William Thompson: Power in moral economy

• Published in: Intellectual News Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 29 - 36
• Main Author: Dooley, Dolores
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 01.09.1997
• ISSN: 1561-5324
• DOI: 10.1080/15615324.1997.10429235

Political theory is broadening its horizons today, looking to the realities of multicultural and marginalised groups who increasingly believe that liberal democratic traditions may be proving inadequate. The liberal political tradition needs revising because of an erroneously assumed homogeneity of human citizens. In falsely universalizing the concept of 'citizen', perhaps liberalism has overlooked important differences of aspiration and priorities of meaning among citizens of states. Ethnic, religious, and sexual sub-groups within societies are increasingly looking for what Amy Gutmann describes as the 'recognition of every individual's uniqueness and humanity [which] lies at the core ofliberal democracy, understood as a way of political and personal life'. This search for recognition poses a sceptic's challenge to the coherence and applicability of fundamental political concepts such as 'equalit', 'human rights', 'citizenship', 'power', and the 'public good'. This scepticism is about whether and to what extent the current interpretations of these concepts derive from the vested interests and life-meanings of dominant groups within societies. To the extent that these concepts encapsulate the history, the values, and the social assumptions of dominant groups, they may exclude or minimize the differences characteristic of sub-group life-preferences. The valueladen character of these focal concepts, believed to borrow heavily on hierarchies of meaning within dominant groups, need not be intentional or malicious manipulation of concepts for political ends in order to be detrimental to 'recognition''or distribution of liberties among marginalized groups.