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Mitigating Servility: Policies of Egalitarian Self-Relations

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  • Anne-Sofie Greisen Højlund
How should inequalities generated in part by people's self-devaluing attitudes be understood, and what can be done politically to counteract them? Building on central elements of relational egalitarianism, this article scrutinizes the case of servility as an instance of failure to relate to oneself as an equal, attitudinally and behaviorally speaking. From this perspective, servility as well as the adverse distributive consequences it gives rise to should be considered objectionable and in need of mitigation. Considering the case of political voice, the article points to certain paternalistic policies as a means of altering servility by inducing people to make their claims heard. Indeed, such policies may serve as particularly apt instruments since they directly target attitudinal barriers to relational equality in the political sphere. The novel claim is that paternalism, by altering servile attitudes as well as behavioral patterns, may effectively help make people relate to themselves in a more egalitarian manner.
Original languageEnglish
JournalBritish Journal of Political Science
Volume52
Issue2
Pages (from-to)908-920
Number of pages13
ISSN0007-1234
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2022

    Research areas

  • attitudinal change, behavioral change, paternalistic policies, political voice, relational equality, servility, ESTEEM, POLITICAL-PARTICIPATION, EFFICACY, EQUALITY, PATERNALISM, AUTONOMY

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