Commissioned Book Review: Emma Saunders-Hastings, Private Virtues, Public Vices: Philanthropy and Democratic Equality
| Author | Nora Reikosky |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221147449 |
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Review |
Political Studies Review
2023, Vol. 21(1) NP13 –NP14
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
1147449PSW0010.1177/14789299221147449Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
book-review2022
Commissioned Book Review
Private Virtues, Public Vices:
Philanthropy and Democratic Equality
by Emma Saunders-Hastings. Chicago, IL:
The University of Chicago Press, 2022. 252
pp., £26.15, ISBN: 9780226816142
Philanthropy presents a puzzle for liberal
democracies committed to equality. In
Private Virtues, Public Vices: Philanthropy
and Democratic Equality, Emma Saunders-
Hastings greatly expands a vibrant and still
emerging scholarly conversation about the
perils and possibilities of philanthropy for
existing democratic societies. Moving with
agility between historical cases, ongoing
intellectual debates, contemporary illustra-
tions, and normative recommenda tions,
Saunders-Hastings manages both a com-
prehensive survey of perspectives on
philanthropy in democratic societies and
develops a normative stance on the possi-
bilities for a democratic philanthropy going
forward.
At the outset, this book grants that phi-
lanthropists and the organizations they
fund often do produce substantive out-
comes and provide necessary services for
real people, sometimes doing so bet ter
than state institutions. However, the
author claims a focus on outcomes alone
often justifies deference—or preferential
treatment—toward philanthropists, which
problematically minimizes or sidesteps
issues of equality. While some in society
have expressed skepticism toward charity,
philanthropists have largely enjoyed histori-
cal and contemporary deference in social
and institutional forms. Social deference by
the public invites and shows gratitude for
philanthropists and their actions where
such gifts are an alternative to personal
consumption. This deference protects phi-
lanthropists from rebuke or even broader
questioning of their beneficent actions,
limiting critical or ethical interrogation.
Institutional deference, on the other hand,
includes those features provided by the
state that incentivize and reward philan-
thropic actions, such as tax deductions for
charitable contributions and the legal pro-
tection of demands made by givers toward
recipients.
Yet often—and perhaps nearly always—
philanthropic relationships are hierarchical
and allow the giver power and influence
over recipients to enact their judgments
and preferences. In evaluating philan-
thropy and democratic equality, this book
takes a relational egalitarian perspective—
rather than a distributive egalitarian one
that sees and critiques philanthropy as a
mechanism for redistributing wealth amid
unjust and institutionalized economic ine-
quality. For Saunders-Hastings, reforming
unjust institutions cannot be the only point
of attention because of what it overlooks
about inegalitarian relationships in existing
societies. Thus, the pursuit of relational
equality requires prioritizing a society
where all members are socially and politi-
cally equal to one another. And rather than
supporting relationships of social and
political equality, philanthropy may sub-
vert this democratic ideal.
Where philanthropy of any size or
form—elite or even more “democratized”
and ordinary versions—fails to adequately
prioritize equality in the philanthropic
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