Holger Ross Lauritsen: Democracy and the Separation of Powers: A Rancièrean Approach
This article presents an interpretation of the principle of separation of powers in light of Jacques Rancière’s conception of liberal democracy. It seems that, hitherto, this principle has been considered either the opposite of democracy (in Marxism) or the essence of democracy (in liberalism). In opposition to these two approaches, the article argues that the principle of separation of powers should be considered an effect of, and at the same time a tool for, struggles for equality. This is done by means of, first, an investigation into the historical transformations of this principle, secondly, an examination of the aporias inherent in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s formulation of the principle of subordination of the executive to the legislative power, and, finally, a comparison between different modern interpretations of this subordination (Anton Pannekoek, Giorgio Agamben, Carl Schmitt).
Keywords: Equality; executive power; Jacques Rancière; legislative power; liberal democracy; metapolitics; separation of powers.
Juliane Ottmann: Social Exclusion in the Welfare State: The Implications of Welfare Reforms for Social Solidarity and Social Citizenship
Despite the fact that most European countries have well established welfare systems, social exclusion is a growing problem in most modern Western societies. It is a problem that affects not only the individual but society as a whole. At individual level, exclusion refers to the failure to participate in social activities and to build social relations. At societal level, exclusion reflects inadequate social cohesion and integration. All forms of social exclusion point to a decline of social solidarity. The article addresses the problem of social exclusion in the welfare state from the perspective of legal and social theory. It examines the theoretical foundations of the welfare state by virtue of an analysis of different concepts of solidarity. This analysis will help to reveal a paradigm shift which was prompted by recent welfare reforms and which has affected the foundations of the welfares state. The aim is to show how this paradigm shift has changed the concepts of social solidarity and social citizenship in the welfare state and, ultimately, facilitates social exclusion.
Keywords: Emile Durkheim; European social model; paradigm shift; social citizenship; social exclusion; social solidarity; welfare state.
Symposium on Essentialism vs. Constructivism
Anders Berg-Sørensen, Nils Holtug, and Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen: Essentialism vs. Constructivism: Introduction
Anne Phillips: What’s wrong with Essentialism?
This paper identifies and discusses four distinct meanings of essentialism. The first is the attribution of certain characteristics to everyone subsumed within a particular category: the ‘(all) women are caring and empathetic’, ‘(all) Africans have rhythm’, ‘(all) Asians are community oriented’ syndrome. The second is the attribution of those characteristics to the category, in ways that naturalise or reify what may be socially created or constructed. The third is the invocation of a collectivity as either the subject or object of political action (‘the working class’, ‘women’, ‘Third World women’), in a move that seems to presume a homogenised and unified group. The fourth is the policing of this collective category, the treatment of its supposedly shared characteristics as the defining ones that cannot be questioned or modified without undermining an individual’s claim to belong to that group. Focusing on these four variants enables us to see that the issue is sometimes one of degree rather than a categorical embargo.
Keywords: Culture; essentialism; gender difference; identity politics; stereotypes.
Åsa Carlson: Gender and Sex: What Are They? Sally Haslanger’s Debunking Social Constructivism
Sally Haslanger is a ‘debunking’ social constructivist, but when it comes to sex, she defends a refined realist view. The debunking project aims at showing how some presumably natural kind actually is a social kind. In defining what it is to be, e.g., a woman, we must make reference to social factors. These tunes are familiar. But how does Haslanger conceive of sex? And why ought we not to not debunk sex as well as gender? Since Haslanger defines gender in terms of sex, and criticizes other constructivists for going too far with their constructivist claims, she ought to make some important difference between gender and sex. And so she seems to do. She argues that the sexes are two objective natural types of bodies, while the genders – man and woman – are social types. Nevertheless, since the rationale for our current sex categories is pragmatic or social according to Haslanger, it is possible to debunk sex – in some sense – also within her theory. Many feminists and queer theorists believe that a pluralistic system of sex would be less damaging than our actual division into males and females. If they are right, then there are strong political reasons for debunking sex, too.
Keywords: Gender; Haslanger; natural types; ontology; sex; social construction; social types.
Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen: Gender Constructions: The Politics of Biological Constraints
Genetic determinists about gender think that gender differences are a result of biologically, hard-wired differences between the sexes reflecting differential sets of attributes maximizing fitness in human pre-history. Radical social constructivists about gender deny that it has any biological basis. I explore a moderate version of social constructivism – genetically constrained constructivism – about gender tied to a socio-biological approach to gender differences. On this view biological factors interact with nonbiological factors to determine gender. My aim is not to defend this view, but to show that it can accommodate social constructivists’ main worries about the normative and political implications of genetic determinism about gender, viz.: that it falsely represents gender differences as unavoidable; that it embodies stereotypical conceptions of women and men; that it suppresses the possibility of individuals who are neither happily classified as men, nor as women; and that it canvasses constraining scripts about how individuals ought to live their gendered lives. Ultimately, those of us who share these worries should welcome a reconciliation of genetically constrained constructivism and the normative concerns the worries just mentioned reflect, since it implies that the latter does not hang on the failure of the socio-biological research programme.
Keywords: Conservatism; dichotomies; essentialism; gender; gender roles; sex; social constructivism; stereotypes.
Allan Dreyer Hansen: Dangerous Dogs, Constructivism and Normativity: The Implications of Radical Constructivism
This article argues that although there is no necessary link between constructivism and particular sets of norms, constructivism opens up a space for normativity and can be articulated through particular normative or political programmes. In the article it is shown how Laclau’s deconstructive constructivism can be articulated within the framework of an ethos of democratisation. The article takes its empirical point of departure in recent Danish debates on dangerous dogs.
Keywords: Articulation; constructivism; democracy; essentialism; Laclau.