Re-thinking ‘Paternalism’ for a Democratic Theory of Care

Abstract

This chapter makes three general points about democracy, state care and paternalism. The first is that if we want to develop democratic modes of care at the state level—or anywhere else—we will have to challenge paternalism as a system of governance in both theory and practice. The second is that we cannot do so without replacing the liberal/libertarian concept of paternalism that now prevails among contemporary philosophers, political theorists and legal scholars, as well as the individualistic model of personal choice making associated with it, with a concept of paternalism that understands its subject matter as a distinctly paternal, hierarchically organized, kind of care. The third is that by understanding paternalism in this way, we are able both to grasp the interdependence of democracy and non-paternalism and to hone the conditions of a non-paternalistic, democratic, welfare state. The study shows how the conditions in question might be met in practice and then sketches the contours of a caring state that is compatible with them.