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Abstract: Here at The Good Society we agree with those of our fellow citizens who believe that cultivating a culture of “pluralism” is key to sustaining and renewing democracy, and that polarization—or, more precisely, “affective” polarization, the translation of ideological differences into social, cultural, and personal antipathy—has become a deadly threat to the pluralist democratic project. Indeed, the field of Civic Studies was founded to explore how our differences can catalyze creative, constructive, collaborative political action to build a society in which all of us can thrive, without sacrificing the variety of perspectives and lifeways that make society interesting and resilient. The current toxicity of Americans’ ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Americans interested in community today often lament precisely what conservative Americans prize: the perceived emphasis on individual rights and absence of explicit endorsements of civic duty, collective authority, and social equality in our eighteenth-century founding documents. Those familiar with the writings of John Rawls, particularly his classic A Theory of Justice (1971), likewise fault Rawls for giving priority to liberty over equality, a preference widely criticized by communitarians insisting that the common good is the proper end and measure of government.1 In this article I want to challenge those understandings of our nation’s founding, and of Rawls’s work, in order to show that concerns with the ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: This article explores the relationship between political and social equality. Political equality refers to the idea that citizens should be guaranteed the same democratic rights, regardless of their political persuasions. Meanwhile, social equality refers to the idea that minorities should, at a minimum, not be so disadvantaged or underprivileged that they can only enjoy their political rights at the discretion of the majority.As we shall see, democracy ought to embody both forms of equality. However, given the realities of formal politics and social life, is it possible to have both' This article draws on themes explored in my book, Hanging Together, and elsewhere to consider how proponents of democracy—from ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: On November 29, 1989, a few months before the collapse of the Socialist regime, a few dozen homeless people occupied an underpass at the center of the Hungarian capital, Budapest, and began a five-day sit-in. They demanded public housing, collected signatures, and met the top city official. A few weeks later, they occupied and blocked one of the three main railway stations and created a short-lived mass organization to articulate their demands.1 They were a small slice of the 2–3 million people who, according to the 1980 census, were affected by housing shortages and substandard housing in Hungary. Yet, both the then state-socialist government and subsequent democratic leadership largely ignored their demands. ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: In democratic, pluralistic societies, diverse constituencies need ways to collectively negotiate for their interests. Coalitions are one way that stakeholders can collectively solve problems and negotiate for change on behalf of their constituencies. But often, coalitions fail to achieve their goals. How can coalitions more effectively create change and remain resilient in the face of inevitable losses' This article makes the case that by making ongoing investments in their architecture, coalitions can function as effective and resilient vehicles for collective problem solving.Coalitions—broadly defined as multistakeholder configurations, including partnerships, alliances, ongoing coordination tables and ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Over the past half century, but most notably in the past decade, deliberative democracy has experienced a renaissance. Governments across the world are piloting and adopting programs to engage citizens in public consultation through organized facilitated conversations (deliberations) on policy issues (Chwalisz 2019). Increasingly, governments are institutionalizing deliberative mini-publics, granting them advisory—and sometimes even decision-making—power over policymaking (Macq and Jacquet 2023; Chwalisz 2019; Fishkin and Zandanshatar 2017).As political systems increasingly adopt this powerful tool for informed public consultation, some scholars have proposed that deliberative democracy likewise be adopted in civic ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: For many years, the concept of the citizen professional has been part of an ongoing conversation in the pages of The Good Society, and with good reason. It is a core concept of the Civic Studies field and a growing number of scholars have explored its meaning and applications in this venue and elsewhere. Definitions often reference the foundational scholarship of Harry Boyte and his colleagues, who introduced the concept as part of the proposal for a paradigm shift in the theory of democracy.1 They argue for a more expansive understanding of democracy and citizenship beyond (but not excluding) the state-centered liberal understanding on the one hand, and the communitarian conception of democracy, focused on civic ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: In the mid-fourteenth century Italy was experiencing a crisis of unprecedented magnitude. The competing swords of the two universal authorities—the spiritual and the temporal—were unable to command the respect and loyalty of those they were supposed to rule. The Catholic Church was corrupt and internally divided; the papacy, no longer based in Rome but forcedly transferred to Avignon (1309–76), had become a puppet in the hands of French monarchs; and the emperor lacked the military and political power to prevail over his multiple enemies—a chaotic array of local factions, lawless tyrants, and rebellious cities (not to mention the Ottoman Turks at the door of Constantinople). Further contributing to the apocalyptic ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: James Hankins’s landmark study focuses on “virtue politics,” the idea that “soulcraft” was essential to statecraft according to the humanists of Renaissance Italy.1 For Hankins’s humanists, political renewal would result from improvements in character and education, a restoration of ancient virtue, not the prudent reconstruction of institutions and laws. Humanistic culture was “one long, animated seminar on the possibility of imitating ancient Rome” (70). In its focus on the renewal of classical virtue, Hankins argues, the humanists’ political theory presents a distinctive challenge to the institutional, juridical framework of subsequent thought.Hankins offers trenchant criticisms of scholarly fashion. One such ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: James Hankins’s Virtue Politics is a masterful contribution to the study of the history of political thought, and especially Renaissance humanism. An enormous amount of scholarly research has positioned itself in relation to something that it calls “Renaissance humanism.” But Virtue Politics reveals the extent to which this seemingly well-trodden ground remains unexplored, and even unmapped. As one might expect from a scholar who has spent a lifetime sifting through the relevant materials, Hankins proves to be a first-rate guide through its rich and varied terrain.Virtue Politics is a big book—big in terms of length, clocking in at over 700 pages, but also, and far more importantly, big in its ambition. It surveys ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: It is a great honor and pleasure for me to participate in this forum to discuss James Hankins’s most impressive and significant book, Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy with these distinguished scholars. My commission is to discuss the themes of empire and cosmopolitanism as they come to light in this book.An endorsement of a vast empire would point to its unification of disparate peoples in a form of comity that quells the constant and bloody battles that so frequently occur when various tribes or cities inevitably compete for prominence in a given territory. The ability of the imperial power to amass such territory requires self-sacrifice and numerous other virtues on the part of its ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Since its publication, reviewers have not spared Virtue Politics compliments, and today, now some years later, it seems that all the appropriate expressions to congratulate James Hankins’s research have already been used. In joining this well-deserved chorus of praise, I will therefore limit myself to adding just one thing: Hankins’s volume is one of the rare books destined to mark a watershed, dividing scholarship on Renaissance political theory into a “before” and an “after.” From now on, and for a long time, any scholar in this field will inevitably dialogue first and foremost with Virtue Politics.In the twentieth century, specialists have almost always portrayed early modern political thought as a clash between ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Let me begin by expressing my deep gratitude to Dr. David Ragazzoni for his energy and persistence in organizing this forum, and especially to my distinguished interlocutors, eminent experts all, for their serious and stimulating engagement with a very long book containing a great deal of unfamiliar material. No author could hope for greater generosity. Each of the responses in this forum has helped me see how readers from different points on the scholarly compass converge on the concept of human-ist virtue politics. Collectively, they have made me think hard about the value of virtue politics, both in the Renaissance and today. Above all, they have made me consider the charge that virtue politics was a failure in ... Read More PubDate: 2024-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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