On What a Distinctively Political Normativity Is
| Author | Robert Jubb |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929919832251 |
| Published date | 01 November 2019 |
| Date | 01 November 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929919832251
Political Studies Review
2019, Vol. 17(4) 360 –369
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929919832251
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On What a Distinctively
Political Normativity Is
Robert Jubb
Abstract
Realists in normative political theory aim to defend the importance of ‘distinctively political thought’
as opposed to the applied ethics they believe characterizes much contemporary political theory
and causes it to misunderstand and make mistakes about its subject matter. More conventional
political theorists have attempted to respond to realism, including Jonathan Leader Maynard and
Alex Worsnip, who have recently criticized five supposedly realist arguments for a distinctive
political normativity. However, while Leader Maynard and Worsnip’s arguments are themselves
less decisive than they suppose, the problem with their response may lay elsewhere. Their
response supposes that more conventional political theory could, in principle, be defended at an
abstract general level. This may not be possible though, given the difficulty of arriving at agreed
interpretations of the concepts involved and the desiderata for a successful normative political
theory. It also risks missing the point of realism, which is to use different forms of normative
inquiry to explore questions which have not always been central to conventional normative
political theory. Judith Shklar’s excellent work on vices and the liberalism of fear nicely illustrates
this problem.
Keywords
realism, Judith Shklar, political normativity, liberalism of fear
Accepted: 24 January 2019
Normative political theory hopes to provide political prescriptions. It aims to describe
what, for example, a commitment to democracy properly involves or which principles
govern and so constitute a just system of property rights. Insofar as we are not merely
interested in politics as an intriguing game but come to it with views about what democ-
racy is, the rightful place of socio-economic equality in our political economy or any
number of other animating convictions, we have an interest in seeing the task of norma-
tive political theory, which can help us think through them, carried out properly. Unless it
is carried out properly, it may be difficult to adequately capture the concerns underlying
work on, for instance, participation and responsiveness in democratic political systems
(Sabl, 2016). In this sense, the recent growth in interest in normative political theory in
methodological questions, and particularly about the relation of its prescriptions to the
University of Reading, Reading, UK
Corresponding author:
Robert Jubb, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6UR, UK.
Email: r.s.d.jubb@reading.ac.uk
832251PSW0010.1177/1478929919832251Political Studies ReviewJubb
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