Taking seriously the task of sustaining the democratic project requires debunking pessimism, thinking critically about what constitutes the distinctive character of democracy, and taking a future-oriented perspective on democratic transformations.

Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws (1748) illuminates the many factors that affect human behaviour and hence constrain the capacity for self-guided action, but his work also contains a defence of this capacity in his treatment of the soul. Yet Montesquieu also thought it important to establish reliable limits on human action so as to protect political liberty, and he looked to the constitutional traditions of particular peoples for standards of right that would provide effective checks on individuals and political (...) powers without fundamentally eroding the animating power of the soul. Together Montesquieu's concept of the soul and use of history point to a nascent form of limited human agency, one that balances the elements of determinism present in his new scientific approach to politics and society. (shrink)

In seeking to neutralize affectivity and in requiring us to act for the right without reference to the conceptions of the good that normally attract our allegiance, some critics say, contemporary cognitivist theories of justice undercut human agency and leave justice hanging. This paper explores the merits of that charge by engaging the work of John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas. Rawls does offer an account of the sense of justice that can meet the motivational challenge, albeit not without compromising the (...) strict priority of the right over the good. Habermas objects to key elements of the Rawlsian compromise and defends a more strenuously pure proceduralism, acknowledging the motivational (if not the normative) difficulties this entails. The accommodations and the deficits found in Rawls and Habermas point to the irrepressible place that conceptions of the good and our affective attachments to them occupy within human moral psychology. This feature of moral psychology has more than merely practical significance. It affects the operation of practical reason, and on the contemporary cognitivist models of justice it is practical reason that establishes the validity of moral and political norms. Consequently, a fuller account of the moral psychology that supports just action also helps clarify the nature of norm justification. (shrink)

In seeking to neutralize affectivity and in requiring us to act for the right without reference to the conceptions of the good that normally attract our allegiance, some critics say, contemporary cognitivist theories of justice undercut human agency and leave justice hanging. This paper explores the merits of that charge by engaging the work of John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas. Rawls does offer an account of the sense of justice that can meet the motivational challenge, albeit not without compromising the (...) strict priority of the right over the good. Habermas objects to key elements of the Rawlsian compromise and defends a more strenuously pure proceduralism, acknowledging the motivational (if not the normative) difficulties this entails. The accommodations and the deficits found in Rawls and Habermas point to the irrepressible place that conceptions of the good and our affective attachments to them occupy within human moral psychology. This feature of moral psychology has more than merely practical significance. It affects the operation of practical reason, and on the contemporary cognitivist models of justice it is practical reason that establishes the validity of moral and political norms. Consequently, a fuller account of the moral psychology that supports just action also helps clarify the nature of norm justification. (shrink)

Conceiving political agency in terms of an interaction between the categories that Simone de Beauvoir called 'immanence' and 'transcendence' illuminates the role that attachments and desires play in supporting commitments to abstract principles of political right, and so clarifies the structure and sources of political agency. Communitarians and feminist theorists have shown in recent years that attachments to particular others can support a strong sense of individual efficacy. This analysis goes beyond those prior studies by showing the importance for political (...) agency of partial attachments not to particular others but to abstract principles such as justice, liberty and equality. Motivating principled political action is a fundamental concern for constitutional liberal democracies such as the USA, in which citizens are to rule themselves on the basis of a constitutionally established set of abstract principles, rather than simply on the basis of attachments to particular persons or communities. Key Words: citizenship • gender • justice • political agency • Simone de Beauvoir. (shrink)

Conceiving political agency in terms of an interaction between the categories that Simone de Beauvoir called ‘immanence’ and ‘transcendence’ illuminates the role that attachments and desires play in supporting commitments to abstract principles of political right, and so clarifies the structure and sources of political agency. Communitarians and feminist theorists have shown in recent years that attachments to particular others can support a strong sense of individual efficacy. This analysis goes beyond those prior studies by showing the importance for political (...) agency of partial attachments not to particular others but to abstract principles such as justice, liberty and equality. Motivating principled political action is a fundamental concern for constitutional liberal democracies such as the USA, in which citizens are to rule themselves on the basis of a constitutionally established set of abstract principles, rather than simply on the basis of attachments to particular persons or communities. (shrink)

The arts of rule cover the exercise of power by princes and popular sovereigns, but they range beyond the domain of government itself, extending to civil associations, political parties, and religious institutions. Making full use of political philosophy from a range of backgrounds, this festschrift for Harvey Mansfield recognizes that although the arts of rule are comprehensive, the best government is a limited one.