Freedom as nondomination yields radical policies and democracy through contestability rather than consent

Evidence

If we take the goal of the state to be the promotion of freedom as non-domination— if we reappropriate the republican ideal—then we can begin to see the outlines of a commanding political philosophy. Freedom as nondomination has attractive institutional implications, and, so far as that is possible in advance of more detailed empirical work, the book tries to outline the main lessons. Some of the implications presented will have a familiar republican ring, such as the linkages with equality, community, and civic virtue, and the emphasis on constitutionalism and on the checking of government. Others will be more surprising, such as the argument about the policies that a republic ought to pursue and the sort of democracy that it ought to implement. Freedom as non-domination supports a rich, even a radical set of political policies, providing an ecumenical ground for what might otherwise seem like sectional demands on the state. … And freedom as non-domination supports a conception of democracy under which contestability takes the place usually given to consent; what is of primary importance is not that government does what the people tells it but, on pain of arbitrariness, that people can always contest whatever it is that government does. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 35

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the book’s central term ‘freedom as non-domination’ and its distinctive democratic principle of contestability over consent.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how contestability-based democracy builds shared civic commitment without an external enemy — the mechanism of positive-solidarity formation this reader studies.
• XREF: connects to: Freedom as non-domination requires embracing state power rather than fearing it — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 389; Freedom as non-domination is inherently dynamic and adapts to emerging interests — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 1252; Freedom can be reconceived as non-domination rather than non-interference or self-mastery — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 1207 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Freedom as non-domination requires embracing state power rather than fearing it #expands (0.82) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 389
• Freedom can be reconceived as non-domination rather than non-interference or self-mastery #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 1207
• Non-domination makes citizens more radical and less state-sceptical #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 390
• Freedom in the republican tradition means non-domination rather than merely non-interference #corroborates (0.78) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 186
• Freedom as non-domination is inherently dynamic and adapts to emerging interests #expands (0.75) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 1252