Skip to main content
Log in

A defense of political constructivism

  • Article
  • Published:
Contemporary Political Theory Aims and scope

Abstract

In Political Liberalism, John Rawls describes a metaethical procedure – political constructivism – whereby political theorists formulate political principles by assembling and reworking ideas from the public political culture. To many of his moral realist and moral constructivist critics, Rawls's procedure is simply a recent version of the ‘popular moral philosophy’ that Kant excoriates in the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. In this article, I defend the idea of political constructivism on philosophical and political grounds. Initially, I argue that political constructivism is the best available methodology for self-legislating, socially embedded and fallible human beings; then I show that political constructivism may produce principles that could garner the principled assent of Euro-American Muslims such as Taha Jabir Al-Alwani. The article concludes by considering how political constructivism might be employed to formulate new political principles for Euro-American societies experiencing and confronting the Islamic revival.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Taylor (2011, pp. 3–58) and Freeman (2007, pp. 324–364) describe the mechanics of Kant's constructivism, Kantian constructivism and political constructivism. Each variety of constructivism articulates a conception of the person, a procedure to mirror that conception of the person, and a constructed political theory including principles, institutions and a political psychology of justice. Constructivism, unlike realism, holds that we make rather than discover principles; political constructivism, unlike Kant's or Kantian constructivism, holds that the public political culture, rather than pure practical reason, provides the material used to construct principles. On the impact of Kant's constructivist thesis on the history of western philosophy, see Rockmore (2006, 2007).

  2. In the Law of Peoples, Rawls discusses decent peoples, including of the imagined Islamic republic of Kazanistan, who value broad conceptions of human rights and popular consultation but do not share the same cultural and institutional arrangements as liberal democracies. Rawls brackets the question of immigration in that book, but we may anticipate that political theorists, adopting the idea of wide reflective equilibrium, will eventually need to address the considered convictions of immigrant communities.

  3. The language of binaries and spectrums may conceal the many types of political theories and theorists that this article wishes to engage. Monique Deveaux, for instance, argues that liberals might stop debating about autonomy to consider how the concept of agency illuminates ‘ever subtler expressions of reflexivity and action, such as as subverting a cultural tradition from the inside’ (Deveaux, 2006, p. 173). I emphasize, then, that political constructivists view virtually all political concepts, to borrow a felicitous phrase from Michael Oakeshott, as ‘temporary platforms of conditional understanding’, that is, useful launching pads for thinking that may ultimately need to be rebuilt (Oakeshott, 1975, p. 2).

  4. See the precious few references to Euro-American political philosophers in Euben and Zaman (2009).

  5. For Rawls, the idea of wide reflective equilibrium demands that philosophers have an obligation to unsettle themselves, that is, to force themselves to hear new voices (1999c, pp. 288–289). Rawls's tentative reflections about Islam – for instance, highlighting the problematic nature of the concept of ‘decency’ when describing certain non-liberal peoples (Rawls, 1999a, p. 67) – exemplifies this broadminded disposition.

  6. An example of the new American multiple consciousness may be Obama's decision to go by Barack (meaning ‘blessed’ in Arabic) rather than Barry. See Obama (2004, p. 104).

  7. On the political ideas and behavior of the Muslim American community, see Abdo (2006) and Cesari (2010).

  8. Muslims following Al-Alwani's interpretation of Islamic politics may hesitate to join a Rawlsian overlapping consensus if that means adopting quasi-Kantian conceptions of the person and society. We may need to construct another alternative to modus vivendi, constitutional consensus, and overlapping consensus (Rawls, 2005, pp. 133–172).

  9. Al-Alwani's writings often convey a militant tone that should alarm Euro-American liberals: ‘Many Muslim governments cite indigenous non-Muslim majorities as an excuse to deprive their Muslim majorities, who often represent 98 per cent of the total population, of the right to be ruled by the Shari’ah’ (Al-Alwani, 2005, p. 187). In this sentence, Al-Alwani is worlds away from J.S. Mills’ defense of individual liberty in On Liberty. The challenge for liberals is to engage illiberal interlocutors with confidence that political dialogue and cooperation tends to soften hard-liners (see Roy, 2008, p. 59) and that better ideas and practices have a tendency (but no guarantee) to prevail (Rawls, 1999a, p. 62).

References

  • Abdo, G. (2006) Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America after 9/11. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Al-Alwani, T.J. (2003) Towards a Fiqh for Minorities: Some Basic Reflections. Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought.

    Google Scholar 

  • Al-Alwani, T.J. (2005) Issues in Contemporary Islamic Thought. Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (1978) The Life of the Mind. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Attia, G.E. (2007) Towards Realization of the Higher Intents of Islamic Law. Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought.

    Google Scholar 

  • Auda, J. (2008) Maqasid Al-Shariah as Philosophy of Islamic Law: A Systems Approach. Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berlin, I. (1990) The pursuit of the ideal. In: H. Hardy (ed.), The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, E. (2005) After the Ramadan affair: New trends in Islamism in the West. Current Trends in Islamist Ideology 2: 7–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Budde, K. (2007) Rawls on Kant: Is Rawls a Kantian or Kant a Rawlsian? European Journal of Political Theory 6 (3): 339–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cesari, J. (ed.) (2010) Muslims in the West after 9/11: Religion, Politics, and Law. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, G.A. (2008) Rescuing Justice and Equality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1994) A more democratic liberalism. Michigan Law Review 92: 1503–1546.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, W.E. (1987) Politics and Ambiguity. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deveaux, M. (2006) Gender and Justice in Multicultural Liberal States. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dewey, J. (2009) The influence of Darwinism on philosophy. In: M. Ruse (ed.), Philosophy after Darwin: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Euben, R.L. (2002) Contingent borders, syncretic perspectives: Globalization, political theory, and Islamizing knowledge. International Studies Review 4 (1): 23–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Euben, R.L. and Zaman, M.Q. (eds.) (2009) Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frazer, M.L. (2007) John Rawls: Between two enlightenments. Political Theory 35 (6): 756–780.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, S. (2007) Rawls. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galston, W.A. (1995) Two concepts of liberalism. Ethics 105 (3): 516–534.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill Jr., T.E. (2008) Moral construction as a task: Sources and limits. Social Philosophy and Policy 25 (1): 214–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kant, I. (1996) Critique of practical reason. In: M.J. Gregor (ed.), Practical Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 133–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kant, I. (2002) Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klosko, G. (1997) Political constructivism in Rawls's political liberalism. American Political Science Review 91 (3): 635–646.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koppelman, A. (2009) The limits of constructivism: Can Rawls condemn female genital mutilation? Review of Politics 71 (3): 459–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Korsgaard, C.M. (2008) The Constitution of Agency: Essays on Practical Reason and Moral Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Larmore, C. (2008) The Autonomy of Morality. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • MacIntyre, A. (1984) After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, 2nd edn. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, A.F. (2005) The demands of citizenship: Translating political liberalism into the language of Islam. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 25 (3): 317–345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • March, A.F. (2009) Islam and Liberal Citizenship: The Search for an Overlapping Consensus. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • March, A.F. (2011) Theocrats living under secular law. Journal of Political Philosophy 19 (1): 28–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKinnon, C. (2002) Liberalism and the Defence of Political Constructivism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Oakeshott, M. (1975) On Human Conduct. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Obama, B. (2004) Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Neill, O. (1996) Towards Justice and Virtue: A Constructive Account of Practical Reasoning. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • O'Neill, O. (2003) Constructivism in Rawls and Kant. In: S. Freeman (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Rawls. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 347–367.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patton, P. (2010) Deleuzian Concepts: Philosophy, Colonization, Politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1999a) The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1999b) Themes in Kant's moral philosophy. In: S. Freeman (ed.), Collected Papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 497–528.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1999c) The independence of moral theory. In: S. Freeman (ed.), Collected Papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 286–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (2000) Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (2005) Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (2007) Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, P. (2007) Political Constructivism. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rockmore, T. (2006) In Kant's Wake: Philosophy in the Twentieth Century. New Malden, UK: Blackwell.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rockmore, T. (2007) Kant and Idealism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rorty, R. (1991) Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roy, O. (2008) The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartzman, M. (2005) The relevance of Locke's religious arguments for toleration. Political Theory 33 (5): 678–705.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarzenbach, S.A. (1991) Rawls, Hegel, and communitarianism. Political Theory 19 (4): 539–571.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silber, J.R. (1959) The Copernican revolution in ethics: The good reexamined. Kant-Studien 51: 85–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, L. (1953) Natural Right and History. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tasioulas, J. (2002) From Utopia to Kazanistan: John Rawls and the law of peoples. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 22 (2): 367–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, R.S. (2011) Reconstructing Rawls: The Kantian Foundations of Justice as Fairness. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, S.K. (2009) The Ethos of a Late-Modern Citizen. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, A.W. (2008) Kantian Ethics. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tampio, N. A defense of political constructivism. Contemp Polit Theory 11, 305–323 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/cpt.2011.27

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/cpt.2011.27

Keywords

Navigation