Republicanism in the Modern World
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Padua), Joseph V. Femia (Machiavelli), Deborah Baumgold (Hobbes), Jeremy Waldron (Locke), Paul Kelly (Hume; Bentham; J.S. Mill on Liberty), Yoshie Kawade (Montesquieu), David Boucher [again] (Rousseau; Oakeshott), Terence Ball (see p. 18 for an editorial ‘oops’) (Federalist Papers), Carole Pateman (Wollstonecraft), Cheryl Welch (Tocqueville), Jennifer Ring (J.S. Mill on the Subjection of Women), Alan Patten (Hegel), Laurence Wilde (early Marx), Paul Thomas (Marx and Engels), Nathan Widder (Nietzsche), Kenneth Baynes (Habermas), Rex Martin (again) (Rawls), Paul Patton (Foucault). Dudley Knowles University of Glasgow, UK
Republicanism in the Modern World John W. Maynor Polity, Cambridge, 2003, x þ 230pp. ISBN: 0 7456 2807 9/0 7456 2808 7. Contemporary Political Theory (2005) 4, 90–92. doi:10.1057/palgrave.cpt.9300158
This book aims to present a version of republicanism appropriate to the moral and cultural diversity of the modern world, based on the account of freedom as non-domination developed notably by Pettit. This sees politics as addressing domination: the threat of arbitrary interference, rather than interference per se (as in negative conceptions of freedom), or realizing the political nature of citizens in politics (as in positive conceptions of freedom). It has been taken to lead to an instrumental or neo-Roman republicanism free of the alleged dangers inherent in the ‘Athenian’ participatory republicanism of Rousseau, Arendt and others. While Maynor takes Pettit’s account as ‘a start that signals the direction that modern republicanism must take’ (p. 32), and works systematically through the implications of freedom as non-domination, he advances an independent account of republicanism that, as it turns out, is not as purely instrumental as such a starting point might suggest. Already in the first chapter, Maynor shows that the contrasts between ancient and modern liberty, Athenian and instrumental republicanism, are not as sharp as often assumed, and reminds us, for example, of Constant’s belief that the two kinds of liberty need to be combined, and that institutions need to bring about the moral education of citizens. The author identifies and elaborates in some detail on what he sees as three central pillars of republican non-domination: democratic contestatory institutions, civic education and the social norms that prevail in society. Institutions are designed to disperse and balance power in order to minimize potential Contemporary Political Theory 2005 4
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domination by the state as well as by individuals or groups, and also to encourage deliberation and engagement among diverse citizens. Not only is government action open to contestation and periodic review, but extensive popular consultation and participation are understood as necessary to promote non-domination. As well as institutional provisions, citizens need to develop civic virtue — on this account, to formulate their ends in ways that do not interfere arbitrarily with others. Thus, they need to learn to take account of
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