Michael Goodhart
Biographic Data
| ID | 4247761 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Goodhart |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Goodhart |
| SIGNATURE | GOODHART M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pittsburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6820-602X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 97 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Human rights globalization: How local and global actions institutionalize human rights
We introduce this special issue with an elaboration of the concept of human rights globalization as a dynamic process that involves local and global action by civil society and other actors to strengthen governments' accountability to global human rights norms and standards. This process challenges economic globalization that prioritizes international trade and financialization over human rights. Recent decades have seen growing movements of acti…
Universities and human rights in cities
Human rights globalizaon is, counter-intuively, largely a process of localizaon.We focus on the role of universies in their localies as a way of gaining insight into the complex ways in which they shape human rights outcomes both on and beyond campus.This topic has, to our knowledge, received no explicit scruny in the human rights literature, where the presumpon of academic workers producing and disseminang knowledge in pursuit of jusce-and oen o…
Liberal Pragmatism and Liberal Fantasy in the Era of Backlash Politics
Jack Snyder's book Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times is less a theory of human rights than a political sociology of liberal modernization. Focusing on that account, this article argues that the story of liberal modernization Snyder’s book presents is a distortional fable and, as such, undermines its own claims to pragmatism. This review further contends that this fable of liberal modernization creates a fantasy in which t…
Climate Change and the Politics of Responsibility
This article theorizes the politics of responsibility—activist struggles over who will be held accountable for structural injustices like the “catastrophic” changes underway in our climate. To do so, it develops a politicized conception of responsibility, one that treats responsibility as a social construct and a terrain of contestation. Building on the work of feminist philosophers of responsibility and on the praxis of “kayaktivism,” this polit…
Human Rights: Theory and Practice
Human Rights: Theory and Practice provides in-depth theoretical content and features coverage of human rights issues in practice, with a wide range of case studies showing true-to-life examples from around the world. This fourth edition brings the text up to date with new readings centred on recent and relevant issues. It is an interdisciplinary examination of human rights, rather than strictly political science-centric. The first part of the boo…
Human rights activism and the grounds of theory
Revisiting interdependence in times and terms of crisis
Scholars and lawyers have long debated the meaning of the interdependence of human rights. Revisiting that question in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates both that the substantive enjoyment of many human rights is practically interdependent and that that relationship is neither logically nor functionally necessary, as much of the literature imagines. This article introduces the idea of negative interdependence, a term that highligh…
Response to Eva Erman and Niklas Möller’s review of Injustice: Political Theory for the Real World
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Injustice: Political Theory for the Real World
Injustice offers a radical alternative to familiar ways of thinking about problems of justice and injustice, one motivated by the urgency of concrete struggles over injustice in the real world. It rejects the paradigm of ideal moral theory, which suffers from theoretical paralysis, distortional thinking, and a reflexive tendency to subordinate politics to morality. Instead, this book proposes an innovative approach that integrates realistic analy…
Liberal Conundrums”
Constructing dignity: Human rights as a praxis of egalitarian freedom
Familiar philosophical accounts of the relationship between human rights and human dignity treat dignity as the foundation of human rights. These accounts get the historical and conceptual relationship between rights and dignity wrong and obscure how power and politics shape human dignity in practice. This article sketches an alternative view that treats the emancipatory praxis of human rights as constitutive of a distinctive conception of dignit…
Interpreting Responsibility Politically
Human Rights and the Politics of Contestation
This chapter illuminates the politics of contestation engendered by human rights by offering an alternative ontology of human rights. It argues that human rights are not propositions about moral truth. To view them as such is to misapprehend what people do in claiming human rights and to mistake the struggles that these claims initiate for disputes about morality. Treating human rights as truth claims also makes it difficult to understand their g…
Recent Works on Dignity and Human Rights: A Road Not Taken
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Democracy As Human Rights: Freedom and Equality in the Age of Globalization
Constructing global justice: A critique
This essay criticizes a prominent strand of theorizing about global justice, Rawlsian global constructivism. It argues that the constructivist method employed by cosmopolitan and social liberal theorists cannot grapple with the complexities of interdependence, deep pluralism, and socio-cultural diversity that arise in the global context. These flaws impugn the persuasiveness and plausibility of the substantive conclusions reached by Rawlsian glob…
An Introduction
Human Rights in the 21st Century: Continuity and Change Since 9/11
This is the first book to offer a systematic analysis of human rights in the 21st century. The chapters, written from diverse methodological perspectives, provide rich and varied insights on vital que
A Review of “Human Rights and their Limits”
Democratic Accountability in Global Politics: Norms, not Agents
The standard model of democratic accountability emphasizes accountability to the appropriate agents. This model has proven difficult to adapt to the challenges posed by global governance. This article critiques the Westphalian assumptions underlying the standard model and develops an alternative model of accountability to democratic norms rather than to specific agents
The New Sovereigntist Challenge for Global Governance: Democracy without Sovereignty1
The "new sovereigntists," a prominent group of scholars and policymakers, articulate a widely held view that global governance is inherently undemocratic because it undermines popular sovereignty. Problems with their argument notwithstanding, we argue that they identify a real and serious tension. We also argue, however, that the vision of democracy as popular sovereignty that they advocate is becoming incoherent and untenable in an era of increa…
Neither Relative nor Universal: A Response to Donnelly
This response raises questions about Jack Donnelly’s argument for the “relative universality” of human rights. It shows that Donnelly’s reliance on the terms relative and universal dulls many of his sharp analytic points and in some instances leads to inconsistencies in his account. This response also contends that in defending the relative universality of human rights Donnelly obscures or mischaracterizes the bases of their legitimacy. It conclu…
Illusion of Consent: Engaging with Carole Pateman
Human Rights and Global Democracy
Human rights and global democracy are widely assumed to be compatible, but the conceptual and practical connection between them has received little attention. As a result, the relationship is under-theorized, and important potential conflicts between them have been neglected or overlooked. This essay attempts to fill this gap by addressing directly the conceptual relationship between human rights and global democracy. It argues that human rights …
“None So Poor That He Is Compelled to Sell Himself”: Democracy, Subsistence, and Basic Income
Critics have long denigrated economic rights, viewing them as less coherent, less important, and less defensible than traditional civil and political rights. Despite their inclusion in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and their articulation in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the critics insist that the content of economic rights, their nature, and their relationship with other rights r…
Human Rights and Global Democracy
Human rights and global democracy are widely assumed to be compatible, but the conceptual and practical connection between them has received little attention. As a result, the relationship is under-theorized, and important potential conflicts between them have been neglected or overlooked. This essay attempts to fill this gap by addressing directly the conceptual relationship between human rights and global democracy. It argues that human rights …
Civil society and the problem of global democracy
This article criticizes the increasingly popular idea that global civil society (GCS) represents an appealing model of or strategy for global democracy. After briefly reviewing the arguments for conceiving global democracy and democratization in terms of GCS, it distinguishes two models of civil society's democratic role at the state level on which these claims rest. It shows that neither successfully survives transposition to the supranational s…
Democratic Accountability in Global Politics: Norms, not Agents
The standard model of democratic accountability emphasizes accountability to the appropriate agents. This model has proven difficult to adapt to the challenges posed by global governance. This article critiques the Westphalian assumptions underlying the standard model and develops an alternative model of accountability to democratic norms rather than to specific agents
The New Sovereigntist Challenge for Global Governance: Democracy without Sovereignty1
The "new sovereigntists," a prominent group of scholars and policymakers, articulate a widely held view that global governance is inherently undemocratic because it undermines popular sovereignty. Problems with their argument notwithstanding, we argue that they identify a real and serious tension. We also argue, however, that the vision of democracy as popular sovereignty that they advocate is becoming incoherent and untenable in an era of increa…
Interpreting Responsibility Politically
Europe's Democratic Deficits through the Looking Glass: The European Union as a Challenge for Democracy
Despite widespread disagreement about democratic deficits in the European Union (EU), most critics begin by conceiving democracy as a problem for the EU. Seeing the EU as undemocratic or insufficiently democratic, they devise institutional innovations to democratize it. These innovations seem to require breaking the traditional link between democracy and the nation-state, which in this context appears outmoded or inappropriate. This article chall…
Sins of the Fathers: War Rape, Wrongful Procreation, and Children's Human Rights
This essay considers the contentious and practically important question of whether children born of war rape and forced impregnation can and should be conceived as having their human rights violated by their rapist-fathers. It takes up both conceptual issues and pragmatic considerations related to this important question. I argue that the conceptual obstacles to talking about rapist-fathers violating the human rights of their children can be over…
Democracy, Globalization, and the Problem of the State
Globalization's effects on democracy have received much attention recently, though there is little consensus about what precisely those effects are or how they should be addressed. Critics are almost evenly divided among those who propose cosmopolitan solutions and those who favor reinvigorating democracy at the state level. This article argues that we are not prepared to decide such issues because current analyses of the problem confuse globaliz…
Climate Change and the Politics of Responsibility
This article theorizes the politics of responsibility—activist struggles over who will be held accountable for structural injustices like the “catastrophic” changes underway in our climate. To do so, it develops a politicized conception of responsibility, one that treats responsibility as a social construct and a terrain of contestation. Building on the work of feminist philosophers of responsibility and on the praxis of “kayaktivism,” this polit…
Recent Works on Dignity and Human Rights: A Road Not Taken
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Sovereignty: Reckoning What Is Real Sovereignty . By John Hoffman Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy . By Stephen Krasner Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern International Relations . By…
Theory in Practice: Quentin Skinner's Hobbes, Reconsidered
Quentin Skinner's method for studying the history of political thought has been widely and heatedly debated for decades. This article takes a new tack, offering a critique of Skinner's approach on the grounds he has himself established: consideration of his historical work as exemplifying the theory in practice. Three central assumptions of Skinner's method are briefly reviewed; each is then evaluated in the context of his writings on Hobbes. The…
Human rights globalization: How local and global actions institutionalize human rights
We introduce this special issue with an elaboration of the concept of human rights globalization as a dynamic process that involves local and global action by civil society and other actors to strengthen governments' accountability to global human rights norms and standards. This process challenges economic globalization that prioritizes international trade and financialization over human rights. Recent decades have seen growing movements of acti…
Revisiting interdependence in times and terms of crisis
Scholars and lawyers have long debated the meaning of the interdependence of human rights. Revisiting that question in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates both that the substantive enjoyment of many human rights is practically interdependent and that that relationship is neither logically nor functionally necessary, as much of the literature imagines. This article introduces the idea of negative interdependence, a term that highligh…
Constructing dignity: Human rights as a praxis of egalitarian freedom
Familiar philosophical accounts of the relationship between human rights and human dignity treat dignity as the foundation of human rights. These accounts get the historical and conceptual relationship between rights and dignity wrong and obscure how power and politics shape human dignity in practice. This article sketches an alternative view that treats the emancipatory praxis of human rights as constitutive of a distinctive conception of dignit…
Constructing global justice: A critique
This essay criticizes a prominent strand of theorizing about global justice, Rawlsian global constructivism. It argues that the constructivist method employed by cosmopolitan and social liberal theorists cannot grapple with the complexities of interdependence, deep pluralism, and socio-cultural diversity that arise in the global context. These flaws impugn the persuasiveness and plausibility of the substantive conclusions reached by Rawlsian glob…
An Introduction
Theory in Practice: Quentin Skinner's Hobbes, Reconsidered
Quentin Skinner's method for studying the history of political thought has been widely and heatedly debated for decades. This article takes a new tack, offering a critique of Skinner's approach on the grounds he has himself established: consideration of his historical work as exemplifying the theory in practice. Three central assumptions of Skinner's method are briefly reviewed; each is then evaluated in the context of his writings on Hobbes. The…
Sovereignty: Reckoning What Is Real Sovereignty . By John Hoffman Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy . By Stephen Krasner Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern International Relations . By…
Democracy, Globalization, and the Problem of the State
Globalization's effects on democracy have received much attention recently, though there is little consensus about what precisely those effects are or how they should be addressed. Critics are almost evenly divided among those who propose cosmopolitan solutions and those who favor reinvigorating democracy at the state level. This article argues that we are not prepared to decide such issues because current analyses of the problem confuse globaliz…
Democracy as Human Rights: Freedom and Equality in the Age of Globalization
Introduction Part 1: The Limits of Modern Democracy 1. States of Confusion: Democracy in an Age of Globalization 2. Sovereignty and the Modern Configuration of Rule 3. Sovereign Democracy 4. Globalization and the Paradox of Sovereign Democracy 5. The Limits of Modern Democracy Part 2: Democracy as Human Rights 6. The Emancipatory Tradition of Democratic Theory 7. Democracy as Human Rights 8. Institutionalizing Democracy as Human Rights 9. Impleme…
Civil society and the problem of global democracy
This article criticizes the increasingly popular idea that global civil society (GCS) represents an appealing model of or strategy for global democracy. After briefly reviewing the arguments for conceiving global democracy and democratization in terms of GCS, it distinguishes two models of civil society's democratic role at the state level on which these claims rest. It shows that neither successfully survives transposition to the supranational s…
Non-State Actors in the Human Rights Universe
Departing from analyses that focus on the role of the state in the arena of human rights, the authors of this original collection offer conceptually sophisticated, but accessible, discussions of the role and responsibility of nonstate actors with regard to the violation, promotion, and protection of human rights
“None So Poor That He Is Compelled to Sell Himself”: Democracy, Subsistence, and Basic Income
Critics have long denigrated economic rights, viewing them as less coherent, less important, and less defensible than traditional civil and political rights. Despite their inclusion in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and their articulation in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the critics insist that the content of economic rights, their nature, and their relationship with other rights r…
Sins of the Fathers: War Rape, Wrongful Procreation, and Children's Human Rights
This essay considers the contentious and practically important question of whether children born of war rape and forced impregnation can and should be conceived as having their human rights violated by their rapist-fathers. It takes up both conceptual issues and pragmatic considerations related to this important question. I argue that the conceptual obstacles to talking about rapist-fathers violating the human rights of their children can be over…
Europe's Democratic Deficits through the Looking Glass: The European Union as a Challenge for Democracy
Despite widespread disagreement about democratic deficits in the European Union (EU), most critics begin by conceiving democracy as a problem for the EU. Seeing the EU as undemocratic or insufficiently democratic, they devise institutional innovations to democratize it. These innovations seem to require breaking the traditional link between democracy and the nation-state, which in this context appears outmoded or inappropriate. This article chall…
Neither Relative nor Universal: A Response to Donnelly
This response raises questions about Jack Donnelly’s argument for the “relative universality” of human rights. It shows that Donnelly’s reliance on the terms relative and universal dulls many of his sharp analytic points and in some instances leads to inconsistencies in his account. This response also contends that in defending the relative universality of human rights Donnelly obscures or mischaracterizes the bases of their legitimacy. It conclu…
Illusion of Consent: Engaging with Carole Pateman
Human Rights and Global Democracy
Human rights and global democracy are widely assumed to be compatible, but the conceptual and practical connection between them has received little attention. As a result, the relationship is under-theorized, and important potential conflicts between them have been neglected or overlooked. This essay attempts to fill this gap by addressing directly the conceptual relationship between human rights and global democracy. It argues that human rights …
Human Rights in the 21st Century: Continuity and Change Since 9/11
This is the first book to offer a systematic analysis of human rights in the 21st century. The chapters, written from diverse methodological perspectives, provide rich and varied insights on vital que
A Review of “Human Rights and their Limits”
Democratic Accountability in Global Politics: Norms, not Agents
The standard model of democratic accountability emphasizes accountability to the appropriate agents. This model has proven difficult to adapt to the challenges posed by global governance. This article critiques the Westphalian assumptions underlying the standard model and develops an alternative model of accountability to democratic norms rather than to specific agents
The New Sovereigntist Challenge for Global Governance: Democracy without Sovereignty1
The "new sovereigntists," a prominent group of scholars and policymakers, articulate a widely held view that global governance is inherently undemocratic because it undermines popular sovereignty. Problems with their argument notwithstanding, we argue that they identify a real and serious tension. We also argue, however, that the vision of democracy as popular sovereignty that they advocate is becoming incoherent and untenable in an era of increa…
Constructing global justice: A critique
This essay criticizes a prominent strand of theorizing about global justice, Rawlsian global constructivism. It argues that the constructivist method employed by cosmopolitan and social liberal theorists cannot grapple with the complexities of interdependence, deep pluralism, and socio-cultural diversity that arise in the global context. These flaws impugn the persuasiveness and plausibility of the substantive conclusions reached by Rawlsian glob…
An Introduction
Democracy As Human Rights: Freedom and Equality in the Age of Globalization
Human Rights and the Politics of Contestation
This chapter illuminates the politics of contestation engendered by human rights by offering an alternative ontology of human rights. It argues that human rights are not propositions about moral truth. To view them as such is to misapprehend what people do in claiming human rights and to mistake the struggles that these claims initiate for disputes about morality. Treating human rights as truth claims also makes it difficult to understand their g…
Recent Works on Dignity and Human Rights: A Road Not Taken
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Interpreting Responsibility Politically
Injustice: Political Theory for the Real World
Injustice offers a radical alternative to familiar ways of thinking about problems of justice and injustice, one motivated by the urgency of concrete struggles over injustice in the real world. It rejects the paradigm of ideal moral theory, which suffers from theoretical paralysis, distortional thinking, and a reflexive tendency to subordinate politics to morality. Instead, this book proposes an innovative approach that integrates realistic analy…
Liberal Conundrums”
Constructing dignity: Human rights as a praxis of egalitarian freedom
Familiar philosophical accounts of the relationship between human rights and human dignity treat dignity as the foundation of human rights. These accounts get the historical and conceptual relationship between rights and dignity wrong and obscure how power and politics shape human dignity in practice. This article sketches an alternative view that treats the emancipatory praxis of human rights as constitutive of a distinctive conception of dignit…
Political science (30 works) · Law (28 works) · Sociology (25 works) · Politics (24 works) · Law (21 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (17 works) · Human rights (15 works) · Democracy (12 works) · Law and economics (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works)