Politics: Key Concepts in Philosophy Book

Acknowledgements vii

Chapter 1 Introduction: What is politics? 1

What is politics? 4

Government, governance and governmentalization 9

Norms and varieties of political philosophy 12

The political and politicization 17

Chapter 2 Authority and Liberty 21

Absolute authority 23

Limits to authority 32

Individual liberty 39

Liberty and the general will 42

Chapter 3 The State and Power 51

The capitalist state 52

The patriarchal state 61

Three dimensions of power 66

Power and normalization 70

Chapter 4 Social Justice and Equality 75

The good life 75

Value-pluralism 78

Justice as fairness 81

Justice as entitlement 89

Care and justice 91

The return of the good 97

Chapter 5 Democracy and Political Order 102

Democracy and disorder 104

Democracy and the value of political participation 105

The difficult birth of liberal democracy 110

From representative to deliberative democracy 112

Agonism and political order 119

Chapter 6 Culture and Critique 122

Background to the culture debates 122

Cultural membership as a primary good 125

Minority cultures and the rights of women 129

Women, culture and identity 131

The fusion of horizons 136

Intersubjectivity and the politics of recognition 138

Chapter 7 Conclusion: Identity, Difference and Political Philosophy 141

French feminist critiques of identity 143

The trouble with gender 149

The challenge of difference 154

Difference in political philosophy 158

Difference and political philosophy 161

Bibliography 165

Index 171