Being realistic and demanding the impossible

Rossi, Enzo

doi:10.1111/1467-8675.12446

Cited by 98 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…The third and even more radical option is to think that the very existence of states is normatively problematic: perhaps there are commitments and social practices (such as religion, whatever that may be) which we have reason to value more than we value the goods provided by states. All three options are compatible with the realist methodological stance deployed here, which goes to show how this kind of realism can overcome its associations with conservative tendencies (Rossi 2015). Adjudicating between the options would take us far beyond the scope of this essay.…”

Section: Two Objections and The Moral Of The Story (Or Lack Thereof)mentioning

confidence: 71%

Understanding Religion, Governing Religion

Rossi¹

2017

Oxford Scholarship Online

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Cécile Laborde has argued that the freedom we think of as ‘freedom of religion’ should be understood as a bundle of separate and relatively independent freedoms. This chapter criticizes that approach by pointing out that it is insufficiently sensitive to facts about the sorts of entities that liberal states are. It argues that states have good reasons to mould phenomena such as religion into easily governable monoliths. If this is a problem from the normative point of view, it is not due to descriptively inadequate accounts of religion, but a problem with a lack of realism about the sort of institutions states are. The chapter’s conclusion is a three-way disjunction: either one must reckon with liberal states’ historically determined limitations in the management of changing social phenomena, or one should direct one’s frustration at the marriage of liberalism and the state, or the very existence of states is normatively problematic.

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Section: Two Objections and The Moral Of The Story (Or Lack Thereof)mentioning

confidence: 71%

Understanding Religion, Governing Religion

Rossi¹

2017

Oxford Scholarship Online

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“…Relatedly, we hope to have also shown how realist theorising differs from mainstream, moralistic non-ideal theory (see Rossi 2019). Non-ideal theory is, broadly speaking, driven by feasibility constraints, whereas our arguments aren't.…”

Section: A Methodological Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…One of us defends this distinction at length: seeRossi 2019. 7 On the link between practice dependence and realism, seeRossi 2012. 8 One of us is involved in the ongoing debate on the status of political normativity: see, for exampleErman and Möller 2015;Jubb and Rossi 2015a, 2015b;Maynard and Worsnip, 2018;Jubb 2019.…”

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confidence: 99%

Must Realists Be Pessimists About Democracy? Responding to Epistemic and Oligarchic Challenges

Arlen

Rossi

2020

Moral Philosophy and Politics

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In this paper we show how a realistic normative democratic theory can work within the constraints set by the most pessimistic empirical results about voting behaviour and elite capture of the policy process. After setting out the empirical evidence and discussing some extant responses by political theorists, we argue that the evidence produces a two-pronged challenge for democracy: an epistemic challenge concerning the quality and focus of decision-making and an oligarchic challenge concerning power concentration. To address the challenges we then put forward three main normative claims, each of which is compatible with the evidence. We start with (1) a critique of the epistocratic position commonly thought to be supported by the evidence. We then introduce (2) a qualified critique of referenda and other forms of plebiscite, and (3) an outline of a tribune-based system of popular control over oligarchic influence on the policy process. Our discussion points towards a renewal of democracy in a plebeian but not plebiscitarian direction: Attention to the relative power of social classes matters more than formal dispersal of power through voting. We close with some methodological reflections about the compatibility between our normative claims and the realist program in political philosophy.

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“…Political realists are, however, not necessarily concerned with feasibility and being “realistic” in the everyday meaning of the word (e.g. Rossi, 2015 ; Sleat, 2016a ). Realism refers to the conceptual features of real-world politics—coercion and disagreement—which they claim have been overlooked in much normative political theory.…”

Section: The Normative Literature On Eu Legitimacy: a Methodological mentioning

confidence: 99%

From Practice to Principle and Back: Applying a New Realist Method to the European Union’s Democratic Deficit

Beetz

2017

Political Studies

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The prospect of a Brexit illustrates that the European Union’s legitimacy deficit can have far-reaching political consequences. In normative political theory, realists take a keen interest in questions of legitimacy. Building on Bernard Williams’ realist writings, I propose a two-step method of normative political theorization. Each step contains both a practice-sensitive phase and a practice-insensitive phase. First, the conceptualization of a norm should draw on conceptual resources available to agents within their historical circumstances. Second, the prescriptions that follow from this norm should take into account whether political order can be maintained. Applying this method to the European Union’s democratic deficit yields, first, based on public opinion research, the norm of European deep diversity and, second, a set of prescriptions for a demoicratic confederacy. Thereby, I demonstrate that this realist method is able to yield political theories distinct from other philosophical approaches. Moreover, I contribute a realist theory to the normative literature in European Union studies.

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Being realistic and demanding the impossible

Cited by 98 publications

References 81 publications

Understanding Religion, Governing Religion

Understanding Religion, Governing Religion

Must Realists Be Pessimists About Democracy? Responding to Epistemic and Oligarchic Challenges

From Practice to Principle and Back: Applying a New Realist Method to the European Union’s Democratic Deficit

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