{"title":"Today’s Political Puzzle: Hierarchy, Equality and Legitimacy","authors":"Jean-Marc Coicaud","doi":"10.1007/s40647-023-00399-5","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>I proceed in four steps. First, I indicate what is to be understood by hierarchy and equality and the different areas in which this understanding can be at play. Second, I highlight that in the current era, it is through the mediation of equality that hierarchy is mainly apprehended. Third, I analyze how the relations between hierarchy and equality and their respective importance are connected with what passes for legitimacy and can vary with the context. Fourth, I focus on the principles or criteria, based on what actors now tend to see as just, that help to establish the right balance between hierarchy and equality. From the extent to which the institutions and actors in position of power take these principles/criteria seriously depends the extent to which they are viewed as legitimate.</p>","PeriodicalId":43537,"journal":{"name":"Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1092","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-023-00399-5","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
I proceed in four steps. First, I indicate what is to be understood by hierarchy and equality and the different areas in which this understanding can be at play. Second, I highlight that in the current era, it is through the mediation of equality that hierarchy is mainly apprehended. Third, I analyze how the relations between hierarchy and equality and their respective importance are connected with what passes for legitimacy and can vary with the context. Fourth, I focus on the principles or criteria, based on what actors now tend to see as just, that help to establish the right balance between hierarchy and equality. From the extent to which the institutions and actors in position of power take these principles/criteria seriously depends the extent to which they are viewed as legitimate.
期刊介绍:
Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences (FJHSS) is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes research papers across all academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. The Journal aims to promote multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies, bridge diverse communities of the humanities and social sciences in the world, provide a platform of academic exchange for scholars and readers from all countries and all regions, promote intellectual development in China’s humanities and social sciences, and encourage original, theoretical, and empirical research into new areas, new issues, and new subject matters. Coverage in FJHSS emphasizes the combination of a “local” focus (e.g., a country- or region-specific perspective) with a “global” concern, and engages in the international scholarly dialogue by offering comparative or global analyses and discussions from multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives. The journal features special topics, special issues, and original articles of general interest in the disciplines of humanities and social sciences. The journal also invites leading scholars as guest editors to organize special issues or special topics devoted to certain important themes, subject matters, and research agendas in the humanities and social sciences.