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Democratic Society and Human Needs |
eBook Available
A timely assessment of liberal, rights-based social morality from the perspective of an alternative, needs-based system.
As anti-globalization protests show, the public is searching for ways to explain and rethink material inequity between developed democracies and those across the development divide. Jeff Noonan provides a strategy for analyzing these issues.
In Democratic Society and Human Needs Noonan examines the moral grounds for liberalism and democracy, arguing that contemporary democracy was created through needs-based struggles against classical liberal rights, which are essentially exclusionary. For him, a democratic society is one in which human beings collectively control necessary life-resources, using them to promote the essential human value of free capability realization. His critique of globalization and liberal-capitalism vindicates radical social and economic democratization and provides an essential step towards understanding the vast discrepancies between rich and poor within and between democratic countries.
In Democratic Society and Human Needs Noonan examines the moral grounds for liberalism and democracy, arguing that contemporary democracy was created through needs-based struggles against classical liberal rights, which are essentially exclusionary. For him, a democratic society is one in which human beings collectively control necessary life-resources, using them to promote the essential human value of free capability realization. His critique of globalization and liberal-capitalism vindicates radical social and economic democratization and provides an essential step towards understanding the vast discrepancies between rich and poor within and between democratic countries.
Details
Part of the McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas Series (number 42 in series)
288 Pages, 6 x 9
ISBN 9780773531208
October 2006
Formats: Cloth, eBook
Jeff Noonan is associate professor, philosophy, the University of Windsor. He is the author of Critical Humanism and the Politics of Difference.
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Toward a Renewed Critique of Liberal Capitalism xi
PART ONE THE EMERGENCE OF LIBERAL SOCIAL MORALITY
1 The Social Context of Early Liberal Theory 3
2 The Evolution of Rights-Based Social Morality: Hobbes to James Mill 10
3 Case Study in Anti-Democratic Liberalism: The Property Defence League 38
4 Liberal Rights-Based Social Morality and Its Social Presuppositions 44
PART TWO THE EMERGENCE OF NEEDS-BASED SOCIAL MORALITY
5 Capitalism as Moral Revolution 53
6 Gerrard Winstanley: Freedom and the Needs of Life 59
7 The Dialectic of Rights and Needs in the French Revolution 69
8 Needs and Social Struggles in England and France in
the Nineteenth Century 91
9 Socialism and Democratic Need Satisfaction 111
PART THREE THE EVOLUTION OF CLASSICAL LIBERAL SOCIAL MORALITY
10 Social Rights 133
11 John Rawls: Self-Determination - Moral or Material? 141
12 Habermas’s One-Dimensional Democracy 159
13 Chantal Mouffe: The Self-Contradictions of “Political” Democracy 185
PART FOUR A PROJECT FOR SOCIAL DEMOCRATIZATION
14 The Reaction Against Social Democratization 201
15 Needs-Based Social Morality, the Life Ground of Value,
and the Good for Human Beings 214
16 Negotiated Coordination and the Project for a Democratic Society 227
Bibiliography 249
Index 259
Introduction: Toward a Renewed Critique of Liberal Capitalism xi
PART ONE THE EMERGENCE OF LIBERAL SOCIAL MORALITY
1 The Social Context of Early Liberal Theory 3
2 The Evolution of Rights-Based Social Morality: Hobbes to James Mill 10
3 Case Study in Anti-Democratic Liberalism: The Property Defence League 38
4 Liberal Rights-Based Social Morality and Its Social Presuppositions 44
PART TWO THE EMERGENCE OF NEEDS-BASED SOCIAL MORALITY
5 Capitalism as Moral Revolution 53
6 Gerrard Winstanley: Freedom and the Needs of Life 59
7 The Dialectic of Rights and Needs in the French Revolution 69
8 Needs and Social Struggles in England and France in
the Nineteenth Century 91
9 Socialism and Democratic Need Satisfaction 111
PART THREE THE EVOLUTION OF CLASSICAL LIBERAL SOCIAL MORALITY
10 Social Rights 133
11 John Rawls: Self-Determination - Moral or Material? 141
12 Habermas’s One-Dimensional Democracy 159
13 Chantal Mouffe: The Self-Contradictions of “Political” Democracy 185
PART FOUR A PROJECT FOR SOCIAL DEMOCRATIZATION
14 The Reaction Against Social Democratization 201
15 Needs-Based Social Morality, the Life Ground of Value,
and the Good for Human Beings 214
16 Negotiated Coordination and the Project for a Democratic Society 227
Bibiliography 249
Index 259
9780773544017
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