The Sandelian Republic and the Encumbered Self

Bibliographic Data

ID6403059
AuthorsRichard Dagger (corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume61
Issue2
Pages181-208
Publication date1999-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670500051950
OpenAlexW1172060961
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited22

InDemocracy's Discontent, Michael Sandel argues for a revival of the republican tradition in order to counteract the pernicious effects of contemporary liberalism. As in his earlier work, Sandel charges that liberals who embrace the ideals of political neutrality and the unencumbered self are engaged in a self–subverting enterprise, for no society that lives by these ideals can sustain itself. Sandel is right to endorse the republican emphasis on forming citizens and cultivating civic virtues. By opposing liberalism as vigorously as he does, however, he engages in a self–subverting enterprise of his own. That is, Sandel is in danger of undercutting his position by threatening the liberal principles upon which he implicitly relies. This danger is greatest when he presses his case against the unencumbered self, when he appeals to the obligations of membership, and when he treats republicanism and liberalism as adversaries rather than allies

Classical liberalism · Democracy · Economics · Liberalism · Neutrality · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Political Theory and Influence

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