Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T13:18:23.366Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Democracy, Despots and Wolves: On the Dangers of Zoopolis's Animal Citizen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2014

Emma Planinc
Emma Planinc*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
*
Dept. of Political Science, University of Toronto, Sidney Smith Hall, Rm. 3018, 100 St. George St., Toronto ON, M5S 3G3. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka have recently argued in Zoopolis (2011) that domesticated animals ought to become our democratic co-citizens. In this paper I claim that the acceptance of animals into our democratic negotiations—championed in Zoopolis as a broadening of justice and inclusion—also has the potential to render our political institutions dangerously unjust. Through an engagement with the work of Plato and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, I argue that we must be wary of a democracy's susceptibility to the emergence of unbridled or tyrannical liberty when expanding the criteria of freedom and agency to accommodate animals, or the animalistic, in the political sphere.

Résumé

Sue Donaldson et Will Kymlicka ont récemment affirmé dans Zoopolis (2011) que les animaux domestiques doivent devenir nos concitoyens démocratiques. Dans cet article je soutiens que l'acceptation des animaux dans nos négociations démocratiques—défendues dans Zoopolis comme un élargissement de la justice et l′égalité—a également le potentiel à rendre nos institutions politiques dangereusement injustes. Considérant la philosophie du Platon et Jean-Jacques Rousseau, je soutiens qu'il faut se méfier de la susceptibilité d'une démocratie à l′émergence d'une liberté débridée ou tyrannique pendant élargissant les critères de la liberté et l'agence pour l'intégration des animaux, ou l'animalité, dans la sphère politique.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balcombe, Jonathan. 2010. Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Bekoff, Marc and Pierce, Jessica. 2009. Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bertram, Christopher. 2012. “Rousseau's Legacy in Two Conceptions of the General Will: Democratic and Transcendent.” Review of Politics 74: 403–19.Google Scholar
Bloom, Allan. 1987. “Rousseau.” The History of Political Philosophy, ed. Strauss, Leo and Cropsey, Joseph, 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bourke, Joanna. 2011. What it Means to be Human. Berkeley CA: Counterpoint Press.Google Scholar
Boyd, Richard. 2004. “Pity's Pathology Portrayed: Rousseau and the Limits of Democratic Compassion.” Political Theory (32): 519–46.Google Scholar
Calarco, Matthew. 2008. Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
De Waal, Frans. 2009. The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society. Toronto: McLelland and Stewart.Google Scholar
Degrazia, David. 1996. Taking Animals Seriously. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. 2009. The Beast and the Sovereign, trans. Bennington, Geoffrey. vol 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dolgert, Stefan. 2012. “Humanisms Old and New: Plato's Myths as 21st Century Philosophy.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Portland OR.Google Scholar
Donaldson, Sue and Kymlicka, Will. 2011. Zoopolis. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Euben, Peter. 1997. Corrupting Youth. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Keshen, Richard. 2012. “The Rights of Animals.” Literary Review of Canada April: 26–27.Google Scholar
Neuhouser, Frederick. 2011. “Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Origins of Autonomy.” Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 54 (5): 478–93.Google Scholar
Pedersen, Helena. 2011. “Release the Moths: Critical Animal Studies and the Posthumanist Critique.” Culture, Theory and Critique 52 (1): 65–81.Google Scholar
Plato, 1992. Republic, trans. Grube, G.M.A. Indianapolis IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Plato, 1997. Laws , trans. Saunders, T.. Plato: Complete Works, ed. Saunders, T.. Indianapolis IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Plato, 1997. Sophist , trans. White, Nicholas P.. In Plato: Complete Works, ed. Cooper, John M. and Hutchinson, D.S.. Indianapolis IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Plato, 1997. Statesman , trans. Rowe, C.J.. In Plato: Complete Works ed. Cooper, John M. and Hutchinson, D.S.. Indianapolis IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1987a. “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.” The Basic Political Writings, trans. Cress, Donald A.. Indianapolis IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1987b. “On the Social Contract.” The Basic Political Writings, trans. Cress, Donald A.. Indianapolis IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1987c. “Discourse on Political Economy.” The Basic Political Writings, trans. Cress, Donald A.. Indianapolis IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Rowlands, Mark. 2002. Animals Like Us. Brooklyn: Verso.Google Scholar
Rowlands, Mark. 2008. The Philosopher and the Wolf. London: Granta Books.Google Scholar
Saxonhouse, Arlene W. 1998. “Democracy, Equality and Eidê: A Radical View from Book 8 of Plato's Republic .” The American Political Science Review 92 (2): 273–83.Google Scholar
Saxonhouse, Arlene W. 2009. “The Socratic Narrative: A Democratic Reading of Plato's Dialogues.” Political Theory 37(6): 728–53.Google Scholar
Silvers, Anita and Francis, Leslie Pickering. 2005. “Justice through Trust: Disability and the ‘Outlier Problem’ in Social Contract Theory.” Ethics 116(1): 40–76.Google Scholar
Smuts, Barbara. 1999. “Reflections.” The Lives of Animals, Coetzee, J.M., ed. Gutmann, Amy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tarnopolsky, Christina. 2010. “Plato's Politics of Distributing and Disrupting the Sensible.” Theory and Event 13 (4).Google Scholar
Wadiwel, Dinesh. 2008. “Three Fragments from a Biopolitical History of Animals.” Journal for Critical Animal Studies IV (1).Google Scholar