Civic Conception: Liberalism, Communitarianism, and Feminism
Building a Civic Conception
Building a civic conception is not easy. The liberal challenge will be how to allow the defense time to the views of individuals (ethics of maximum) and civic engagement (minimum ethics). Something that was being studied was civic ethic.
Habermas
Liberalism defends the primacy of the individual against any options or communitarianism. The holistic task of political institutions is to enable individuals to coexist. Preferences democracy becomes a method for defending individual interests. Liberalism makes thereby the civic commitment to achieving individual goals. Habermas has accused liberalism of undermining democratic processes by strongly separating public and private spheres.
Moral Foundations of Political Life
Rawls has responded by creating a political conception of justice that says because we live in pluralistic societies, different conceptions of the good should accept that public life requires common moral standards that claim to universal validity, these rules can be rational.
Denial of the Neutrality of the State
The Liberal Party holds a model of citizenship in which the state should stay neutral in any good life choice. The communitarians are strongly opposed to this thesis. The communitarians believe it is possible to carry out justice, without which this tour by prior recognition of what is good, as can be, equal beings. The liberal option for neutrality is an option valuation, not neutral. And besides, risks driving the company to apathy, skepticism, corruption, and political violence.
Communitarianism and Civic Humanism
Communitarianism takes up the civic humanist tradition and believes that a free society requires sacrifice and discipline from citizens. The motivation for this commitment has to come from the free and voluntary acceptance by citizens of the Company to maintain the city’s love of collective identity. This commitment is called patriotism. Patriotism is the linkage with which the citizen is to be associated in a shared common political project.
Communitarianism and Civic Humanism
Communitarianism takes up the civic humanist tradition and believes that a free society requires sacrifice and discipline from citizens. The motivation for this commitment has to come from the free and voluntary acceptance by citizens of the Company to maintain the city’s love of collective identity. This commitment is called patriotism. Patriotism is the linkage with which the citizen is to be associated in a shared common political project. Towards liberalism that conceives humans as sovereign wills and selfish beings, communitarianism, which understands tribal republicanism, emphasizes the interactive nature of social life.
Freedom
Freedom does not consist in the absence of restrictions, but the safeguard against capricious interference of others. This guarantee is provided by law. The best form of defense against domination is a legal and institutional system that protects the citizen’s action. Outside of law, there is no freedom, the law creates freedom, it is not accepting restriction because it provides some benefits, like liberalism, but the law is constitutive of freedom.
Feminist Contributions to the Concept of Citizenship
Feminist contributions to the concept of citizenship can be grouped into two blocks:
- The revision of classical political philosophy, from which three conclusions are obtained:
- a) The tradition of Western thought is based on a political conception that excludes women.
- b) Although the thinkers point to the neutrality, their arguments are only applicable to men.
- c) The concept is linked to human reason and culture, characterizing the public sphere, the concept woman is linked to emotion and nature, defining the private sphere.
- Marxist and socialist feminist theories: They share the same notion of human nature, some created by the interplay of dialectics between human society and the physical environment. What creates human types and distinctive psychological traits in each society is the practice of that society. The socialist dominant focus on patriarchy and capitalism in the Marxist class exploitation.