A Dialogue on Republicanism

Abstract

Two interlocutors, Philip Pettit and a student, are exchanging views on liberal political and economic philosophy during lunch at Prospect House, the faculty club of Princeton. The dialogue begins with clarifications of the notion of liberty, and, against objections of the student, Pettit introduces and defends his own conception of freedom as nondomination rather than as non-interference. It proceeds with an exchange of arguments regarding the different kinds of institutional settings that entrench liberty and all the other things valued by humans. The interlocutors reach a preliminary consensus that in order to substantiate the republican ideal of freedom as non-domination in concrete institutional realities, two things are required: the establishment of a mixed constitution – so that no single, unconstrained body can exercise lawmaking and other government functions – as well as eternal vigilance on the part of the citizens. The second part of the dialogue deals with a major challenge to the republican political philosophy expressed by the student: the issue of non-domination in markets, which is diagnosed as an important lacuna in republican thought. (Philip Pettit's views are drawn freely from his following publications: Republicanism. A Theory of Freedom and Government, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997; A Theory of Freedom. From the Psychology to the Politics of Agency, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001; (with Geoffrey Brennan): The Economy of Esteem: An Essay on Civil and Political Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004; (with Christian List): Group Agency: The Possibility, Design and Status of Corporate Agents, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011; On the People's Terms. A Republican Theory and Model of Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012; Just Freedom A Moral Compass for a Complex World, New York and London: W.W. Norton, 2014. When Philip Pettit or the student are quoting or discussing views from other authors, then an endnote with the respective reference is provided.)