Common Good Politics

Common Good Politics

Colin Tyler Common Good Politics British Idealism and Social Justice in the Contemporary World

Colin Tyler School of Law and Politics University of Hull Hull, United Kingdom ISBN 978-3-319-32403-6 ISBN 978-3-319-32404-3 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-32404-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016950564 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: Stephen Moore Cover design by Jenny Vong Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

For my grandparents, Bill Tyler, Elizabeth Tyler, Fred Rayers and Grace Rayers, and the other former residents of the Blockhouse.

The practical value of the social science of the future will depend, not only on the way in which we break up the complete problem of our existence into manageable parts, but as much, and even more, upon the way in which we are able to gather the elements together again, and to see how they act and react upon each other in the living movement of the social body. Edward Caird, The Moral Aspect of the Economical Problem (1888) vii

Acknowledgements This book seeks to establish that when properly formulated, rather than being a conservative doctrine, common good politics provides the basis for a radical analysis and critique of the world. The first part of the book examines some of the leading social and political thinkers and activists who gave the most powerful and to my mind compelling expression to this radical vision: the British idealists and the New Liberals. Key aspects of their history and interrelationships are dealt with in Chap. 1. The second part of the book develops a contemporary version of common good politics that is inspired by these earlier radicals, and then applies this version to certain current issues in politics and international relations. The chapters of this book have been written over the course of the past 16 years, for various purposes. They were not written as chapters of this book, and so do include some repetition of certain key ideas. In that sense, most if not all of them can be read in isolation from the others. Where earlier versions of chapters have been published previously, I have rewritten them usually quite extensively, and I hope that as a result they form a coherent whole. The individuals explored in the first part developed positions that were close but certainly not identical. The arguments presented in the second part seek to develop a single position. I am pleased to thank the following people for their comments on earlier versions of the material included in this book: Amos Badalin, Matt Beech, David Boucher, Glenn Burgess, David Coates, Bankole Cole, Jim Connelly, Alberto de Sanctis, Maria Dimova-Cookson, Gary Craig, Gerard Delanty, the late Tony Draper, Antony Duff, Michael Freeden, Andrew Geddes, Robert E. Goodin, Koji Hatta, Tom Kane, Simon Lee, ix

x Acknowledgements Kathleen Lennon, David Lonsdale, Bill Mander, Matt Matravers, Steve McBride, Lois McNay, John Morrow, Maurice Mullard, Justin Morris, Peter Nicholson, Bhikhu Parekh, Adrian Paylor, James Pearce, Chris Pierson, Noël O Sullivan, Lucy Sargisson, Avital Simhony, Claire Thomas, Pip Tyler, Andrew Vincent, Dave Weinstein and Richard Woodward, as well as various anonymous journal referees, and discussants at the universities of Durham, Genoa (Italy), Hull, Oxford and York, as well as the Nicholas Copernicus University (Poland). I am very grateful to the members of the Political Studies Association British Idealism Specialist Group, and Hull s Centre for Idealism and the New Liberalism. I am grateful also to the many students with whom I have discussed these matters over the years, particularly during the modules Critics of Capitalism and British Idealism, as well as the MA Civilisation, Terrorism and Dissent. I am grateful also to the staff of the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull, and especially to Richard Bayliss, who has had such a significant impact on this project. I am grateful to Sarah Roughley and to Imogen Gordon Clark at Palgrave Macmillan. Obviously, I bear sole responsibility for the use that I have made of their help. I also thank the following: Michaelle Browers, Caroline Forrest, Neil DeVotta, Sophie Dillon, Jayne Grey, Catherine Hayes, Rogan Kersh, John Polga-Hecimovich, Andy Rayment, Jonathan Roberts, Peter Siavelis, Kathy Smith, Kathleen Tipler and Helga Welsh. I am grateful for the love of my mum and brother. Even though I knew only two of them, the book is dedicated to my grandparents, Bill Tyler, Elizabeth Tyler, Fred Rayers and Grace Rayers, as well as to the other one-time residents of Worcester s Blockhouse. My greatest thanks go to Pip and Lucy, as always, for their continuing patience, love and support. I express my thanks to the Master and Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford, for permission to consult and quote from the papers of T.H. Green. All but three of the chapters in this book have been published previously, but most of the remainder have been revised very extensively for inclusion here. I delivered an earlier version of the final chapter as my inaugural lecture as Professor of Social and Political Thought, at the University of Hull. Chapter 2: Original version published as: The Liberal Hegelianism of Edward Caird: Or, How to Transcend the Social Economics of Kant and the Romantics, International Journal of Social Economics, 37, no. 11 (November 2010), 852 66. By permission of Emerald Publishing.

Acknowledgements xi Chapter 3: Original version published under the same title in Maria Dimova-Cookson and W.J. Mander, eds., T.H. Green: Ethics, Metaphysics and Political Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006), pp. 262 91. By permission of Oxford University Press. Chapter 4: Original version published as: This Dangerous Drug of Violence : Making Sense of Bernard Bosanquet s Theory of Punishment, Collingwood and British Idealism Studies, 7 (December 2000), 114 38. By permission of Imprint Academic. Chapter 6: Original version published as: Power, Alienation and Performativity in Capitalist Societies, European Journal of Social Theory, 14, no. 2 (May 2011), 161 80. By permission of Sage Publishing. Chapter 7: Includes parts of Human Well-being & the Future of the WTO, in S.D. Lee and S. McBride, eds., Neo-liberalism, State Power and Global Governance (Dordrecht: Springer Kluwer, 2007), pp. 219 32. By permission of Springer Publishing. Chapter 8: Original version published as: History s Actors? Insights into the War on Terror from International Relations Theory, in Maurice Mullard and Bankole Cole, eds., Globalisation, Citizenship and War on Terror (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2007), pp. 32 54. By permission of Edward Elgar Press and the editors of the original collection. Chapter 9: Original version published as: Citizenship, Rights and Tony Blair s Doctrine of International Community, in Maurice Mullard and Bankole Cole, eds., Globalisation, Citizenship and the War on Terror (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2007), pp. 124 44. By permission of Edward Elgar Press and the editors of the original collection. Colin Tyler University of Hull 6 May 2016

Contents 1 Introduction: British Idealism and Contemporary Common Good Politics 1 Part I British Idealism and Common Good Politics 37 2 The Liberal Hegelianism of Edward Caird: Or, How to Transcend the Social Economics of Kant and the Romantics 39 3 Contesting the Common Good: T.H. Green and Contemporary Republicanism 61 4 This Dangerous Drug of Violence : Bernard Bosanquet s Common Good Theory of Punishment 101 5 J.A. Hobson s New Liberal Social Economics and the Organic Conception of World-politics 131 xiii

xiv Contents Part II Contemporary Issues in Common Good Politics 175 6 Power, Alienation and Community in Capitalist Societies 177 7 Rethinking the International Economic Architecture 205 8 History s Actors : The War on Terror and George W. Bush s Assault on International Society 233 9 Blair s Legacy: International Community, Domestic (In)security and the Continuing Erosion of Civil Liberties 261 10 Economic Migration, Social Justice and the Common Good: A Public Lecture 293 Bibliography 321 Index 349