|
Showing 1 - 3 of
3 matches in All Departments
Rights are part of our everyday moral and political vocabulary. Yet
while few would deny that rights are important, there is a great
deal of disagreement about just how valuable rights are and what
their proper limits ought to be. For example, some scholars and
practitioners maintain that human rights are valuable because they
lay down a framework of protection, while at the same time leaving
people ample room to lead their lives as they see fit. They are not
just another way of life, but instead set the boundaries to what
government can or cannot do. Others, however, hold that, while
important, rights are not neutral between different ways of life
and hence cannot tell us what to do when different ways of life
conflict. This collection breaks new ground by tackling such
questions head on. The issues it covers are some of the most vital
that we face today. Their relevance to contemporary social and
political debates cannot be overstated. The collection should
appeal to political philosophers, lawyers, human rights activists
and advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the arts,
humanities and social sciences. This book was published as a
special issue of Critical Review of International, Social and
Political Philosophy.
It is widely assumed that internal power-sharing is a viable
democratic means of managing inter-communal conflict in divided
societies. In principle, this form of government enables
communities that have conflicting identities to remedy longstanding
patterns of discrimination and to co-exist peacefully. Key
arguments in support of this view can be found in the highly
influential works of Arend Lijphart and Donald Horowitz. New
Challenges for Power-Sharing seeks to explore the unintended
consequences of power-sharing for the communities themselves, their
individual members, and for others in society. More specifically,
it is distinctive in questioning explicitly whether power sharing:
perpetuates inter-communal conflict by institutionalising
difference at the political level; inhibits conflict resolution by
encouraging extremism; stifles internal diversity; and fails to
leave sufficient space for individual autonomy. This book not only
provides a theoretical exploration and critique of these questions,
but comprehensively examines specific test cases where
power-sharing institutions have been established, including in
Northern Ireland, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and
Lebanon. It also explores such issues as the role of political
leaders, human rights instruments, the position of women, and the
prospects for reconciliation within such societies. Furthermore it
provides a detailed set of policy recommendations to meet the
challenges of transition in deeply-divided societies.
Rights are part of our everyday moral and political vocabulary. Yet
while few would deny that rights are important, there is a great
deal of disagreement about just how valuable rights are and what
their proper limits ought to be. For example, some scholars and
practitioners maintain that human rights are valuable because they
lay down a framework of protection, while at the same time leaving
people ample room to lead their lives as they see fit. They are not
just another way of life, but instead set the boundaries to what
government can or cannot do. Others, however, hold that, while
important, rights are not neutral between different ways of life
and hence cannot tell us what to do when different ways of life
conflict. This collection breaks new ground by tackling such
questions head on. The issues it covers are some of the most vital
that we face today. Their relevance to contemporary social and
political debates cannot be overstated. The collection should
appeal to political philosophers, lawyers, human rights activists
and advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the arts,
humanities and social sciences. This book was published as a
special issue of Critical Review of International, Social and
Political Philosophy.
|
|