Recent work on partisanship has highlighted the role of political parties in rendering democracy and justice widely accessible to citizens. In these recent works, a distinction is drawn between a contemporary conception of partisanship that focuses on fidelity to political parties and a classic conception that emphasises the importance of a civic ethos of active political engagement. I argue that these two conceptions of partisanship are not so disparate if we focus on the role of political parties in promoting civic commitment and contestation. More specifically, I show how a normative account of partisanship can contribute to a defence of a civic ethos of political commitment. I then argue that commitment leads to contestation among both partisans and non-partisans, and that polities lacking active contestation of political commitments are in one significant respect less well off than those societies where there is such contestation.
BonottiM (2014) Partisanship and Public Reason. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy17 (3): 314–331.
2.
BurkeE (1998 [1770]) Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. In: WomersleyD (ed.) A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful and Other Pre-Revolutionary Writings. London: Penguin Classics, pp.201–276.
3.
CampbellAConversePEMillerWEet al. (1980) The American Voter. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
ChristianoT (2008) The Constitution of Equality: Democratic Authority and Its Limits. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
6.
ClarkeHSandersDStewartMet al. (2009) Travel Tips for Students of Electoral Choice: The Dynamics of Partisanship in Britain and Elsewhere. In: BartleJBellucciP (eds) Political Parties and Partisanship: Social Identity and Individual Attitudes. London: Routledge, pp.88–106.
7.
CohenGA (2009) Why Not Socialism?Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
8.
CohenJ (1997) Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy. In: BohmanJRehgW (eds) Deliberative Democracy: Essays on Reason and Politics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp.67–92.
9.
DownsA (1957) An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper & Row.
10.
EfthymiouD (2014) Sen’s Idea(l) of Justice. Jurisprudence5 (2): 352–362.
11.
EfthymiouD (2017a) EU Migration and Transnational Justice (submitted).
12.
EfthymiouD (2017b) From Ideal to Nonideal Theory: An Operationalisation (submitted).
13.
ElsterJ (1998) Deliberation and Constitution Making. In: ElsterJ (ed.) Deliberative Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.97–122.
14.
FinkelSOppK-D (1991) Party Identification and Participation in Collective Political Action. The Journal of Politics53 (2): 339–371.
15.
FiorinaMP (1981) Retrospective Voting in American Presidential Elections. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
16.
ForstR (2015) Justice, Democracy and the Right to Justification: Reflections on Jürgen Neyer’s Normative Theory of the European Union. In: De BurcaGKochenovDWilliamsA (eds) Europe’s Justice Deficit?Oxford: Hart Publishing, pp.227–234.
17.
FowlerJH (2006) Altruism and Turnout. The Journal of Politics68 (3): 674–683.
18.
GerberASHuberGADohertyDet al. (2012) Personality and the Strength and Direction of Partisan Identification. Political Behavior34 (4): 653–688.
19.
GilabertPLawford-SmithH (2012) Political Feasibility: A Conceptual Exploration. Political Studies60 (4): 809–825.
20.
GoodinRE (1986) Laundering Preferences. In: ElsterJHyllandA (eds) Foundations of Social Choice Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.75–102.
21.
GoodinRE (2008) Innovating Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
22.
GramsciA (1971) Selections from the Prison Notebooks (ed HoareQNowell-Smith). London: Lawrence & Wishart.
23.
GreenDPalmquistBSchicklerE (2002) Partisan Hearts and Minds. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
24.
GuttmannAThompsonD (1996) Democracy and Disagreement. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
25.
HabermasJ (1998) Facts and Norms. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
26.
HolmbergS (1994) Party Identification Compared across the Atlantic. In: Kent JenningsMMannTE (eds) Elections at Home and Abroad: Essays in Honour of Warren E. Miller. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, pp.93–122.
27.
HolmbergS (2007) Partisanship Reconsidered. In: DaltonRJKlingemannH-D (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Political Behaviour. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.557–570.
28.
JohnsonJ (2006) Political Parties and Deliberative Democracy. In: KatzRCrottyW (eds) Handbook of Party Politics. London: SAGE Publishing, pp.47–50.
29.
KantI (2008 [1876]) Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. London: Routledge.
30.
LevenduskyM (2009) The Partisan Sort: How Liberals Became Democrats and Conservatives Became Republicans. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
31.
MairP (2013) Ruling the Void. London: Verso.
32.
MansbridgeJBohmanJChambersSet al. (2010) The Place of Self-Interest and the Role of Power in Deliberative Democracy. The Journal of Political Philosophy18 (1): 64–100.
33.
MillJS (1989 [1859]) On Liberty (and Other Writings). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
34.
MuirheadR (2006) In Defence of Party Spirit. Perspectives on Politics4 (4): 713–727.
MuirheadR (2014) The Promise of Party in a Polarized Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37.
MuirheadRRosenblumN (2006) Political Liberalism vs. ‘The Great Game of Politics’: The Politics of Political Liberalism. Perspectives on Politics4 (1): 99–108.
38.
NagelT (1970) The Possibility of Altruism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
39.
OffeC (2006) Political Disaffection as an Outcome of Institutional Practices? Some Post-Tocquevillean Speculations. In: MarianoTMonteroGR (eds) Political Disaffection in Contemporary Democracies: Social Capital, Institutions and Politics. London: Routledge, pp.23–45.
40.
PettitP (1997) Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
41.
PettitP (2015) The Robust Demands of the Good: Ethics with Attachment, Virtue, and Respect. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
42.
PutnamR (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of Political Community. London: Simon & Schuster.
43.
RawlsJ (1993) Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.
44.
RawlsJ (1999) A Theory of Justice, rev. edn. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
45.
RoemerJE (2014) On the Problem of Socialist Economic Design. Journal of Theoretical Politics27 (1): 34–42.
46.
RosenblumN (2008) On the Side of the Angels: An Appreciation of Parties and Partisanship. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
47.
RousseauJJ (1997 [1762]) Of the Social Contract. In: GourevitchV (ed.) The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.39–152.
48.
SchmitterPC (1995) More Liberal, Preliberal or Postliberal?Journal of Democracy6 (1): 15–22.
SenA (1977) Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioural Foundations of Economic Theory. Philosophy and Public Affairs6 (4): 317–344.
51.
SettleJEDawesCTFowlerJH (2009) The Heritability of Partisan Attachment. Political Research Quarterly62 (3): 601–613.
52.
SwiftAWhiteS (2008) Political Theory, Social Science, and Real Politics. In: LeopoldDStearsM (eds) Political Theory: Methods and Approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
53.
WhiteJ (2014) Transnational Partisanship: Idea and Practice. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy17 (3): 377–400.
54.
WhiteJYpiL (2010) Rethinking the Modern Prince: Partisanship and the Democratic Ethos. Political Studies58 (4): 809–828.
55.
WhiteJYpiL (2011) On Partisan Political Justification. American Political Science Review105 (2): 381–396.
56.
WhiteJYpiL (2016) The Meaning of Partisanship. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
57.
WhiteJK (2006) What is a Political Party? In: KatzRCrottyW (eds) Handbook of Party Politics. London: SAGE Publishing, pp.5–15.
58.
YoungIM (2001) Activist Challenges to Deliberative Democracy. Political Theory29 (5): 670–690.
