Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T07:43:47.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mitigating Servility: Policies of Egalitarian Self-Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Anne-Sofie Greisen Hojlund Open the ORCID record for Anne-Sofie Greisen Hojlund [Opens in a new window]
Anne-Sofie Greisen Hojlund*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How should inequalities generated in part by people's self-devaluing attitudes be understood, and what can be done politically to counteract them? Building on central elements of relational egalitarianism, this article scrutinizes the case of servility as an instance of failure to relate to oneself as an equal, attitudinally and behaviorally speaking. From this perspective, servility as well as the adverse distributive consequences it gives rise to should be considered objectionable and in need of mitigation. Considering the case of political voice, the article points to certain paternalistic policies as a means of altering servility by inducing people to make their claims heard. Indeed, such policies may serve as particularly apt instruments since they directly target attitudinal barriers to relational equality in the political sphere. The novel claim is that paternalism, by altering servile attitudes as well as behavioral patterns, may effectively help make people relate to themselves in a more egalitarian manner.

Keywords

relational equalityservilitypaternalistic policiesattitudinal changebehavioral changepolitical voice
Type
Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , April 2022 , pp. 908 - 920
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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

Anderson, E (1999) What is the point of equality? Ethics 109(2), 287–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, E (2008) Expanding the egalitarian toolbox: equality and bureaucracy. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes 82, 139–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, E (2010a) The fundamental disagreement between luck egalitarians and relational egalitarians. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 36, 1–23.Google Scholar
Anderson, E (2010b) The Imperative of Integration. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arneson, RJ (1980) Mill versus paternalism. Ethics 90(4), 470–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arneson, RJ (1989a) Equality and equal opportunity for welfare. Philosophical Studies 56(1), 77–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arneson, RJ (1989b) Paternalism, utility and fairness. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 43(170), 409–437.Google Scholar
Begon, J (2016) Paternalism. Analysis 76(3), 355–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, P (1991) Autonomy and oppressive socialization. Social Theory and Practice 17(3), 385–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bou-Habib, P (2006) Compulsory insurance without paternalism. Utilitas 18(03), 243–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christman, J (2004) Relational autonomy, liberal individualism, and the social constitution of selves. Philosophical Studies 117(1/2), 143–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, A, Vigoda, E and Samorly, A (2001) Analysis of the mediating effect of personal-psychological variables on the relationship between socioeconomic status and political participation: a structural equations framework. Political Psychology 22(4), 727–757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, GA (1989) On the currency of egalitarian justice. Ethics 99(4), 906–944.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, GA (1997) Where the action is: on the site of distributive justice. Philosophy & Public Affairs 26(1), 3–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J (2009) Philosophy, Politics, Democracy: Selected Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Crisp, R (2003) Equality, priority and compassion. Ethics 113(4), 745–763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwall, SL (1977) Two kinds of respect. Ethics 88(1), 36–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dworkin, G (2019) Paternalism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/paternalism/.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R (1981) What is equality? Part 2: equality of resources. Philosophy & Public Affairs 10(4), 283–345.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R (2002) Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinberg, J (1989) Harm to Self: The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Finkel, S (1987) The effects of participation on political efficacy and political support: evidence from a West German panel. The Journal of Politics 49(2), 441–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flanigan, J (2017) Seat belt mandates and paternalism. Journal of Moral Philosophy 14(3), 291–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fourie, C (2011) What is social equality? An analysis of status equality as a strongly egalitarian ideal. Res Publica 18(2), 107–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, RL and Lawless, JL (2011) Gendered perceptions and political candidacies: a central barrier to women's equality. American Journal of Political Science 55(1), 59–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, RL and Lawless, JL (2014) Uncovering the origins of the gender gap in political ambition. The American Political Science Review 108(3), 499–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, M (1985) Moral integrity and the deferential wife. Philosophical Studies 47(1), 141–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, M (2003) Autonomy, Gender, Politics: Studies in Feminist Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grill, K (2017) Incentives, equity and the able chooser problem. Journal of Medical Ethics 43(3), 157–161.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hampton, J (1993) Selflessness and the loss of self. Social Philosophy and Policy 10(1), 135–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanna, J (2015) Libertarian paternalism, manipulation, and the shaping of preferences. Social Theory and Practice 41(4), 618–643.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrits, GS (2011) Political power as symbolic capital and symbolic violence. Journal of Political Power 4(2), 237–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, TE (1973) Servility and self-respect. Monist 57(1), 87–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, TE (1991) Autonomy and Self-Respect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HUNT (1997) Self-Evaluation. A Longitudinal Population Health Study in Norway. URL: https://hunt-db.medisin.ntnu.no/hunt-db/#/.Google Scholar
Husak, DN (1981) Paternalism and autonomy. Philosophy & Public Affairs 10(1), 27–46.Google Scholar
James, SL and Amato, PR (2013) Self-esteem and the reproduction of social class. Social Science Quarterly 94(4), 933–955.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Knight, J and Johnson, J (1998) What kind of political equality does deliberative democracy require? In Rehg, W and Bohman, J (eds.), Deliberative Democracy: Essays on Reason and Politics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 279–319.Google Scholar
Le Grand, J and New, B (2015) Government Paternalism: Nanny State or Helpful Friend? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Leaper, C and Ayres, MM (2007) A meta-analytic review of gender variations in adults' language use: talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech. Personality and Social Psychology Review 11(4), 328–363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lippert-Rasmussen, K (2018) Relational Egalitarianism: Living as Equals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackenzie, C (2008) Relational autonomy, normative authority and perfectionism. Journal of Social Philosophy 39(4), 512–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marneffe, PD (2006) Avoiding paternalism. Philosophy & Public Affairs 34(1), 68–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, A (2000) Equality, personal responsibility, and gender socialisation. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 100(1), 227–246.Google Scholar
Miller, D (1997) Equality and justice. Ratio 10(3), 222–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moles, A and Parr, T (2018) Distributions and relations: a hybrid account. Political Studies 67(1), 132–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Neill, M (2008) What should egalitarians believe? Philosophy & Public Affairs 36(2), 119–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parfit, D (2002) Equality or priority? In Clayton, M and Williams, A (eds.), The Ideal of Equality. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 81–125.Google Scholar
Parvin, P (2018) Democracy without participation: a new politics for a disengaged era. Res Publica 24(1), 31–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pate, J and Fox, R (2018) Getting past the gender gap in political ambition. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 156, 166–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedersen, VML (2019) On the anti-paternalist project of reconciliation. Utilitas 31(1), 20–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfanzelt, H and Spies, DC (2019) The gender gap in youth political participation: evidence from Germany. Political Research Quarterly 72(1), 34–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ponthieux, S and Meurs, D (2015) Gender inequality. In Atkinson, A and Bourguignon, F (eds), Handbook of Income Distribution, vol. 2. North-Holland: Elsevier Science & Technology, pp. 981–1146.Google Scholar
Quong, J (2011) Liberalism Without Perfectionism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rakowski, E (1991) Equal Justice. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Rawls, J (1971) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, J (1993) Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J (2001) Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Roemer, JE (1996) Theories of Distributive Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Scanlon, T (2003) The diversity of objections to inequality. In Scanlon T (ed.), The Difficulty of Tolerance: Essays in Political Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 202–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheffler, S (2003) What is egalitarianism? Philosophy & Public Affairs 31(1), 5–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheffler, S (2005) Choice, circumstance, and the value of equality. Politics, Philosophy & Economics 4(1), 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheffler, S (2015) The practice of equality. In Fourie, C, Schuppert, F and Wallimann-Helmer, I (eds), Social Equality: On What It Means To Be Equals. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 21–44.Google Scholar
Schemmel, C (2011a) Distributive and relational equality. Politics, Philosophy & Economics 11(2), 123–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schemmel, C (2011b) Why relational egalitarians should care about distributions. Social Theory and Practice 37(3), 365–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlozman, KL, Verba, S and Brady, HE (1995) Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schlozman, KL, Verba, S and Brady, HE (2012) The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Schlozman, KL, Verba, S and Brady, HE (2018) Unequal and Unrepresented: Political Inequality and the People's Voice in the New Gilded Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Schneider, EM (1992) Particularity and generality: challenges of feminist theory and practice in work on woman-abuse. New York University Law Review 67(3), 520–569.Google Scholar
Segall, S. (2009) Health, Luck, and Justice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A (1980) Equality of what? In McMurrin, S (ed.), Tanner Lectures on Human Values. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 197-220.Google Scholar
Shiffrin, SV (2000) Paternalism, unconscionability doctrine, and accommodation. Philosophy & Public Affairs 29(3), 205–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, SJ et al. (2010) Psychometric properties of the Rosenberg self-esteem scale: overall and across demographic groups living within the United States. Evaluation & the Health Professions 33(1), 56–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stenner-Day, K and Fischle, M (1992) The effects of political participation on political efficacy: a simultaneous equations model. Australian Journal of Political Science 27(2), 282–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterba, JP (2009) Affirmative Action for the Future. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Tomlin, P (2014) What is the point of egalitarian social relationships? In Kaufman, A (ed.), Distributive Justice and Access to Advantage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 151–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsai, G (2014) Rational persuasion as paternalism. Philosophy & Public Affairs 42(1), 78–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentino, N, Gregorowicz, K and Groenendyk, E (2009) Efficacy, emotions and the habit of participation. Political Behavior 31(3), 307–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voigt, K (2017) Distributive equality, relational equality and preferences about higher education. Theory and Research in Education 15(2), 109–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voigt, K (2018) Relational equality and the expressive dimension of state action. Social Theory and Practice 44(3), 437–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, ME (2001) Democracy and Association. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Young, IM (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar