Freedom as Nondomination

Abstract

Providing an overview of the modern republican conception of freedom, this interview starts with Philip Pettit’s account of ethical foundations. He argues against a rights-based approach; politics should seek to maximize goods in his view, rights are simply rules for ensuring these goods. The good he has in mind is freedom as nondomination. According to this view freedom is not simply being left alone, it is being in a position where nobody has the power to so constrain your action (even if that power is not being used). The chapter ends by considering the implications of such a view. Most obviously it would require a democratic form of government in which state power is both responsive to the people but also seriously constrained. Further Pettit argues this conception of freedom would require us to constrain the power of huge corporations—these too may be sources of domination.