"The book is beautifully written, elegantly organised and it achieves with splendid efficiency all of the
goals that it sets for itself. I recommend it warmly."
--Mind
"The arguments in this book, both interpretive and analytical, are consistently careful, modest, astute, and
helpful. The version of liberalism in Civic Virtues is certainly an attractive one, and it very effectively makes
the point that the virtues of citizenship must be an abiding theme for all students of political philosophy, those
who follow Rawls as much as those who follow Rousseau."
--American Political Science Review
"...an important work given the growing interest in active citizenship....Dagger's book makes a very important
contribution to our understanding of citizenship through its clear demonstration that state promotion of civic
virtue is compatible with individual autonomy."--Political Studies "Dagger's book deserves to be read
by all those who are interested in enlarging the boundaries of liberalism in the direction of a more communitarian
politics."
--The Responsive Community
"Dagger's important new book...will repay the attention of both republican and liberal thinkers who share
Dagger's avid desire to conceive of the polity as a cooperative practice governed by the principles of fair play
as it pursues common goods. [It] will have a particular appeal to thinkers who share his equally avid desire to
put theory to the service of political and moral practice."
--Ethics
Oxford University Press Web Site, May, 2000
Summary
Althought few want to deny their importance, many political theorists have recently complained that too much
weight is now attached to individual rights. The result, as they see it, is an excessive individualism that blinds
people to the needs of the community or state to which they belong. We should be less concerned with our rights,
in their view, and more concerned with our responsibilities.
Those who advance this view typically argue against liberalism. In Civic Virtues, the newest addition to the distinguished
Oxford Political Theory series, Richard Dagger takes a different approach. Finding the proper relationship between
rights and responsibilities requires us not to choose betwen liberalism and republicanism, he argues, but to unite
them in a republican form of liberalism.
Is such a marriage of republicanism and liberalism possible? Is it desirable? Dagger demonstrates how republican
liberalism proceeds from a fundamental right of autonomy, to the recognition of interdependence and reciprocity,
and on to the cultivation of the civic virtues of the public-spirited citizen. Indeed, republican liberalism promises
not only to reconcile individual rights and civic duties, but to enhance political deliberation and the sense of
community as well.
