Synopses & Reviews
Americans are joiners. They are members of churches, fraternal and sororal orders, sports leagues, community centers, parent-teacher associations, professional associations, residential associations, literary societies, national and international charities, and service organizations of seemingly all sorts. Social scientists are engaged in a lively argument about whether decreasing proportions of Americans over the past several decades have been joining secondary associations, but no one disputes that freedom of association remains a fundamental personal and political value in the United States. "Nothing," Alexis de Tocqueville argued, "deserves more attention." Yet the value and limits of free association in the United States have not received the attention they deserve. Why is freedom of association valuable for the lives of individuals? What does it contribute to the life of a liberal democracy? This volume explores the individual and civic values of associational freedom in a liberal democracy, as well as the moral and constitutional limits of claims to associational freedom.
Beginning with an introductory essay on freedom of association by Amy Gutmann, the first part of this timely volume includes essays on individual rights of association by George Kateb, Michael Walzer, Kent Greenawalt, and Nancy Rosenblum, and the second part includes essays on civic values of association by Will Kymlicka, Yael Tamir, Daniel A. Bell, Sam Fleischacker, Alan Ryan, and Stuart White.
Review
"Freedom of Association is exemplary in the consistently high quality and thematic continuity of the contributions."--Margaret Kohn, Political Theory
Review
Freedom of Association is exemplary in the consistently high quality and thematic continuity of the contributions. Margaret Kohn
Synopsis
"This collection of essays is the best one-volume introduction to a timely topic: the nature, purposes, moral justifications of (and limitations on) freedom of association in liberal democracies. The contributors link broad philosophical questions to specific practical issues in ways that both philosophers and readers with legal and policy concerns will find illuminating."--William A. Galston, Director, Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, University of Maryland
Synopsis
Americans are joiners. They are members of churches, fraternal and sororal orders, sports leagues, community centers, parent-teacher associations, professional associations, residential associations, literary societies, national and international charities, and service organizations of seemingly all sorts. Social scientists are engaged in a lively argument about whether decreasing proportions of Americans over the past several decades have been joining secondary associations, but no one disputes that freedom of association remains a fundamental personal and political value in the United States. "Nothing," Alexis de Tocqueville argued, "deserves more attention." Yet the value and limits of free association in the United States have not received the attention they deserve. Why is freedom of association valuable for the lives of individuals? What does it contribute to the life of a liberal democracy? This volume explores the individual and civic values of associational freedom in a liberal democracy, as well as the moral and constitutional limits of claims to associational freedom.
Beginning with an introductory essay on freedom of association by Amy Gutmann, the first part of this timely volume includes essays on individual rights of association by George Kateb, Michael Walzer, Kent Greenawalt, and Nancy Rosenblum, and the second part includes essays on civic values of association by Will Kymlicka, Yael Tamir, Daniel A. Bell, Sam Fleischacker, Alan Ryan, and Stuart White.
Synopsis
"This collection of essays is the best one-volume introduction to a timely topic: the nature, purposes, moral justifications of (and limitations on) freedom of association in liberal democracies. The contributors link broad philosophical questions to specific practical issues in ways that both philosophers and readers with legal and policy concerns will find illuminating."--William A. Galston, Director, Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, University of Maryland
Table of Contents
| Preface and Acknowledgments | |
Ch. 1 | Freedom of Association: An Introductory Essay | 3 |
Pt. I | Individual Values of Association | |
Ch. 2 | The Value of Association | 35 |
Ch. 3 | On Involuntary Association | 64 |
Ch. 4 | Compelled Association: Public Standing, Self-Respect, and the Dynamic of Exclusion | 75 |
Ch. 5 | Freedom of Association and Religious Association | 109 |
Ch. 6 | Rights, Reasons, and Freedom of Association | 145 |
Pt. II | Civic Values of Association | |
Ch. 7 | Ethnic Associations and Democratic Citizenship | 177 |
Ch. 8 | Revisiting the Civic Sphere | 214 |
Ch. 9 | Civil Society versus Civic Virtue | 239 |
Ch. 10 | Insignificant Communities | 273 |
Ch. 11 | The City as a Site for Free Association | 314 |
Ch. 12 | Trade Unionism in a Liberal State | 330 |
| List of Contributors | |
| Index | |