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The Anatomy of Justice argues for a reorientation in liberal egalitarian theorizing about justice. Gina Schouten argues that the orientation she proposes supports compelling resolutions to longstanding disputes and difficulties internal to egalitarianism, as well as compelling defenses of liberalism against feminist and egalitarian critics. On the orthodox approach, a theory of liberal egalitarian justice comprises a set of normative principles to guide the design and workings of social institutions. Schouten argues that we should instead think of theory's most important product as evaluative discernment. Theorizing should aim to discern with as much precision as possible the achievements, or values, by realization of which a society can be more rather than less just. Schouten offers a weighted specification of the values of justice, which she calls “the anatomy of justice,” and she makes the case for the anatomy by letting it flex its muscles. First, the anatomy of justice resolves difficulties internal to liberal egalitarianism, in part by deflating longstanding debates, like the debate about whether equality is fundamentally a distributive or a relational value. Second, the anatomy provides systematic and plausible guidance for addressing injustice. By precisifying the values of justice, the anatomy supports a unified liberal egalitarianism that could be developed to describe the ideally just society, but that also, and more importantly, provides guidance for improving an unjust society. That's because the very same values that are optimally realized in a just society also provide guidance in circumstances of profound injustice, even if the normative principles those values underpin differ across circumstances. Because the anatomy offers a modular framework for theorizing justice across (just and) unjust circumstances, it is more broadly and concretely helpful than normative theory is often thought to be. Finally, the anatomy underpins compelling defences against criticisms of liberalism from the left. The book aims to demonstrate that feminist liberal egalitarianism is viable and valuable for progressive politics. To make the case, Schouten shows that the anatomy of justice serves as a possibility proof for what liberal egalitarianism can do. She assembles the fundamental, definitive commitments of liberal egalitarianism in a novel way to reveal liberalism's radical potential.

Bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary research, Andrea Lippi's Legitimacy and Legitimation of Political Authorities presents a comprehensive and systematic analysis of both legitimacy and legitimation as two theoretical concepts, focusing on their respective roles in political systems today.Through its use of empirical evidence and in-depth consideration of the pressing issues on today's political agenda, this book adeptly navigates the political authority crisis, highlighting how the recognition and validity attributed to institutions is significantly in decline. Chapters explore this loss of credibility and trust, and how institutions are seeking to nurture their accreditation through new sources. Lippi incisively illustrates the relationship between statics and dynamics, as well as that between legitimacy and legitimation, and proposes a typology of the latter to be used in empirical research.Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this timely book will be a vital read for researchers, academics and students in public policy, international politics, public administration and management, and regulation and governance. Policymakers will similarly benefit from the applied nature of the text.

This open access book addresses two issues of state-managed international voluntary service (SMIVS)—its contributions and advantages/disadvantages—by the case study of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV). Until now, the literature has given little attention to SMIVS and Asian international voluntary service (IVS). Proposing the concept of SMIVS, this is the first book in English to focus on JOCV and IVS managed by the Japanese government. The book is organized into two parts. In Part I, the authors, including scholars, former volunteers, and practitioners, explore the contributions of JOCV to the development in host communities, personal and professional development of volunteers, and Japanese civil society. In Part II, the authors analyze how JOCV creates advantages such as multilevel support by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a Japanese government aid agency, and disadvantages such as the weak expertise of volunteers. The authors'theoretical approaches cover capacity development, social capital, gift theory, and institutional theory, and their methodologies include statistical analysis of survey data, interview-based anthropological interpretation, and single/comparative case study. This combination of multiple approaches and methodologies is a strong feature of the study reported here. Thanks to state management, as the book demonstrates, JOCV can facilitate mutual benefits between volunteers and host communities, enhancing the human capital of the former and contributing to the socioeconomic development of the latter. It also shows that Japanese volunteers blend into host communities well, respecting and learning their social values and perspectives. This achievement is accomplished to the extent that collaborative and equal interpersonal relationships are nurtured between the volunteers and local people, including counterparts. Thus, this book helps to reduce inequality and stereotypes in IVS, with implications for other state-managed IVS.

This open access handbook aims to constitute a reference point on political norm dynamics in Southeast Asia, by bringing together the array of normative repertoires that frame the possibilities for citizens to participate in, set agendas for, make decisions in, and contest, not only electoral and institutional politics but also informal and imaginary political spaces. It sheds light on intersecting political and social transformations and their consequences from the vantage point of political norms. While chapters lay out and analyse how political norms across Southeast Asia have been shaped in successive historical phases, the core of the handbook addresses current dynamics involved in defining and transforming political norms.