Associations in Social Contract Theory

Toward a Pluralist Contractarianism

Bibliographic Data

ID6345506
AuthorsKevin Vallier (0000-0001-9407-6716, Bowling Green State University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume68
Issue2
Pages486-503
Publication date2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0032321719854303
OpenAlexW2972414374
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

Liberals can be distinguished from one another in a number of ways, including by what they regard as the greatest threats to liberty. According to Jacob T. Levy, “rationalist” liberals think that nonpolitical institutions are the chief threats to freedom and that democratic governance can free people from these private tyrannies. By contrast, “pluralist” liberals think that governments are the chief threats to liberty, and civil associations are a bulwark against encroaching state power. Levy has recently argued that the rationalist and pluralist strands of the liberal tradition cannot be combined into a single political theory. In this essay, I disagree. My strategy is to develop a version of contractarian political theory that treats associations as sources of legitimacy. This pluralist contractarianism solves two problems. It shows that the social contract theory can survive the pluralist critique. And since the social contract theory is often understood as rationalist liberalism par excellence, it shows that we can combine rationalist and pluralist insights into a single theory, contra Levy

Classical liberalism · Contract theory · Economics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Legitimacy · Liberalism · Neoclassical economics · Pluralism (philosophy · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social contract · Sociology · State (computer science · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Political Theory and Influence

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