THE WELL-ORDERED REPUBLIC
Oxford University Press, 2022
Classical and contemporary republicans offer a compelling political vision built on a commitment to promoting freedom from domination, establishing popular control over public officials, and securing the empire of law. The Well-Ordered Republic provides the most rigorous, comprehensive, and up-to-date account of republican political theory presently available, while also showing how that theory can be extended to address new issues of economic justice, workplace democracy, identity politics, emergency powers, education, migration, and foreign policy. Frank Lovett argues that our shared freedom from domination is constituted by republican institutions such as democracy, the rule of law, and the public provision of an unconditional basic income. As a public good whose continued supply depends on robust civic engagement, republican freedom is a valuable but ongoing collective achievement: all citizens must remain dedicated to shared republican institutions for their freedom to endure. Purchase the book.
A REPUBLIC OF LAW
Cambridge University Press, 2016
The rule of law is a valuable human achievement. It is valuable not only instrumentally, but also for its own sake as a significant aspect of social justice. Only in a society that enjoys the rule of law is it possible for people to regard one another as fellow free citizens; no one the master of anyone else. Nevertheless, the rule of law is poorly understood. In this book, Frank Lovett develops a rigorous conception of the rule of law that is grounded in legal positivism, and offers a civic republican argument for its value in terms of freedom from domination. Bridging persistent methodological gaps that divide legal philosophy, social science, and political theory, Lovett demonstrates how insights from all three can be united in a single powerful theory. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the rule of law, including scholars, legal officials, and policy-makers. Purchase the book.
RAWLS’S A THEORY OF JUSTICE:
A READER’S GUIDE
Continuum Books, 2011
John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice, first published in 1971, is arguably the most important work of moral and political philosophy of the twentieth century. A staple on undergraduate courses in political theory, it is a classic text in which Rawls makes an astonishing contribution to political and moral thought. Rawls’s ‘A Theory of Justice’: A Reader’s Guide offers a concise and accessible introduction to this hugely important and challenging work. Written specifically to meet the needs of students coming to Rawls for the first time, the book offers guidance on philosophical and historical context, key themes, reading the text, reception and influence, and further reading. Purchase the book.
A GENERAL THEORY OF
DOMINATION AND JUSTICE
Oxford University Press, 2010
In all societies, past and present, many persons and groups have been subject to domination. Properly understood, domination is a great evil, the suffering of which ought to be minimized so far as possible. Surprisingly, however, political and social theorists have failed to provide a detailed analysis of the concept of domination in general. This study aims to redress this lacuna. It argues first, that domination should be understood as a condition experienced by persons or groups to the extent that they are dependent on a social relationship in which some other person or group wields arbitrary power over them. It argues second, that we should regard it as wrong to perpetrate or permit unnecessary domination and, thus, that as a matter of justice the political and social institutions and practices of any society should be organized so as to minimize avoidable domination. This conception of social justice connects with more familiar civic republican accounts of freedom as non-domination. Purchase the book.