UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Deliberative capability republicanism : a theory of political authority

Identification

Public canonical key

radar:r-e721a9faa99ff6ef69b60df8e9e4233c

Authors

Chung, Yu Hin

Reported year

2026

Reported language

en

Source type

Text

First detected

2026-11-13T08:57:16.969174+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-13T08:57:16.969174+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Documentary abstract — original language

Philosophical Anarchism has imposed substantial challenges against defenders of political obligation and, relatedly, to theories of political authority in recent years. This thesis attempts to develop a normative democratic theory from the perspective of freedom. By reviewing the notion of negative freedom as non-interference, it argues that the individualistic nature of negative freedom contributes indirectly to the position of philosophical anarchism. Negative freedom wrongly conceives of freedom as conceptually prior to the existence of any legal and political structures, thereby facing the problem of democracy (no conceptual relation between freedom and democracy) and the problem of substantive judgment (the impossibility of maintaining a value-neutral notion of freedom). Republican freedom as non-domination, on the other hand, recognises the interrelation between individuals and the conceptual relation between freedom and the law, thereby avoiding the problem of democracy. It is in this sense better equipped as a foundational conception of freedom for a theory of political authority against philosophical anarchism. Nevertheless, it still faces the problem of substantive judgment. Without making substantive judgments, it fails to recognise that unfreedom can happen without intentional agential domination. It therefore cannot firmly explain the necessity of the state's existence or fully address the challenges posed by philosophical anarchism. The thesis then develops a capability-republican notion of freedom by integrating insights from the capabilities approach and republicanism. From the capabilities approach, it recognises the interdependency, diversity, and vulnerability of individual human beings, thereby making the case for the necessity of having a state. The state is necessary for the robust provision of basic capabilities to ensure that individuals live a genuinely free human life. It then develops Deliberative Capability Republicanism (DCR) as a theory of political authority, arguing that a government with normative political authority must be non-dominating, capability-securing, and deliberatively accountable to ensure citizens’ capability-republican freedom.

Identifiers

DOI

10.17630/sta/1658

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/10023/33690

Documentary context

Documentary family

unknown

Source-reported types

Text

Publishers

The University of St Andrews

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

DataCite · Record 1

• Document · https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/33690

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

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