How can Political Liberals be Environmentalists
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6345376 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Derek Bell (0000-0002-9944-1097, Newcastle University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 703-724 |
| Publication date | 2002-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9248.00003 |
| OpenAlex | W2064288031 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 25 |
| References cited | 28 |
It is often assumed that neutralist liberalism and environmentalism are incompatible because promoting environmentally friendly policies involves endorsing a particular conception of the good life. This paper questions that assumption by showing that one important version of neutralist liberalism, John Rawls's ‘justice as fairness’, can allow two kinds of justification for environmental policies. First, public reason arguments can be used to justify conceptions of sustainability and environmental justice. Second, comprehensive ideals (including non-anthropocentric ideals) can be used to justify more ambitious environmental policies when two conditions are met, namely, the issue under discussion does not concern constitutional essentials or matters of basic justice; and the policy is endorsed by a majority of citizens. Rawls's willingness to allow this second kind of justification for environmental (and other) policies is defended against two objections, which claim that Rawls's ‘democratic liberalism’ is incoherent. The first objection – the ‘justice’ objection – is that to spend public money promoting comprehensive (environmental) ideals is inconsistent with the ‘difference principle’. The ‘justice’ objection depends on a common misunderstanding of the difference principle. The second objection – the ‘neutrality’ objection – claims that ‘democratic liberalism’ is inconsistent with Rawls's commitment to neutrality. The ‘neutrality’ objection is unconvincing because ‘democratic liberalism’ is ‘fundamentally neutral’ whereas the leading alternative is not
Classical liberalism · Democracy · Economic Justice · Environmental ethics · Environmentalism · Law and economics · Liberalism · Neutrality · Political science · Politics · Public reason · Sociology · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics
Liberal Environmental Citizenship
The Politics of the Environment
Citizenship and the Environment
Distribution and Beyond
Defining Environmental Justice
Refining Green Political Economy
Ecological Neutrality and Liberal Survivalism
The Influence of Political Orientation on the Strength and Temporal Persistence of Policy Framing Effects
Peer review, politics and pluralism
Freedom and ecological limits
Climate change and normativity
The shallow ecology of public reason liberalism
Environmentalism, fairness, and public reasons
In Search of Global Law
Distributive Justice and Co-Operation in a World of Humans and Non-Humans
Why Be Cautious with Advocating Private Environmental Duties? Towards a Cooperative Ethos and Expressive Reasons
Just food’. The normative obligations of private agrifood governance
Creating Green Citizens? Political Liberalism and Environmental Education
Minority Environmentalism and Eco-nationalism in the Baltics
Creating Greener Citizens
Is Political Liberalism Antidemocratic
The political theory of technological change
The Scope of Public Reason
Reasons to Be Cheerful
Environmental conflict and the legacy of the Reformation
Fairness and Futurity
Justice and the Environment
Justice as Fairness
Just Health Care
Sustainability, Liberal Democracy, Liberalism
Sustaining Liberal Democracy
Justice As Impartiality
A Theory of Justice
Is Liberalism Environment-Friendly
The Politics of Nature
Impartiality and Liberal Neutrality
Implications of Liberal Neutrality for Environmental Policy
Fairness to Goodness
Other Minds
Equality and Partiality
Ecology Politics and Liberal Democracy
| Unique citing works | 25 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2001 - 2024 (24) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 24 |