Description
Democracy and justice are often mutually antagonistic ideas, but in this innovative book Ian Shapiro shows how and why they should be pursued together. Justice must be sought democratically if it is to garner legitimacy in the modern world, he claims, and democracy must be justice-promoting if it is to sustain allegiance over time. Democratic Justice meets these criteria, offering an attractive vision of a practical path to a better future.
Wherever power is exercised in human affairs, Shapiro argues, the lack of democracy will be experienced as injustice. The challenge is to democratize social relations so as to diminish injustice, but to do this in ways that are compatible with people's values and goals. Shapiro shows how this can be done in different phases of the human life cycle, from childhood through the adult worlds of work and domestic life, retirement, old age, and approaching death. He spells out the implications for pressing debates about authority over children, the law of marriage and divorce, population control, governing the firm, basic income guarantees, health insurance, retirement policies, and decisions made by and for the infirm elderly. This refreshing encounter between political philosophy and practical politics will interest all those who aspire to bequeath a more just world to our children than the one we have inherited.
About the Author
Ian Shapiro is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Political Science at Yale University.
Reviews
"A compelling attempt to map philosophical arguments about justice on to some of the contours of actual political practice." David Runciman, Times Literary Supplement "Shapiro's argument is wonderfully lucid." Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton "Shapiro successfully tackles not only one but both of the great divides in contemporary political philosophy - that between fair procedures and good outcomes, and that between theory and practice." Jennifer L. Hochschild, Harvard University "Democratic theorists and students of public policy will enjoy, and learn from, Shapiro's well-informed and sensitive discussion of a set of policy issues that increasingly concern citizens in liberal democracies." David Miller, American Political Science Review"
Book Information
ISBN 9780300089080
Author Ian Shapiro
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press
Weight(grams) 517g
Wherever power is exercised in human affairs, Shapiro argues, the lack of democracy will be experienced as injustice. The challenge is to democratize social relations so as to diminish injustice, but to do this in ways that are compatible with people's values and goals. Shapiro shows how this can be done in different phases of the human life cycle, from childhood through the adult worlds of work and domestic life, retirement, old age, and approaching death. He spells out the implications for pressing debates about authority over children, the law of marriage and divorce, population control, governing the firm, basic income guarantees, health insurance, retirement policies, and decisions made by and for the infirm elderly. This refreshing encounter between political philosophy and practical politics will interest all those who aspire to bequeath a more just world to our children than the one we have inherited.
About the Author
Ian Shapiro is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Political Science at Yale University.
Reviews
"A compelling attempt to map philosophical arguments about justice on to some of the contours of actual political practice." David Runciman, Times Literary Supplement "Shapiro's argument is wonderfully lucid." Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton "Shapiro successfully tackles not only one but both of the great divides in contemporary political philosophy - that between fair procedures and good outcomes, and that between theory and practice." Jennifer L. Hochschild, Harvard University "Democratic theorists and students of public policy will enjoy, and learn from, Shapiro's well-informed and sensitive discussion of a set of policy issues that increasingly concern citizens in liberal democracies." David Miller, American Political Science Review"
Book Information
ISBN 9780300089080
Author Ian Shapiro
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press
Weight(grams) 517g
