Political Science

Liberalism, the political philosophy created in the name of freedom, has, because of its complicity with structures of power organized for the production of permanence, in the history of the modern west, been transformed into an ideological template for the rationalization of moralized power politics, thus abrogating prior fundamental commitments to the freedom of humanity. From ancient to contemporary, with a special focus on the middle-modern milieu, this project traces through western concepts of liberty and their connection to structures of power and authority, both within the west and beyond it, as well, for example through the use of liberty as the handmaiden of power politics in the sphere of international relations and the politics of economic development. Following this historical and philosophical study of the phenomenology of freedom, encompassing in division one a study of the structure of the idea of freedom in liberal thought and in division two a consideration of its effects in recent histories of international relations, division two thereafter concludes with an alternative conceptualization of freedom inspired by a thorough-going ethical embrace of impermanence as a linchpin in a fundamental and ontological notion of being-in-the-world. A newly-enriched and imaginative liberalism offers a possibility for an ethical ground for politics organized for the greatest freedom of each person in a complex age. The onslaught of technological rationality has resulted in an enframed world of power underscored by the ubiquitous manipulation of technique and gesture, leaving the human-animal at the mercy of thoughtlessness in the service of technologically-manufactured permanences now merged with being. This complexity has become an illusory end-in-itself, obscuring our collective and individual experiences of being, and the contingency, and impermanence, of being. As such, we must, as beings whose existences are at issue, determine, through critical rethinking, how political thought should proceed in freeing beings for the possibility of evolution, survival, and the ongoing practice, of being free.

This dissertation critically examines the moral and political philosophy of T.H. Green in order to assess his reconceptualization of individuality, freedom, and rights within a common good liberal framework. The objective is to expand out understanding of Green's version of liberalism. There are four main themes: (1) Green's conception of individuality is appraised and upheld as a substitute for liberal individualism; (2) the role and place of values, virtues, and a conmon good in his moral philosophy are explored and defended vithin a liberal context; (3) Green's concept of political obligation, one based on a common good, is reviewed in order to demonstrate the liberal character of his apptoach; and (4) an attempt is made to extract from Green's texts a consistent theory of individual rights. The dissertation supports Green's revised conception of political obligation and his general theory of individual rights revolving around a liberal common good.

Presentation embargoed pending a permission. Conference presentation delivered at the <a href="https://www.ecpg.eu/">European Conference for Politics and Gender / ECPG</a>, (June, 2017), in Lausanne, Switzerland. The extant literature on political representation demonstrates white men dominate political legislatures (Murray, 2014), whilst women and ethnic minorities are under-represented relative to their proportion of the population (Hughes, 2009). This pattern holds true for both the UK and Canada, although the UK House of Commons has moved closer to gender balance than Canada’s, while Canada’s House of Commons has moved closer to mirroring the country’s ethnic composition than has the UK. This paper longitudinally explores these representational differences. The research is underpinned by an intersectional analysis exploring the multiple ways in which gender and ethnicity interact at both the party level and in the national media. We argue the specific construction of ‘problematic’ political identities, influenced by the interaction between racialized and gendered stereotypes, makes it especially hard for ethnic minority politicians to become elected. Although the under-representation of ethnic minority women in the UK and Canada has attracted scholarly analysis, less attention has been paid to the ways in which gender and ethnicity interact to affect the representations of male and female ethnic minority politicians. Accordingly, this paper provides a multi-year comparative overview of ethnic minority descriptive representation in the UK and Canada and analysis of party responses to address ethnic minority under-representation.