RT Article
T1 Liberalism and the Common Good
JF New blackfriars
VO 103
IS 1105
SP 359
OP 375
A1 Rusch, Benjamin
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1799925862
AB Theorists with strongly communal understandings of the common good frequently criticize the modern liberal state for failing to provide for the common good and for interfering with local communities. These critics, however, are less clear about what role, if any, the state should play in modern life. In order to trace a middle ground between liberal attempts to justify the state and too hasty communitarian condemnations of it, I develop a two-tiered theory of political justification. All political justification is to be seen in relationship to the common good of a community. While only local communities have a common good and a direct claim to political authority, the state can still have an indirect and derivative authority. After examining how this theory applies to thinkers such as Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Sandel, and Charles Taylor, I propose an appropriate model for the relationship between local communities and the state.
K1 political justification
K1 Localism
K1 Liberalism
K1 Communitarianism
K1 Common Good
DO 10.1111/nbfr.12638