Download or read book An Instrumentalist Theory of Political Legitimacy written by Matthias Brinkmann and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-16 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are all subjected to the power of the state and other entities such as the EU. But what justifies the far-reaching power of these institutions? Standard theories suggest that consent, democracy, or justification make exercising power legitimate. This book, however, argues that these approaches do not survive philosophical scrutiny. Instead, it develops a radical theory of political legitimacy according to which power is justified because of the outcomes it brings about. It does not primarily matter, then, how power is exercised; instead, we should focus on what it achieves. This is the first book-length treatment of instrumentalism. It outlines the structure and core moral commitments of the theory and considers in detail how it is best formulated. In particular, the book sketches an abstract theory of justice and argues that our primary aim in distributing political power should be to promote justice. Instrumentalism is also contrasted with the three leading theories of legitimacy, based on consent, democracy, and public justification. Not only are these competing theories unpersuasive, but it is also shown that instrumentalism can replicate some of their appeal in its own way. The book also untangles some conceptual confusions concerning political legitimacy. One mainstream view is that legitimacy requires authority, the ability to give binding commands to people. This book argues against the necessity of authority and develops an authority-less model of legitimacy, defining legitimacy as the separate and distinctly moral problem of justifying political power. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the moral foundations of justified political power, and especially to researchers in philosophy, political theory, and law.
Download or read book An Instrumentalist Theory of Political Legitimacy written by Matthias Brinkmann and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-16 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are all subjected to the power of the state and other entities such as the EU. But what justifies the far-reaching power of these institutions? Standard theories suggest that consent, democracy, or justification make exercising power legitimate. This book, however, argues that these approaches do not survive philosophical scrutiny. Instead, it develops a radical theory of political legitimacy according to which power is justified because of the outcomes it brings about. It does not primarily matter, then, how power is exercised; instead, we should focus on what it achieves. This is the first book-length treatment of instrumentalism. It outlines the structure and core moral commitments of the theory and considers in detail how it is best formulated. In particular, the book sketches an abstract theory of justice and argues that our primary aim in distributing political power should be to promote justice. Instrumentalism is also contrasted with the three leading theories of legitimacy, based on consent, democracy, and public justification. Not only are these competing theories unpersuasive, but it is also shown that instrumentalism can replicate some of their appeal in its own way. The book also untangles some conceptual confusions concerning political legitimacy. One mainstream view is that legitimacy requires authority, the ability to give binding commands to people. This book argues against the necessity of authority and develops an authority-less model of legitimacy, defining legitimacy as the separate and distinctly moral problem of justifying political power. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the moral foundations of justified political power, and especially to researchers in philosophy, political theory, and law.
Download or read book Democratic Legitimacy written by Fabienne Peter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-01-13 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a systematic treatment of democratic legitimacy, interpreted as a distinct normative concept. It defends the view that democratic legitimacy requires that decisions are made in a process that is politically and epistemically fair.
Download or read book Beyond Hegemony written by Darrow Schecter and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2005-07-22 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the Enlightenment, liberal democratic governments in Europe and North America have been compelled to secure the legitimacy of their authority by constructing rational states whose rationality is based on modern forms of law. The first serious challenge to liberal democratic practices of legal legitimacy comes in Marx's early writings on Rousseau and Hegel. In addition to examining Marx's critique of Kant, Hegel, and liberalism, Schecter investigates the reasons for the authoritarianism and breakdown of state socialist governments in Russia and elsewhere claiming to put Marx's ideas on democracy and equality into practice.
Download or read book Democratic Authority written by David Estlund and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-03 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy is not naturally plausible. Why turn such important matters over to masses of people who have no expertise? Many theories of democracy answer by appealing to the intrinsic value of democratic procedure, leaving aside whether it makes good decisions. In Democratic Authority, David Estlund offers a groundbreaking alternative based on the idea that democratic authority and legitimacy must depend partly on democracy's tendency to make good decisions. Just as with verdicts in jury trials, Estlund argues, the authority and legitimacy of a political decision does not depend on the particular decision being good or correct. But the "epistemic value" of the procedure--the degree to which it can generally be accepted as tending toward a good decision--is nevertheless crucial. Yet if good decisions were all that mattered, one might wonder why those who know best shouldn't simply rule. Estlund's theory--which he calls "epistemic proceduralism"--avoids epistocracy, or the rule of those who know. He argues that while some few people probably do know best, this can be used in political justification only if their expertise is acceptable from all reasonable points of view. If we seek the best epistemic arrangement in this respect, it will be recognizably democratic--with laws and policies actually authorized by the people subject to them.
Download or read book Legitimacy and Democracy written by Amanda Ruth Greene and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy is widely recognized as a distinctively legitimate form of government. In this dissertation I evaluate democracy's claim to political legitimacy. I propose a new theory of political legitimacy based on an ideal of voluntary rule, and I call this view the sovereignty conception. The sovereignty conception of legitimacy employs an interpretation of political freedom as voluntary acceptance of rule, based on the positive governance assessments of individual subjects. Thus, I develop and defend the view that a political order is legitimate to the degree that it achieves widespread consent among subjects on the basis of governance outcomes. Due to its orientation to both quality of outcomes and actual consent to rule, the sovereignty conception offers a novel way to value consent in the political domain. Accordingly, I argue that it addresses important shortcomings in other consent theories of legitimacy, namely, voluntarism and contractualism. I also show the advantages of the sovereignty conception of political legitimacy as compared to two alternative accounts that are not based on consent, Philip Pettit's republicanism and Bernard Williams's political realism. Furthermore, I argue that an ideal of voluntary rule that resonates with the sovereignty conception can be found in Plato's Laws, in which he both distinguishes freedom from justice and emphasizes freedom's distinct value. I develop and defend a new interpretation of the Laws, according to which proper political rule involves respect for the freedom of citizens by aiming at their free acceptance of rule. Finally, I utilize the sovereignty conception of legitimacy to propose an alternative argument for the legitimacy of democracy. According to the sovereignty conception, a democracy is legitimate because it prioritizes actual quality consent over other welfare outcomes through its institutional mechanisms of responsiveness to popular approval and disapproval. I argue that the legitimacy of democracy is better defended by the sovereignty conception than by views based on equality or hypothetical consent, and I analyze in particular the democratic theories of Thomas Christiano, David Estlund, and Joshua Cohen. I propose a new way of combining instrumental and non-instrumental elements in an argument for democracy, resulting in a defense that preserves the distinct contributions of democracy's instrumental and non-instrumental value. Ultimately, I show that the personal sovereignty conception of political legitimacy affords a promising new route to justifying the legitimacy of democracy. Thus, the sovereignty conception of political legitimacy represents a novel approach, one that seeks to articulate the distinct value of political legitimacy vis-à-vis other political values.
Download or read book The Legitimation of Power written by David Beetham and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political theory has undergone a remarkable development in recent years. A systematic study of legitimacy within social science, the book starts as a critique of Weber and examines the link betwen a social-scientific approach and the various philosophical traditions of theorizing about legitimacy.
Download or read book Authority written by Fabian Wendt and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-08-08 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From citizens paying taxes to employees following their bosses' orders and kids obeying their parents, we take it for granted that a whole range of authorities have the power to impose duties on others. However, although authority is often accepted in practice, it looks philosophically problematic if we conceive persons as free and equals. In this short and accessible book, Fabian Wendt examines the basis of authority, discussing five prominent theories that try to explain how claims to authority can be vindicated. Focusing in particular on the issue of how states can rightfully claim authority, he rigorously analyses the theories’ arguments and evaluates their strengths and weaknesses. He also debates anarchism as an alternative that should be taken seriously if no theory ultimately succeeds in explaining state authority. This clear and engaging book will be essential reading for anyone grappling with the most fundamental questions of authority and obligation in political theory and political philosophy.
Download or read book A Theory of Secession written by Christopher Heath Wellman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-09-05 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 2005 book presents an argument for the right of groups to secede, offering a thorough and unapologetic defense.
Download or read book Epistemic Democracy and Political Legitimacy written by Ivan Cerovac and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-04-22 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This compelling new book explores whether the ability of democratic procedures to produce correct outcomes increases the legitimacy of such political decisions. Mapping and critically engaging with the main theories of epistemic democracy, it additionally evaluates arguments for different democratic decision-making procedures related to aggregative and deliberative democracy. Addressing both positions that are too epistemic, such as Epistrocracy and Scholocracy, as well as those that are not epistemic enough, such as Pure Epistemic Proceduralism and Pragmatist Deliberative Democracy, Cerovac builds an innovative structure that can be used to bring order to numerous accounts of epistemic democracy. Introducing an appropriate account of epistemic democracy, Cerovac proceeds to analyse whether such epistemic value is better achieved through aggregative or deliberative procedures. Drawing particularly on the work of David Estlund, and including a discussion on the implementation of the epistemic ideal to real world politics, this is a fascinating read for all those interested in democratic decision-making.
Download or read book Political Legitimacy and Selected Cases from the Theory of Political Representation written by Michael Robert Merz and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Against Democracy written by Jason Brennan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bracingly provocative challenge to one of our most cherished ideas and institutions Most people believe democracy is a uniquely just form of government. They believe people have the right to an equal share of political power. And they believe that political participation is good for us—it empowers us, helps us get what we want, and tends to make us smarter, more virtuous, and more caring for one another. These are some of our most cherished ideas about democracy. But Jason Brennan says they are all wrong. In this trenchant book, Brennan argues that democracy should be judged by its results—and the results are not good enough. Just as defendants have a right to a fair trial, citizens have a right to competent government. But democracy is the rule of the ignorant and the irrational, and it all too often falls short. Furthermore, no one has a fundamental right to any share of political power, and exercising political power does most of us little good. On the contrary, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people worse—more irrational, biased, and mean. Given this grim picture, Brennan argues that a new system of government—epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable—may be better than democracy, and that it's time to experiment and find out. A challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable, Against Democracy is essential reading for scholars and students of politics across the disciplines. Featuring a new preface that situates the book within the current political climate and discusses other alternatives beyond epistocracy, Against Democracy is a challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable.
Download or read book China s Quest for Political Legitimacy written by Baogang Guo and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2010-09-23 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the new equity-enhancing politics in China in the context of Chinese traditional cognitive patterns of political legitimacy and its implication for Chinese political development in the near future. Based on an analysis of the new governing philosophy, the generation of political elite, and a new set of public policies, the book reaffirms the emergence of a new Chinese polity that infuses one-party rule with limited electoral and deliberative democracies. Unlike many scholars who perceive the contemporary Chinese history as a constant search for democracy, this book takes a very different approach. It asserts that the enduring question in political development in China today is no different from what was sought after throughout Chinese history, namely, the constant search for political legitimacy. Even though the quest for democracy is instrumental to that end, it may not ultimately lead to the embrace of a full-fledged liberal democracy. The new politics is not only a rationalization of the efficiency-based development, but also a major paradigm shift in China's developmental strategy.
Download or read book Understanding Legitimacy written by Philip D. Shadd and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses a substantive normative issue of contemporary political theory, the issue of political legitimacy, critiquing the mainstream approach of justificatory liberalism and offering an alternative reconstructed from neo-Calvinist social thought, a rich source of insights that might be applied to other issues within political theory.
Download or read book Between Facts and Norms written by Jürgen Habermas and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 637 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is Habermas's long awaited work on law, democracy and the modern constitutional state in which he develops his own account of the nature of law and democracy.
Download or read book Rousseau and Weber written by J.G. Merguior and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Max Weber, central thinkers to the discussion of political legitimacy, represent two very different stages and forms of social theory: early modern political philosophy and classical sociology. In these studies, Dr Merquior describes and assesses their individual contributions to the understanding of the concept of political legitimacy. Dr Merquior compares Rousseau and Weber to a handful of other major theorists and highlights the contemporary prospects of the alternatives between democratic participation and bureaucratizm. This book was first published in 1980.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism written by Tanja A. Börzel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 705 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism - the first of its kind - offers a systematic and wide-ranging survey of the scholarship on regionalism, regionalization, and regional governance. Unpacking the major debates, leading authors of the field synthesize the state of the art, provide a guide to the comparative study of regionalism, and identify future avenues of research. Twenty-seven chapters review the theoretical and empirical scholarship with regard to the emergence of regionalism, the institutional design of regional organizations and issue-specific governance, as well as the effects of regionalism and its relationship with processes of regionalization. The authors explore theories of cooperation, integration, and diffusion explaining the rise and the different forms of regionalism. The handbook also discusses the state of the art on the world regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Eurasia, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Various chapters survey the literature on regional governance in major issue areas such as security and peace, trade and finance, environment, migration, social and gender policies, as well as democracy and human rights. Finally, the handbook engages in cross-regional comparisons with regard to institutional design, dispute settlement, identities and communities, legitimacy and democracy, as well as inter- and transregionalism.
