Strategies of Justice: Aboriginal Peoples, Persistent Injustice, and the Ethics of Political Action

Description

Political theorists often imagine themselves as political architects, asking what an ideal set of laws or social structures might look like. Yet persistent injustices can endure for decades or even centuries despite such ideal theorizing. In circumstances of this kind, it is essential for political theorists to think carefully about the political choices normatively available to those who directly face persistent injustices and seek to change them. The book focuses on the claims of Aboriginal peoples to better treatment from the United States and Canada. The book investigates two intertwined issues: the kinds of moral permissions that those facing persistent injustice have when they act politically, and the kinds of transformations that political action may bring about in those who undertake it. The book argues for normative permissions to speak untruth to power; to circumvent or nullify existing law; to give primary attention to protecting one’s own community first; and to engage in political experimentation that reshapes future generations. The book argues that, when carefully used, these permissions may help political actors to avoid co-optation and self-delusion. At the same time, divisions of labor between those who grapple most closely with state institutions and those who keep their distance may be necessary to facilitate escape from persistent injustice over the long term. Cover STRATEGIES OF JUSTICE: ABORIGINAL PEOPLES, PERSISTENT INJUSTICE, AND THE ETHICS OF POLITICAL ACTION Copyright ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY Notes CHAPTER 1: Introduction: Word Warriors and Political Action 1.1 Word Warriors 1.2 Political Philosophy and Political Action 1.3 Characterizing Persistent Injustice 1.4 Deliberation and Political Theorizing 1.5 Outline of the Book Notes CHAPTER 2: The Ethics of Political Action 2.1 Ideal Theory as Political Architecture 2.2 Political Action and Normative Permissions 2.3 Political Action and Self-Transformation 2.4 Ideals and the Unpredictability of Politics Notes CHAPTER 3: Deliberation and Political Strategy 3.1 Democratic Deliberation and Persistent Injustice 3.2 Canadian Law and Dominating Discourses 3.3 The Harms of Sincerity 3.4 Speaking Untruth to Power 3.5 Strategy and the Division of Labor Notes CHAPTER 4: Justified Lawbreaking 4.1 Law, Justification, and Permissibility 4.2 Procedural Circumvention and Electoral Strategies 4.3 Nullification and Deliberative Directness 4.4 The Costs of Armed Virtue 4.5 Legality, Permissions, and Disagreement Notes CHAPTER 5: Self-Care and Proportionality 5.1 Land Claims and Competition 5.2 Self-Help and Proportionality 5.3 Land Claims Again 5.4 Indirect Conflict and Political Contexts 5.5 Proportionality and Diverse Moral Interests 5.6 When Do the Permissions Cease? Notes CHAPTER 6: Envisioning the Future 6.1 Duties and Permissions 6.2 Ideal Theory and Political Prediction 6.3 Strategy, Political Action, and Anarcho-Indigenism 6.4 Aboriginal Traditions and Human Flourishing 6.5 Self-Determination and Unpredictability 6.6 Experimentation and Uncertainty Notes CHAPTER 7: Conclusion: Political Philosophy and Political Change 7.1 Permissions and Their Exercise 7.2 Political Theory and Political Change 7.3 Political Philosophy as Public Deliberation Notes BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX