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Misrecognition and domination in transnational democracy

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Contemporary Political Theory Aims and scope

Abstract

In this article, I locate the Critical Theoretic and Republican themes of misrecognition and domination in transnational democracy, viewed as an emancipatory project. Contrary to John Dryzek, I argue that transnational democracy requires an appropriate account of mutual recognition and personal integrity in order to ground the emancipatory dimension of this project, especially given Dryzek's analysis of transnational contests in forming personal identifications. Beyond this, I argue that the same themes are needed to supplement James Bohman's account of the normative powers of dominated persons to initiate deliberation in circumstances of injustice. Primarily, my claim has been that the idea of personal integrity remains essential not only to motivating the project of transnational democracy, but also modifying the appeal to normative powers in the interest of enabling dominated persons to enter into communicative relationships and engage in public processes of critical self-examination.

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Notes

  1. I am grateful to an anonymous referee from Contemporary Political Theory for pointing out this broader consequence of my argument.

  2. Personal integrity in Honneth's analysis of misrecognition is often compared with Charles Taylor's communitarianism (see Taylor, 1994).

  3. This separate dimension of personal integrity as a practical self-relation was pointed out to me by Robert Sinnerbrink.

  4. In this connection, Pettit emphasizes the role of citizenship in the Roman republican tradition. One may be said to be free only to the extent that one is not a slave and subject to the indignities and misrecognitions that accompany the lack of secure legal stranding in the republic (pp. 35–37).

  5. Here it should be noted that discussions of transnational democracy typically address more general concerns with making the world a safer place in areas such as climate change and peacekeeping. I am grateful to an anonymous referee from Contemporary Political Theory for drawing my attention to this difference from my own concern with harm and emancipation.

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  1. Department of Philosophy, East Tennessee State University, Box 70656, Johnson City, 37614-0651, TN, USA

    Michael Allen

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  1. Michael Allen
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Allen, M. Misrecognition and domination in transnational democracy. Contemp Polit Theory 9, 200–219 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/cpt.2008.26

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