Democracy and Authenticity
Toward a Theory of Public Justification

Professor Howard Schweber analyzes whether there are limits to what counts as an appropriate justification for coercive government actions.

Howard H. Schweber (Author)

9781107015333, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 October 2011

446 pages
23.4 x 16.1 x 2.8 cm, 0.72 kg

'A fierce defense of liberalism. Schweber warns against the politics of authenticity and accommodations of pluralism that go too far.' Robert L. Tsai, Professor of Law, American University, and author of Eloquence and Reason

In Democracy and Authenticity Professor Howard Schweber examines a basic problem for liberal democracies. When a political entity is characterized by a multitude of identities and values, certain constraints apply to reasons for citizens and public officials to justify coercive political actions. The author argues that justifications based on particular religious doctrines are not a proper basis for government actions that affect everyone. He then develops a concept of public justification intended to guide citizens in a liberal democracy through the work of creating policies that satisfy their responsibilities to one another.

Introduction: consensus liberalism and the challenge of pluralism
Part I. The Case for Constraint: 1. Three cases for constraint: Audi, Rawls, and Larmore
2. Subjective standards and the problem of deliberative perfectionism
3. Liberalism and the problem of authenticity
4. Further reflections on authenticity
5. The scope of constraint
Part II. Responding to the Case for Inclusion: 6. Arguments from consequences: pluralism and the role of culture
7. The arguments from consequences: agnostic democracy and republican virtue
8. Fairness as equality
9. Fairness as recognition
10. The argument from epistemology: claims of equivalence
11. Empiricism and public justification
12. Toward a theory of public justification.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Social & political philosophy [HPS]