice have also come under severe criticism due to their (apparent)lack of practical policy relevance. This paper departs from this view and argues that ideal theoriesare essential for the reduction of injustice in the present but that it is necessary to reconcile andcomplement ideal and non-ideal approaches to justice. The paper takes Rawls's Theory of Justice andSen's Idea of Justice as illustrations of my argument. In the light of the labour reform in Mexico, thispaper, however, argues that both ideal and non-ideal conceptions of justice are necessary but arestill insufficient in reducing injustice. Without a dynamic understanding of injustice and how it isreproduced, approaches to social justice would remain transcendental and, thus, their effectiveapplicability in the real world is highly compromised. This implies the need to go beyond the usualall-purpose conceptions of justice (whether ideal or non-ideal) and establish what the paper calls a'multi-level' conception of justice to effectively inform social policies and reduce injustice 'in the realworld'.
In response to the growth of scholarly interest and research in the field, the present contribution tracks the work done by eminent cultural historians, like Federico Chabod (1962), in the course of the Twentieth century on the occurrences of the word "Europe" in past literary sources, starting with the Middle Ages. On the basis of a trans-historical perspective, the contribution shall draw conclusions on the historical reception of "the birth of Europe" – both as a "Corps Politique", and as a strategic concept. It is possible to extent this conceptual frame to the development of a European culture, in order to see how this idea, borne out of Medieval epics, might had contributed in good order to shape a European identity, and had exercised at the same time its "agency" under a political and military strategy, to be seen as a counterpart to the more universal idea of a "Christendom". The phenomenon here discussed is especially rooted in the birth of vernacular cultures and languages, and the discussion throughout the paper will contextually match the reading of European history made up to present times with the analysis of Early romances and novels. In doing so, a critical approach is pursued. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
On 10 October 2018, a symposium was held by the University of Sheffield Political Theory Research Group discussing Alasdair Cochrane's book Sentientist Politics: A Theory of Global Inter-Species Justice, published October 2018 by Oxford University Press. This forum contains extended versions of the papers at the symposium. Cochrane opens with a synopsis of the book. Siobhan O'Sullivan then reflects upon Cochrane's methodology of ideal theory and his cosmopolitanism, followed by a reply from Cochrane. Next, Josh Milburn explores the place of wild animals in Cochrane's sentientist cosmopolitan democracy, and Cochrane offers a reply.
Essay I: What differences in public policy can be made by an establishment of a legislature through an election in authoritarian regime? In particular, how high tax rates can be formed in authoritarian regimes with a legislature? Paying attention to a legislature's role of a signal which conveys information about dictator's economic policy preferences to capital owners, this essay revisits Escriba Folch's simple signaling game. By relaxing some restrictive assumptions about dictator types, and considering the dictator's capability of achieving his tax rate through the legislative process, the model gives answers to some empirical puzzles: 1) why some dictators are willing to maintain the legislature formed through elections; and 2) why capital owners would move their mobile assets abroad in some conditions even when a dictator allows a legislature to be established through a competitive election. The model claims that a dictator who is not tax-benevolent has an incentive to misrepresent his actual tax rate, and the probability is inversely associated with his capability in the legislature. After observing thelegislature not dissolved, capital owners who believe the dictator is not tax-benevolent are not willing to move their mobile assets away. On the other hand, after observing the legislature maintained by a dictator who is less capable of achieving his tax rate, capital owners consider moving their mobile assets away only when they believe that the dictator is tax-benevolent. Thus, it is more likely to see relatively low tax rates under capable dictatorships with legislatures. It is ironical that dictators who inherently have low tax rates to invigorate the economy by inducing a higher level of investment cannot enjoy the benefits of maintaining (or creating) a legislature. Case studies of two military regimes in Korea (1961-1987) demonstrate that the predictions made by the theoretical model are empirically supported in the Korean cases. Essay II: Assuming that electoral incentives of three political actors (individual legislators, a ruling party, and a president) may not be aligned with each other in common institutional settings, this essay attempts to construct an integrated theory about the relationship between the allocation of intergovernmental grants and the political actors. It empirically tests three hypotheses derived from the theory by examining the case of theSpecial Local Allocation Grants in Korea (2005-2006). To properly capture regional variation in the allocation, this essay employs the multilevel linear regression model in the Bayesian framework. First, the individual legislator's membership of the specific committee to monitor the execution of the intergovernmental grants is positively associated with the amount of the grants, which supports the Legislators' capability hypothesis, as in the classical regression models. Second, vote margin at the district level is positively associated with the amount of the grants, which provides strong evidence against the Unstable Electoral Districts Hypothesis, however. The result from Bayesian multilevel linear model supports the Unstable provinces hypothesis which states a significant positive association between the amount of intergovernmental grants delivered at the province level and being an electorally unstable province within a broader region in which voters are motivated by their regional identities even after controlling for the need-based criteria. It implies that it is more efficient to target an electorally unstable province even within a supporter region because voters affiliated with a regional (or ethnic) identity in the electorally stable province may not resent the allocation of grants even if they are not the main beneficiaries. Consequently, the distribution of the grants at the higher level can be decided by the efficient targeting strategy, whereas the grants tend to be delivered to strong supporters at the district level. These statistical results are consistent with the ideas that this essay adopts. During the period under investigation the liberal president who could not be reelected by the constitution intended to secure his key policies after his retirement. To help his successor from his faction to earn more votes in the future presidential election, he was willing to allocate considerable amount of government resources to some opposition districts, which may not be completely aligned with the target strategy of the ruling party who sought to maximize the number of seats in the National Assembly under Single-Member District Plurality rule. Regardless of their respective party lines the specific committee members who wanted to be reelected attempted to deliver more grants to their own districts. Essay III: Why do some rising powers unilaterally declare an ideal ordering principle against regional powers deeply attached to existing principles although it is not likely to be realized in the near future? Under what circumstances can such an ideal principle be successfully implemented in the region or escalate into an armed conflict? This paper aims to form a game-theoretic model of bargaining between two rival states with potentially incompatible ordering principles, and provide solid evidence from U.S.-Japanese conflicts in Northeast Asia in the early twentieth century. Constructed on two-sided uncertainty, the model coherently explains why the United States, a new external force in Northeast Asia, was deeply attached to the Open-Door principle as a practically efficient option in bargaining with Japan, a regional power, which adhered to the partition principle, but the potential conflict escalated into a war in the end. Fifteen historical cases from 1899 to 1941 strongly support the predictions made by the model.
A common argument in the health policy debate is that market forces allocate resources efficiently in health care, and that government intervention distorts such allocation. Rarely do those making such claims state explicitly that the market they refer to is an ideal in economic theory which can only exist under very strict conditions. This paper explores the strict conditions necessary for that ideal market in the context of health care as a means of examining the claim that market forces do allocate resources efficiently in health care.
The article analyzes the fundamental concepts and pedagogical views of the British teacher, philosopher, representative of empiricism and liberalism John Locke, known in the world as one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment and theorist of liberalism. The practical rationalism of the Anglo-Saxon culture is studied, as well as the influence and significance that the great thinker had on the education and training system in English schools. The article analyzes the philosophical-psychological theory of the "clean board" (Latin Tabula rasa), which consists in denying the existence of "innate" ideas and concepts in the human mind, showing that the human psyche is born from birth like a clean board or a blank sheet, where there are no inscriptions. The goal of education is to bring up a true gentleman, a nobleman by birth, a business man who knows how to manage his business intelligently and favorably, has good physical training and is distinguished by his "grace" behavior in society.
Recent legal reforms in Mexico demonstrate that, it, like many other countries, still relies on an understanding of development as economic growth in order to justify social policies. The widespread social costs of this framework, however, demand now more than ever before a framework of social justice that can counteract the justification and legitimisation of social policies solely based on such a view of development. While there is a strong demand for social justice to inform political action, in recent years, ideal theories of justice have also come under severe criticism due to their (apparent) lack of practical policy relevance. This paper departs from this view and argues that ideal theories are essential for the reduction of injustice in the present but that it is necessary to reconcile and complement ideal and non-ideal approaches to justice. The paper takes Rawls's Theory of Justice and Sen's Idea of Justice as illustrations of my argument. In the light of the labour reform in Mexico, this paper, however, argues that both ideal and non-ideal conceptions of justice are necessary but are still insufficient in reducing injustice. Without a dynamic understanding of injustice and how it is reproduced, approaches to social justice would remain transcendental and, thus, their effective applicability in the real world is highly compromised. This implies the need to go beyond the usual all-purpose conceptions of justice (whether ideal or non-ideal) and establish what the paper calls a 'multi-level' conception of justice to effectively inform social policies and reduce injustice 'in the real world'.
International audience ; Briefly tracing the main critical theories around the development and progress paradigm allow us to focus attention on questions such as what does it mean to live in development? Why is it necessary to develop and to what extent? How is development achieved? The conceptual approach draws the key lines for the understanding of the hegemonic discourse established in the collective imaginary as a moral ideal in the economic, social and political configuration of societies, as a concept, theory and practice. Concepts understood as inevitable ideals of any traditional society towards a superior. This theoretical review is part of the ongoing doctoral research project entitled «Montuvias. A decolonial feminist look at the development / progress paradigm in Ecuador», so a brief conceptual description of the gender perspective in development is also made. ; Rastrear brevemente las principales teorías críticas en torno al paradigma de desarrollo y progreso permiten centrar la atención en cuestionamientos tales como ¿qué significa vivir en desarrollo?, ¿por qué es necesario desarrollarse y en qué medida?, ¿cómo se consigue el desarrollo? La aproximación conceptual traza las líneas claves para la comprensión del discurso hegemónico instaurado en el imaginario colectivo como un ideal moral en la configuración económica, social y política de las sociedades, como concepto, teoría y práctica. Conceptos entendidos como ideales inevitables de toda sociedad tradicional hacia una superior. Esta revisión teórica hace parte del proyecto de investigación doctoral en curso titulado «Montuvias. Una mirada feminista decolonial al paradigma de desarrollo/progreso en el Ecuador», por lo que también se realiza una breve descripción conceptual de la perspectiva de género en el desarrollo.
Infamously, Rawls assumed a democratic society to be "a complete and closed social system," in that "entry into it is only by birth and exit from it is only by death." Since the beginning of the present millennium, however, debates about the ethical issues related to immigration have been prominent. In this context, these methodological departure points seem long outdated, if not simply biased. This paper will rework Rawls's theory of migration for application to the case of provisional immigrants by reworking its theoretical underpinnings. I will argue that once his assumptions are adjusted, Rawlsian notions of 'stability' in conjunction with his idea of a 'society understood as a fair system of cooperation' justify inclusive membership regimes. In other words, Rawlsian domestic justice requires inclusive membership regimes for provisional immigrants.
We extend classical ideal point estimation to allow voters to have different preferences when voting in different domains—for example, when voting on agricultural policy than when voting on defense policy. Our scaling procedure results in estimated ideal points on a common scale. As a result, we are able to directly compare a member's revealed preferences across different domains of voting (different sets of motions) to assess if, for example, a member votes more conservatively on agriculture motions than on defense. In doing so, we are able to assess the extent to which voting behavior of an individual voter is consistent with a uni-dimensional spatial model—if a member has the same preferences in all domains. The key novelty is to estimate rather than assume the identity of "stayers"—voters whose revealed preference is constant across votes. Our approach offers methodology for investigating the relationship between the basic space and issue space in legislative voting (Poole 2007). There are several methodological advantages to our approach. First, our model allows for testing sharp hypotheses. Second, the methodology developed can be understood as a kind of partial-pooling model for item response theory scaling, resulting in less uncertainty of estimates. Related, our estimation method provides a principled and unified approach to the issue of "granularity" (i.e., the level of aggregation) in the analysis of roll-call data (Crespin and Rohde 2010; Roberts et al. 2016). We illustrate the model by estimating U.S. House of Representatives members' revealed preferences in different policy domains, and identify several other potential applications of the model including: studying the relationship between committee and floor voting behavior; and investigating constituency influence and representation.
The article examines the theoretical views on representation in Elizabethan England, which determined the notion of an exemplary member of parliament (MP). Central to the English theoretical model of representation was the idea of metaphorical embodiment of the whole nation in parliament, which influenced the perception of MP as an independent actor, an attorney, invested with plena potestas, and guided by his own independent judgment and experience. The author explores the connection between the notions of parliament as the Great Council and the High Court and the interpretation of MPs' functions and goals, the influence of religious ideas, Renaissance culture and classical republicanism on the ideal of parliament man. ; En el artículo se examinan las teorías de la representación en la Inglaterra de Isabel I, las cuales determinaron la noción del parlamentario ejemplar. La idea de la encarnación metafórica de toda la nación en el Parlamento fue central para el modelo inglés teorético de representación e influyó en la percepción del parlamentario como un actor independiente, un representante legal, investido con plena potestas y guiado por su propia opinión y experiencia. La autora explora la conexión entre las nociones del Parlamento como Consejo y Tribunal Supremos y la interpretación de las funciones y objetivos del miembro del Parlamento, así como la influencia de las ideas religiosas, de la cultura del Renacimiento y del republicanismo clásico en el ideal del hombre parlamentario.
In her recent article "Realism and Idealism: Was Habermas's Communicative Turn a Move in the Wrong Direction?" Maeve Cooke examines the evolution of Jürgen Habermas's thought over the past five decades. According to Cooke, Habermas's so-called 'communicative turn' was a necessary step in his philosophy's systematic attempt to derive a universal norm from the immanent context of human practices and institutions. In her opinion, however, Habermas's theory is unable to achieve such "transcendence from within" due to the inherent problem of justification in his theory's treatment of normative validity claims. Cooke believes that despite Habermas's exhaustive efforts to provide a communication-based model for an ideal theory of law, any political theory that discredits the possibility of metaphysical truth inevitably relinquishes the "context-transcending moment" that his idea of validity is meant to capture. I examine how Habermas derives the normative ideals of validity in democratic will-formation from the Theory of Communicative Action, and compare this with the approach proposed by Cooke. In conclusion, I characterize their respective methods as mutually exclusive in terms of their assessment of the epistemic condition of modernity.
Briefly tracing the main critical theories around the development and progress paradigm allow us to focus attention on questions such as what does it mean to live in development? Why is it necessary to develop and to what extent? How is development achieved? The conceptual approach draws the key lines for the understanding of the hegemonic discourse established in the collective imaginary as a moral ideal in the economic, social and political configuration of societies, as a concept, theory and practice. Concepts understood as inevitable ideals of any traditional society towards a superior. This theoretical review is part of the ongoing doctoral research project entitled «Montuvias. A decolonial feminist look at the development / progress paradigm in Ecuador», so a brief conceptual description of the gender perspective in development is also made.
