Definitions of Ethical Politics

1. Ethical politics is not so much about describing the political landscape as about changing it.
2. Rather than arguing for which policy which would achieve a given good, Ethical Politics, calls into question what is deemed to be good.
3. Cultural politics is expressed by opting out, ethical politics is expressed refusing to opt out.
4. Personal politics is about making the personal political; ethical politics is about making the political personal.
5. Ethical politics is about what we do, rather than about what they do.
6. Ethical politics exists in the tension between the rights and interests of the majority and recognition of the minority.
7. Ethical politics arises from the tension between redistributive justice and recognition of difference.
8. Ethical politics does not displace other forms of politics, but is the means whereby they become effective.
9. Ethical politics is not about delivering information or predicting outcomes but about how you want to lead your life.
10. Ethical politics is more about art than science.
11. Ethical politics is not so much about values as about meaning.
12. Ethical politics appeals not to popular prejudice but to popular wisdom.
13. Ethical politics is not so much about what you or I should do, as about what we could do together.
14. Ethical politics is not so much about a fair deal as about collaboration, and collaboration is as much about conflict as it is about cooperation.

Read at book lauch for For Ethical Politics, in June 2003.

Works | Ethical Politics and Alliance Politics | Paradigms of Collective Decision Making