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The Politics of Virtue Today: A Critique and a Proposal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Shelley Burtt
Shelley Burtt
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Abstract

I argue for a distinction between publicly oriented and privately oriented conceptions of civic virtue. I first provide a critique of two current politics of virtue (liberal and republican), arguing (1) that despite their differences, they are both publicly oriented and (2) that their problems lie in this public orientation. I conclude by arguing for the legitimacy and promise of a privately oriented politics of civic virtue, using as examples of this approach Cato's Letters from the early eighteenth century and the work of two contemporary theorists, Bruce Ackerman and Stephen Elkin.

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American Political Science Review , Volume 87 , Issue 2 , June 1993 , pp. 360 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1993

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