The Political Philosophy of Needs

by Lawrence A. Hamilton

• ISBN13: 9780521827829
• ISBN10: 0521827825
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-08-18
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This ambitious and lively book argues for a rehabilitation of the concept of 'human needs' as central to politics and political theory. Contemporary political philosophy has focused on issues of justice and welfare to the exclusion of the important issues of political participation, democratic sovereignty, and the satisfaction of human needs, and this has had a deleterious effect on political practice. Lawrence Hamilton develops a compelling positive conception of human needs: the evaluation of needs must be located within a more general analysis of institutions, but can in turn help to justify forms of coercive authority that are directed toward the transformation of political and social institutions and practices. His argument is animated throughout by provocative and original discussions of topics such as autonomy, recognition, rights, civil society, liberalism and democracy, and will interest a wide range of readers in political and social philosophy, political theory, law, development and policy.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(20)
1 Liberalism's rights-preferences couple	2	(7)
2 Beyond the rights-preferences couple	9	(2)
3 The form and outline of the argument	11	(10)
1 The nature of needs	21	(42)
1 Need categories	23	(4)
2 Vital needs	27	(4)
3 Particular social needs	31	(4)
4 Agency needs	35	(12)
5 The natures of needs: historical, normative, political	47	(16)
2 The formation and interpretation of needs	63	(40)
1 Generation and legitimation	65	(6)
2 Normative power and the institution of private property	71	(5)
3 Perception and interpretation	76	(10)
4 Oppression and need	86	(2)
5 True interests	88	(12)
6 The concept of true interest	100	(3)
3 The political evaluation of needs	103	(31)
1 Freedom and rights: a critique of the concept of 'civil society'	104	(12)
2 Practices, institutions, and the evaluation of institutions	116	(9)
3 Roles: reclaiming the census	125	(4)
4 Practical reason and practical imperatives	129	(5)
4 The state of needs	134	(37)
1 The state	135	(5)
2 The modern state, coercion, and power	140	(5)
3 The state as ultimate evaluator and guarantor for meeting needs	145	(1)
4 Need Priority: practical not theoretical	146	(7)
5 Political Participation: procedural and institutional proposals	153	(9)
6 Legitimacy and paternalism	162	(6)
7 States of needs	168	(3)
Conclusion	171	(14)
1 What needs to be done? The case of South Africa	173	(12)
Bibliography	185	(17)
Index	202