The Political Economy of Civil Society and Human Rights

ISBN-13: 9781138978737 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 320 str.

Gary Brent Madison

Opis

Madison uses the concept of civil society and his distinctive version of 'communicative rationality' to provide a closely-argued and robust defence of the neo-liberal political and economic tradition. Writing with considerable elegance and humour, the author draws on the hermeneutical and neo-pragmatist traditions, and on a diverse range of evidence and discussion, mainly concerning transitional economies and societies in Eastern Europe and around the world. Providing a systematic analysis of the multi-faceted notion of civil society, this book shows in detail how the three main orders of civil society - the moral-cultural, the political, and the economic - constitute 'spheres of autonomy'. At the same time, it illustrates how these different orders are closely interrelated and interact in a synergetic manner. A unique feature of this study is the way in which the author demonstrates how the logic of the various orders of civil society is, in a way appropriate to the distinct nature of each order, a logic of communicative rationality. The work concludes by arguing that the only sure way of achieving international justice is by the construction of civil society world-wide.

Spis treści

Introduction; 1 The idea of civil society, 2 A new threat to an old idea; 3 The moral-cultural order; 4 The political order; The economic order; Appendix On civil society and international justice; References

O autorze

G.B.Madison is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at McMaster University, Canada, and has held positions at the universities of Paris and Toronto. He has edited three collections of philosophical essays and is the author of several books on political theory and contemporary European philosophy. He has written extensively on issues relating to economic methodology, globalization, and civil society.