Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:46:35.660Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Rawlsian Political Liberalism and Democratic Education

from Part Two - Philosophical and Normative Foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2023

Julian Culp
Affiliation:
The American University of Paris, France
Johannes Drerup
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
Douglas Yacek
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
Get access

Summary

Within liberal societies, citizens endorse a range of religious, moral, and philosophical views (e.g., Buddhism and utilitarianism). Despite this doctrinal diversity, John Rawls’ account of political liberalism holds that there is a form of democratic equality that is realizable by all citizens. Citizens can be equally politically autonomous if they enjoy equal political power and justify the exercise of that power with public reasons. A political liberal education for democratic citizenship would teach students how to participate in political decision-making, and how to use public reasons when helping to decide fundamental political questions. Political liberalism also can accommodate diverse educational options for families, but this accommodation is limited by political liberalism’s concern for the future political autonomy of students. This concern distinguishes the political liberal account from the “convergence” account of public justification. Unlike political liberalism, the convergence account fails to respect adequately the future political autonomy of students.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, M. (2020). The value of ideal theory. In Mandle, J. & Roberts, S., eds., John Rawls: Debating the major questions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 7386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boettcher, J. (2020). Deliberative democracy, diversity, and restraint. Res Publica, 26(2), 215–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brighouse, H. (2015). Nonideal theorizing in education. Educational Theory, 65(2), 215–31.Google Scholar
Callan, E. (1996). Political liberalism and political education. Review of Politics, 58(1), 533.Google Scholar
Callan, E. (1997). Creating citizens: Political education and liberal democracy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Carnoy, M. (2017). School vouchers are not a proven strategy for improving student achievement. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Available at: https://www.epi.org/publication/school-vouchers-are-not-a-proven-strategy-for-improving-student-achievement.Google Scholar
Costa, V. M. (2011). Rawls, citizenship, and education. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Culp, J. (2019). Democratic education in a globalized world: A normative theory. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwall, S. (2006). The second-person standpoint. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, G., & Neufeld, B. (2007). Political liberalism, civic education, and educational choice. Social Theory & Practice, 43(1), 4774.Google Scholar
De Wijze, S. (1999). Rawls and civic education. Cogito, 13(2), 8793.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dworkin, G. (1988). The theory and practice of autonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebels-Duggan, K. (2013). Moral education in the liberal state. Journal of Practical Ethics, 1(2), 3463.Google Scholar
Edenberg, E. (2016). Civic education: Political or comprehensive? In Drerup, J., Graf, G., Schickhardt, C. & Schweiger, G., eds., Justice, education, and the politics of childhood. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 187206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinberg, W., & Lubienski, C. (2008). Introduction. In Feinberg, W. & Lubienski, C., eds., School choice policies and outcomes: Empirical and philosophical perspectives. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, pp. 120.Google Scholar
Freeman, S. (2007). Rawls. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1955). The role of government in education. In Solo, R., ed., Economics and the public interest. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, pp. 123–44.Google Scholar
Gaus, G. (2011). The order of public reason: A theory of freedom and morality in a diverse and bounded world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gaus, G. (2015). Public reason liberalism. In Wall, S., ed., The Cambridge companion to liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 115–40.Google Scholar
Gaus, G., & Vallier, K. (2009). The roles of religious conviction in a publicly justified polity: The implications of convergence, asymmetry, and political institutions. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 35(1), 5176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutmann, A. (1995). Civic education and social diversity. Ethics, 105(3), 557–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, K. R. (2008). Evidence, the conservative paradigm, and school choice. In Feinberg, W. & Lubienski, C-, eds., School choice policies and outcomes: Philosophical and empirical perspectives. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, pp. 6178.Google Scholar
Lister, A. (2013). Public reason and political community. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Lister, A. (2018). The coherence of public reason. Journal of Moral Philosophy, 25(1), 6484.Google Scholar
Macedo, S. (2000). Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neufeld, B. (2013). Political liberalism and citizenship education. Philosophy Compass, 8(9), 781–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neufeld, B. (2022). Public reason and political autonomy: Realizing the ideal of a civic people. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Quong, J. (2011). Liberalism without perfection. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1999). A theory of justice. Rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (2001). Justice as fairness: A restatement. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, J. (2005). Political liberalism. Exp. ed., New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Schouten, G. (2018). Political liberalism and autonomy education: Are citizenship-based arguments enough? Philosophical Studies, 175(5), pp. 1071–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, A. J. (2010). Ideal and nonideal theory. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 38(1), 536.Google Scholar
Stemplowska, Z., & Swift, A. (2014). Rawls on ideal and nonideal theory. In Mandle, J. & Reidy, D. A., eds., A companion to Rawls. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 112–27.Google Scholar
Vallier, K. (2014). Liberal politics and public faith: Beyond separation. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vallier, K. (2015). Public justification versus public deliberation: The case for divorce. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 45(2), 139–58.Google Scholar
Vallier, K. (2019). Must politics be war? Restoring our trust in the open society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Watson, L., & Hartley, C. (2018). Equal citizenship and public reason: A feminist political liberalism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weithman, P. (2011). Convergence and political autonomy. Public Affairs Quarterly, 25(4), 327–48.Google Scholar
Weithman, P. (2017). Autonomy and disagreement about justice in political liberalism. Ethics, 128(1), 95122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenar, L. (2017). Rawls, John. Zalta, In E. N., ed., The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy Spring ed. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/rawls.Google Scholar
Wong, B. (2021). Let God and Rawls be friends: On the cooperation between the political liberal government and religious schools in civic education. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 38(5), 774–89.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×