Michael Rabinder James
Biographic Data
| ID | 4378149 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Rabinder James |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael Rabinder |
| FAMILY NAME | James |
| SIGNATURE | JAMES M R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Bucknell University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1700-0694 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 35 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The right to immigrate and responsibility for the past
Do past state actions, such as the American conquest of northern Mexico, the British colonization of South Asia, and the Spanish expulsion of the Sephardim and Moriscos, grant contemporary Mexicans, South Asians, and the descendants of the Sephardim and Moriscos a particular right to immigrate to the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain respectively? In this paper I examine three theoretical models for addressing this question: retrospect…
Spanish citizenship and responsibility for the past
In 2015, Spain passed a law expediting citizenship for the descendants of the Sephardic Jews expelled in 1492, but not to the descendants of the Moriscos expelled in 1609. In this essay, I use Spain’s 2015 citizenship law as a test case for assessing three normative models for linking citizenship with collective responsibility for the past: reparations for historic injustice; the principle of coercively constituted identities; and remedial respon…
Can the right to internal movement, residence, and employment ground a right to immigrate
This article challenges Kieran Oberman’s derivation of a right to immigrate from the right to internal movement, residence, and employment. His argument depends on a cantilever strategy, which finds it illogical to recognize one right without recognizing an analogous second right. This differs from a direct argument, which derives a right directly from an essential human interest, and an instrumental argument, which identifies one right as a mean…
Two Concepts of Constituency
In this essay, I challenge the conceptual and normative arguments of Andrew Rehfeld's The Concept of Constituency. I argue that Rehfeld conflates two distinct concepts of constituency as a result of errors in his normative argument for random, permanent constituencies. In response, I carefully distinguish the two concepts of objective constituency (the grouping of citizens into geographic or other electoral rolls through parametric action) and su…
Constituency Deliberation
How do we distinguish legitimate, democratic representation from illegitimate, undemocratic elite rule? Empirical scholars of representation typically rely on the “bedrock norm” that democratic representatives must respond to the antecedent interests of their constituents, but empirical studies of public opinion suggest that constituents’ interests emerge following engagement with their representatives. The result is the “constituency paradox”: r…
The Political Ontology of Race
Race theory is dominated by two camps. Eliminativists rely on a biological ontology, which contends that the concept of race must be biologically grounded, in order to repudiate the very term, on grounds that it is epistemologically vacuous and normatively pernicious. Conservationists use a social ontology, in which race is based on social practices, in order to retain racial categories in remedial social policies, such as affirmative action and …
The Priority of Racial Constituency over Descriptive Representation
Several normative political theorists argue for racially descriptive representation, or for blacks to represent blacks. I contend that if theorists believe that blacks deserve additional measures to improve their substantive political representation, then they should prioritize the creation of racial constituencies independently of whether such constituencies elect black representatives. Prioritizing racial constituency circumvents essentialism w…
Diversity, Deliberation, and the Concepts of Constituency
Communicative Action, Strategic Action, and Inter-Group Dialogue
Communicative Action, Strategic Action, and Inter-Group Dialogue
A consensus has emerged among many normative theorists of cultural pluralism that dialogue is the key to securing just relations among ethnic or cultural groups. However, few normative theorists have explored the conditions or incentives that enable inter-group dialogue versus those that encourage inter-group conflict. To address this problem, I use Habermas’s distinction between communicative and strategic action, since many models of inter-grou…
Language Policy and Identity Politics in the United States . Ronald Schmidt, Sr
Tribal sovereignty and the intercultural public sphere
While theorists of cultural pluralism have generally supported tribal sovereignty to protect threatened Native cultures, they fail to address adequately cultural conflicts between Native and non-Native communities, especially when tribal sovereignty facilitates illiberal or undemocratic practices. In response, I draw on Jürgen Habermas’ conceptions of discourse and the public sphere to develop a universalist approach to cultural pluralism, called…
Critical Intercultural Dialogue
Cultural pluralism assumes the persistence of inter-group conflicts and poses the question of how members of multiethnic liberal democracies should address disagreements stemming from divergent cultural values. Allowing groups greater cultural autonomy resolves some problems, but does not address those that arise when different cultural values suggest divergent answers to questions of common concern. These can be addressed through developing prac…
Public Interest and Majority Rule in Bentham's Democratic Theory
IS_JHE STANDARD CRITICISM of Bentham's democratic theory has been that the radical parliamentary reforms which he advocated between 1809 and his death in 1832 would lead to the formation of a class-based majoritarian tyranny. This fear was first voiced by Sir James Mackintosh, who, writing in The Edinburgh Review' in 1818, the year in which Bentham's Plan of Parliamentary Reform was published, argued that these reforms would result in the newly e…
Critical Intercultural Dialogue
Cultural pluralism assumes the persistence of inter-group conflicts and poses the question of how members of multiethnic liberal democracies should address disagreements stemming from divergent cultural values. Allowing groups greater cultural autonomy resolves some problems, but does not address those that arise when different cultural values suggest divergent answers to questions of common concern. These can be addressed through developing prac…
Two Concepts of Constituency
In this essay, I challenge the conceptual and normative arguments of Andrew Rehfeld's The Concept of Constituency. I argue that Rehfeld conflates two distinct concepts of constituency as a result of errors in his normative argument for random, permanent constituencies. In response, I carefully distinguish the two concepts of objective constituency (the grouping of citizens into geographic or other electoral rolls through parametric action) and su…
The Priority of Racial Constituency over Descriptive Representation
Several normative political theorists argue for racially descriptive representation, or for blacks to represent blacks. I contend that if theorists believe that blacks deserve additional measures to improve their substantive political representation, then they should prioritize the creation of racial constituencies independently of whether such constituencies elect black representatives. Prioritizing racial constituency circumvents essentialism w…
Public Interest and Majority Rule in Bentham's Democratic Theory
IS_JHE STANDARD CRITICISM of Bentham's democratic theory has been that the radical parliamentary reforms which he advocated between 1809 and his death in 1832 would lead to the formation of a class-based majoritarian tyranny. This fear was first voiced by Sir James Mackintosh, who, writing in The Edinburgh Review' in 1818, the year in which Bentham's Plan of Parliamentary Reform was published, argued that these reforms would result in the newly e…
Communicative Action, Strategic Action, and Inter-Group Dialogue
A consensus has emerged among many normative theorists of cultural pluralism that dialogue is the key to securing just relations among ethnic or cultural groups. However, few normative theorists have explored the conditions or incentives that enable inter-group dialogue versus those that encourage inter-group conflict. To address this problem, I use Habermas’s distinction between communicative and strategic action, since many models of inter-grou…
Diversity, Deliberation, and the Concepts of Constituency
Constituency Deliberation
How do we distinguish legitimate, democratic representation from illegitimate, undemocratic elite rule? Empirical scholars of representation typically rely on the “bedrock norm” that democratic representatives must respond to the antecedent interests of their constituents, but empirical studies of public opinion suggest that constituents’ interests emerge following engagement with their representatives. The result is the “constituency paradox”: r…
The Political Ontology of Race
Race theory is dominated by two camps. Eliminativists rely on a biological ontology, which contends that the concept of race must be biologically grounded, in order to repudiate the very term, on grounds that it is epistemologically vacuous and normatively pernicious. Conservationists use a social ontology, in which race is based on social practices, in order to retain racial categories in remedial social policies, such as affirmative action and …
Tribal sovereignty and the intercultural public sphere
While theorists of cultural pluralism have generally supported tribal sovereignty to protect threatened Native cultures, they fail to address adequately cultural conflicts between Native and non-Native communities, especially when tribal sovereignty facilitates illiberal or undemocratic practices. In response, I draw on Jürgen Habermas’ conceptions of discourse and the public sphere to develop a universalist approach to cultural pluralism, called…
Public Interest and Majority Rule in Bentham's Democratic Theory
IS_JHE STANDARD CRITICISM of Bentham's democratic theory has been that the radical parliamentary reforms which he advocated between 1809 and his death in 1832 would lead to the formation of a class-based majoritarian tyranny. This fear was first voiced by Sir James Mackintosh, who, writing in The Edinburgh Review' in 1818, the year in which Bentham's Plan of Parliamentary Reform was published, argued that these reforms would result in the newly e…
Tribal sovereignty and the intercultural public sphere
While theorists of cultural pluralism have generally supported tribal sovereignty to protect threatened Native cultures, they fail to address adequately cultural conflicts between Native and non-Native communities, especially when tribal sovereignty facilitates illiberal or undemocratic practices. In response, I draw on Jürgen Habermas’ conceptions of discourse and the public sphere to develop a universalist approach to cultural pluralism, called…
Critical Intercultural Dialogue
Cultural pluralism assumes the persistence of inter-group conflicts and poses the question of how members of multiethnic liberal democracies should address disagreements stemming from divergent cultural values. Allowing groups greater cultural autonomy resolves some problems, but does not address those that arise when different cultural values suggest divergent answers to questions of common concern. These can be addressed through developing prac…
Language Policy and Identity Politics in the United States . Ronald Schmidt, Sr
Communicative Action, Strategic Action, and Inter-Group Dialogue
Communicative Action, Strategic Action, and Inter-Group Dialogue
A consensus has emerged among many normative theorists of cultural pluralism that dialogue is the key to securing just relations among ethnic or cultural groups. However, few normative theorists have explored the conditions or incentives that enable inter-group dialogue versus those that encourage inter-group conflict. To address this problem, I use Habermas’s distinction between communicative and strategic action, since many models of inter-grou…
Diversity, Deliberation, and the Concepts of Constituency
The Priority of Racial Constituency over Descriptive Representation
Several normative political theorists argue for racially descriptive representation, or for blacks to represent blacks. I contend that if theorists believe that blacks deserve additional measures to improve their substantive political representation, then they should prioritize the creation of racial constituencies independently of whether such constituencies elect black representatives. Prioritizing racial constituency circumvents essentialism w…
The Political Ontology of Race
Race theory is dominated by two camps. Eliminativists rely on a biological ontology, which contends that the concept of race must be biologically grounded, in order to repudiate the very term, on grounds that it is epistemologically vacuous and normatively pernicious. Conservationists use a social ontology, in which race is based on social practices, in order to retain racial categories in remedial social policies, such as affirmative action and …
Two Concepts of Constituency
In this essay, I challenge the conceptual and normative arguments of Andrew Rehfeld's The Concept of Constituency. I argue that Rehfeld conflates two distinct concepts of constituency as a result of errors in his normative argument for random, permanent constituencies. In response, I carefully distinguish the two concepts of objective constituency (the grouping of citizens into geographic or other electoral rolls through parametric action) and su…
Constituency Deliberation
How do we distinguish legitimate, democratic representation from illegitimate, undemocratic elite rule? Empirical scholars of representation typically rely on the “bedrock norm” that democratic representatives must respond to the antecedent interests of their constituents, but empirical studies of public opinion suggest that constituents’ interests emerge following engagement with their representatives. The result is the “constituency paradox”: r…
Can the right to internal movement, residence, and employment ground a right to immigrate
This article challenges Kieran Oberman’s derivation of a right to immigrate from the right to internal movement, residence, and employment. His argument depends on a cantilever strategy, which finds it illogical to recognize one right without recognizing an analogous second right. This differs from a direct argument, which derives a right directly from an essential human interest, and an instrumental argument, which identifies one right as a mean…
Spanish citizenship and responsibility for the past
In 2015, Spain passed a law expediting citizenship for the descendants of the Sephardic Jews expelled in 1492, but not to the descendants of the Moriscos expelled in 1609. In this essay, I use Spain’s 2015 citizenship law as a test case for assessing three normative models for linking citizenship with collective responsibility for the past: reparations for historic injustice; the principle of coercively constituted identities; and remedial respon…
The right to immigrate and responsibility for the past
Do past state actions, such as the American conquest of northern Mexico, the British colonization of South Asia, and the Spanish expulsion of the Sephardim and Moriscos, grant contemporary Mexicans, South Asians, and the descendants of the Sephardim and Moriscos a particular right to immigrate to the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain respectively? In this paper I examine three theoretical models for addressing this question: retrospect…
Law (14 works) · Law (14 works) · Political science (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Politics (11 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (9 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Normative (5 works) · Social science (5 works) · Democracy (4 works)