Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:47:23.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Care Ethics and Public Policy: A Holistic, Transformative Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Extract

Policy documents are a source of authority in both a legal and a normative sense. When policy documents make particular assumptions about care work requiring private, not public, consideration, this can push care, its concerns, and those who give and receive care out of the public sphere. This marginalization of care work, however, is ethically suspect, and as such I argue here that we should use the feminist ethics of care as a way to analyze current policy and guide the creation of future policy to ensure more ethically robust policy statements. I advocate for the use of care ethics in addition to human rights ethically guided public policy, which prioritizes the effort to implement human rights standards through government action. My claim is that human rights should not be our sole basis for moral and political reasoning, especially in the policy process. Policy shapes our lives, and how we live in relation to particular others. Care ethics can and should be used as an ethical guide for the policy process because it can bring to the fore how institutional patterns of power shape our relations, an analysis that human rights theories are not, in general, built to undertake.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2018

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

Baier, Annette C. 1995. “The Need for More Than Justice.” In Justice and Care, ed. Held, Virginia, 4758. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beitz, Charles R. 2009. The Idea of Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benhabib, Seyla. 1992. Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Board, Glynis. 2017. “Can Compassion Have Economic Benefits?” https://www.marketplace.org/2017/08/29/economy/can-compassion-have-economic-benefits. Accessed October 4, 2017.Google Scholar
City of Louisville. 2017. “Compassionate City.” https://louisvilleky.gov/government/compassionate-city. Accessed October 4, 2017.Google Scholar
Conradi, Elisabeth. 2015. “Redoing Care: Societal Transformation through Critical Practice.” Ethics and Social Welfare 9 (2): 113–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engster, Daniel. 2015. Justice, Care, and the Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erel, Umut. 2012. “Introduction: Transnational Care in Europe—Changing Formations of Citizenship, Family, and Generation.” Social Politics 19 (1): 114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabriel, Christina. 2011. “Migration and Globalized Care Work: The Case of Internationally Educated Nurses in Canada.” In Feminist Ethics and Social Policy: Towards a New Global Political Economy of Care, ed. Mahon, Rianne and Robinson, Fiona, 3959. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Greenswag, Kari. 2017. “The Problem with “Caring” Human Rights.” Hypatia 32 (4): 801–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, James. 2008. On Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hankivsky, Olena. 2004. Social Policy and the Ethic of Care. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Hankivsky, Olena. 2014. “Rethinking Care Ethics: On the Promise and Potential of an Intersectional Analysis.” American Political Science Review 108 (2): 252–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Held, Virginia. 2006. The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. 2002. “Love and Gold.” In Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, ed. Ehrenreich, Barbara and Hochschild, Arlie Russell, 1530. New York: Henry Holt and Co.Google Scholar
Howlett, Michael, and Ramesh, M.. 2003. Studying Public Policy: Policy Cycles and Policy Subsystems. Ontario: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ignatieff, Michael. 2001. Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivison, Duncan. 2008. Rights. Stocksfield: Acumen Publishing.Google Scholar
Kittay, Eva Feder. 1999. Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency, Thinking Gender. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kittay, Eva Feder. 2001. “A Feminist Public Ethic of Care Meets the New Communitarian Family Policy.” Ethics 111 (3): 523–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundberg, Claire. 2013. “It's Amazing to Be a Working Mom in France—Unless You Want a Job.” http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/07/working_moms_in_france_the_government_benefits_are_great_job_prospects_not.html. Accessed October 3, 2017.Google Scholar
Mahon, Rianne, and Robinson, Fiona. 2011. “Introduction.” In Feminist Ethics and Social Policy: Towards a New Global Political Economy of Care, ed. Rianne Mahon and Fiona Robinson, 1–17. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
May, Peter J. 1991. “Reconsidering Policy Design: Policies and Publics.” Journal of Public Policy 11 (2): 187206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meece, Mickey. 2016. “Louisville Rolls Out Compassionate Cities Index.” https://insiderlouisville.com/metro/louisville-rolls-out-compassionate-cities-index/. Accessed October 4, 2017.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2011. Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettersen, Tove. 2012. “Conceptions of Care: Altruism, Feminism, and Mature Care.” Hypatia 27 (2): 366–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierce, Jonathan J., Siddiki, Saba, Jones, Michael D., Schumacher, Kristin, Pattison, Andrew, and Peterson, Holly. 2014. “Social Construction and Policy Design: A Review of Past ApplicationsThe Policy Studies Journal 42 (1): 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pogge, Thomas. 2008. World Poverty and Human Rights, 2nd ed.Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, Fiona. 1999. Globalizing Care: Ethics, Feminist Theory, and International Relations. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, Fiona. 2003. “Human Rights and the Global Politics of Resistance: Feminist Perspectives.” Review of International Studies 29:161–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Fiona. 2006. “Care, Gender and Global Social Justice: Rethinking ‘Ethical Globalization’.” Journal of Global Ethics 2 (1): 525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Fiona. 2011. “Care Ethics and the Transnationalization of Care: Reflections on Autonomy, Hegemonic Masculinities, and Globalization.” In Feminist Ethics and Social Policy: Towards a New Global Political Economy of Care, ed. Mahon, Rianne and Robinson, Fiona, 127–44. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Schlager, Edella, and Blomquist, William. 1996. “A Comparison of Three Emerging Theories of the Policy Process.” Political Research Quarterly 49 (3): 651–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sevenhuijsen, Selma. 1998. Citizenship and the Ethics of Care: Feminist Considerations on Justice, Morality, and Politics. Translated by Savage, Liz. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sevenhuijsen, Selma. 2000. “Caring in the Third Way: The Relation Between Obligation, Responsibility and Care in Third Way Discourse.” Critical Social Policy 20 (5): 537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sevenhuijsen, Selma. 2003. “The Place of Care: The Relevance of the Feminist Ethic of Care for Social Policy.” Feminist Theory 4: 179–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sevenhuijsen, Selma, Bozalek, Vivienne, Gouws, Amanda, and Minnaar-McDonald, Marie. 2003. “South African Social Welfare Policy: An Analysis Using the Ethic of Care.” Critical Social Policy 23 (3): 299321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Joseph. 2008. “France's Model Health Care for New Mothers.” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92116914. Accessed October 3, 2017.Google Scholar
Smith, Steve. 2013. “Introduction.” In International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity, ed. Dunne, Milja Kurki Tim, and Smith, Steve, 113. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stensöta, Helena Olofsdotter. 2015. “Public Ethics of Care—A General Public Ethics.” Ethics and Social Welfare 9 (2): 183200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, Deborah A. 1989. “Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas.” Political Science Quarterly 104 (2): 281300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tronto, Joan C. 2011. “A Feminist Democratic Ethics of Care and Global Care Workers: Citizenship and Responsibility.” In Feminist Ethics and Social Policy: Towards a New Global Political Economy of Care, ed. Mahon, Rianne and Robinson, Fiona, 162–77. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Tronto, Joan C. 2013. Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Tsuji, Yuki. 2011. “Reimagined Intimate Relations: Elder and Child Care in Japan Since the 1990s.” In Feminist Ethics and Social Policy: Towards a New Global Political Economy of Care, ed. Mahon, Rianne and Robinson, Fiona, 111–24. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Vazquez, Daniel, and Delaplace, Domitille. 2011. “Public Policies from a Human Rights Perspective: A Developing Field.” SUR International Journal on Human Rights 8 (14): 3361.Google Scholar
Waring, Marilyn. 2003. “Counting for Something! Recognizing Women's Contribution to the Global Economy Through Alternative Accounting Systems.” Gender and Development 11 (1): 3543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Fiona. 2005. “A Good Enough Life: Developing a Political Ethic of Care.” Soundings (30): 1732.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Fiona. 2011. “Towards a Transnational Analysis of the Political Economy of Care.” In Feminist Ethics and Social Policy: Towards a New Global Political Economy of Care, ed. Mahon, Rianne and Robinson, Fiona, 2138. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar