Liberty through Political Representation and Rights Recognition

in Theoria
Author:
Christopher J. Allsobrook University of Fort Hare

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/th.2017.6415004
Keywords:
domination; Foucault; Hamilton; human rights; power; recognition
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Abstract

This critique of the theory of freedom and power, which Lawrence Hamilton advances in Freedom is Power (2014), maintains that Hamilton’s appeal to a genealogy of needs - (established in his earlier work, The Political Philosophy of Needs (2003)) to distinguish power from domination – is inconsistent with the theory of power he advocates. His account of needs is no less vulnerable than that of rivals to the problem of power he identifies. I advance a rights recognition theory, which is compatible with this theory of power and I argue that it helps to provide support for the distinction, which Hamilton wants to make, between power and domination, which one cannot obtain from his theory of needs.

Contributor Notes

Christopher Allsobrook is the Director of the Center for Leadership Ethics in Africa (CLEA) at the University of Fort Hare. His most recent published work has appeared in the South African Journal of Philosophy and Politikon.

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Theoria

A Journal of Social and Political Theory

Cover Theoria
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
16
Keywords:
domination; Foucault; Hamilton; human rights; power; recognition
Print Publication Date:
01 Mar 2017
Online Publication Date:
01 Mar 2017
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2017

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