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Are rights less important for republicans than for liberals? Pettit versus Pettit

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Abstract

It has become a commonplace in neo-republican thinking to claim that if the notion of rights can be allowed a place in republican political theory, it can never achieve the prominence that liberalism allegedly grants it. Philip Pettit’s book, Republicanism, provides several arguments to buttress this thesis. This article aims at examining these arguments in order to show that once properly stated, they must on the contrary be considered as powerful arguments to the effect that republicans take rights very seriously.

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Acknowledgments

The research for this article has been carried through thanks to two postdoctoral positions at the Centre for Political Theory (Université libre de Bruxelles): one position, in 2011–2013, was part of an ERC Starting Grant project led by Prof. Justine Lacroix, and the other was funded by the FRS-FNRS (2013–2015). I am greatly indebted to Justine and all the colleagues for the stimulating exchanges from which I have benefited during these years. I also would like to express my sincere gratitude to Cécile Laborde, Juliette Roussin and Quentin Skinner for their kind encouragement and discussions of earlier drafts of this article. Its final version owes a great deal to the three anonymous referees’ and editors’ comments and critiques. Lastly, it is a pleasure to thank deeply both Gabi Maas and Beth Gale: while making my prose unquestionably more readable, their precious linguistic assistance has also contributed to sharpen my argument.

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  1. ERIAC, Université de Rouen Normandie, Rue Lavoisier, Rouen, 76000, France

    Christopher Hamel

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Hamel, C. Are rights less important for republicans than for liberals? Pettit versus Pettit. Contemp Polit Theory 16, 478–500 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-016-0071-1

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