Rawlsian Political Analysis

Paul Clements

Description

In Rawlsian Political Analysis: Rethinking the Microfoundations of Social Science, Paul Clements develops a new, morally grounded model of political and social analysis as a critique of and improvement on both neoclassical economics and rational choice theory. What if practical reason is based not only on interests and ideas of the good, as these theories have it, but also on principles and sentiments of right? The answer, Clements argues, requires a radical reorientation of social science from the idea of interests to the idea of social justice.

According to Clements, systematic weaknesses in neoclassical economics and rational choice theory are due to their limited model of choice. According to such theories in the utilitarian tradition, all our practical decisions aim to maximize the satisfaction of our interests. These neo-utilitarian approaches focus on how we promote our interests, but Clements argues, our ideas of right, cognitively represented in principles, contribute independently and no less fundamentally to our practical decisions.

The most significant challenge to utilitarianism in the last half century is found in John Rawls’s Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism, in which Rawls builds on Kant's concept of practical reason. Clements extends Rawls's moral theory and his critique of utilitarianism by arguing for social analysis based on the Kantian and Rawlsian model of choice. To illustrate the explanatory power of his model, he presents three detailed case studies: a program analysis of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, a political economy analysis of the causes of poverty in the Indian state of Bihar, and a problem-based analysis of the ethics and politics of climate change. He concludes by exploring the broad implications of social analysis grounded in a concept of social justice.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Éthique et morale
• Political
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Politics
• Immanuel Kant
• Ethics
• Emmanuel Kant
• John Rawls

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 30 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268076962
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Rawlsian Political Analysis

PA U L C L E M E N T S

Rawlsian Political Analysis

R E T H I N K I N G T H E M I C R O F O U N D AT I O N S O F S O C I A L S C I E N C E

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright © 2012 by the University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Clements, Paul, Ph. D.  Rawlsian political analysis : rethinking the microfoundations of social science / Paul Clements.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN: 978-0-268-02371-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)  ISBN: 0-268-02371-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)  E-ISBN: 978-0-268-07696-2  1. Political science. 2. Rational choice theory. 3. Social justice. 4. Rawls, John, 1921–2002—Political and social views. I. Title.  JA71.C535 2012  320.01'1—dc23  2012014876

∞ He paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

To Aedín

c o n t e n t s

Acknowledgments

chapter one

chapter two

chapter three

chapter four

chapter five

chapter six

chapter seven

Notes

Introduction:WhyRawlsianPoliticalAnalysis?

He Cognition of Principles and the Role of Rawlsian Political Analysis

He Analytic Limits of Rational Choice Heory

Program Analysis of the Grameen Bank

Political Analysis of Problems in Bihar

He Ethics and the Politics of Climate Change

Kantian Ontology of Practical Reason and Social Science

Works Cited

Index

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1

29

67

95

121

149

183

195

215

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a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

I am particularly grateful to Emily auptmann for working with me on earlier stages of this project, for collaborating on the critique of rational choice theory, and for friendship and support throughout. Peter Stone provided very helpful comments on early drafts of several chapters. Email communication with Lucinda Dhavan helped me to get started on the analysis of Bihar. I received very helpful comments on a draft of the îrst chapter from John are, and discussion with Christine Moser helped me to frame the discussion of the economic analysis of climate change. I am grateful to Jonathan Allen for wide-ranging discussions, some in areas touched on here. My chief intellectual debt is, of course, to John Rawls, but I also owe a great deal to Atul Kohli, for his example as a scholar and for what I learned from his books and lectures. I am also very grateful to two anonymous reviewers, one of whom gave particularly helpful sugges- tions for extensions of the argument found mainly in chapter , and to Ann Delgehausen for excellent editing. Some ideas in chapter  are found in “He Reasonable and the Ratio- nal Capacities in Political Analysis,” an article I co-authored with Emily auptmann that appeared inPolitics & Societyin , and much of the analysis in chapter  is found in “A Rawlsian Analysis of the Plight of Bihar,” my article that appeared inStudies in Comparative International Developmentin . My sister Crispin read early drafts of several chapters and provided many helpful comments. It is hard to express my gratitude to my parents, as it extends in so many directions. I am grateful to my daughter Anna for her interest in Kant and Rawls and for many helpful discussions. More than anyone, I am grateful to my wife, Aedín.

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