The Impossible Republic

The Philip Pettit’s political philosophy is one of the most important contemporary efforts to elaborate a complete republican theory about the good government. At the base of this republicanism there are two assumptions to which republican tradition, in general, has adhered in different ways: first,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Olof Page
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2010-09-01
Series:Ideas y Valores
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/idval/article/viewFile/10149/17162
Description
Summary:The Philip Pettit’s political philosophy is one of the most important contemporary efforts to elaborate a complete republican theory about the good government. At the base of this republicanism there are two assumptions to which republican tradition, in general, has adhered in different ways: first, human beings are capable of generating civility or civic virtue, and second, that human beings are intrinsically corruptible, meaning that, under certain conditions, they will exercise power arbitrarily. The article attempts to show that these statements are incompatible, and that, therefore, at the level of the fundamental assumptions, this republican theory of government must be rethought.
ISSN:0120-0062