Journal article
What is to be done? Political theory and political realism
- Abstract:
- This article argues for greater realism in political theory with respect to judgements about what politicians ought to do and how they ought to act. It shows that there are major problems in deducing what a given politician should do from the value commitments that are common to liberalism and it makes a case for recognizing the major role played by the context of action and particular agent involved. It distinguishes political virtue from moral virtues and argues that the 'decisionist' features of political agency render evaluation a partly post hoc process. The article advocates a version of political realism that is rooted in an understanding of the distinctive character of political rule and that provides the basis for a contextualist but non-relativist account of 'what is to be done'.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Authors
- Publisher:
- SAGE Publications
- Journal:
- European Journal of Political Theory More from this journal
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 4
- Pages:
- 466-484
- Publication date:
- 2010-10-01
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1741-2730
- ISSN:
-
1474-8851
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Subjects:
- UUID:
-
uuid:681afcfc-4c53-4508-9fc3-889819f18985
- Local pid:
-
ora:5788
- Deposit date:
-
2011-10-20
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Philp, M
- Copyright date:
- 2010
- Notes:
- The full-text of this article is not currently available in ORA, but you may be able to access the article via the publisher copy link on this record page. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in the European Journal of Political Theory, 9(4), October 2010 by SAGE Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. © 2010 Mark Philp.
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