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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: emma.planinc@utoronto.ca
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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 

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