Constituted freedom still permits ranking rival institutional arrangements
Evidence
Some people may think it an ominous feature of freedom as nondomination that it is an institutional reality, in the sense explained. They may say that, if freedom is conceived of as something that the state constitutes or helps to constitute, then it is not going to represent a criterion by which the state can be judged. But that is nonsense. Freedom as non-domination is an institutional reality in the sense that it is constituted, not caused to exist, by the institutional arrangements that put it in place. But we can still compare the freedom as nondomination that different sets of institutions may constitute, and we can still find that one set does better than the other in respect of such freedom: we can do this in just the way as we could compare the kinds and levels of immunity against a certain disease that different sorts of antibody might conceivably provide. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 522
Categorization
- SEED: The objection-rebuttal structure here — ‘if freedom is constituted by the state it can’t judge the state’ — maps onto similar critiques of legitimacy from constituted-authority theories, worth an essay.
- XREF: connects to: Political freedom is constituted by institutions, not by the absence of actual interference — Frank Lovett, Republicanism, 22; Institutions can be justified without endorsement of their current form