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6 Education and civic virtue Introduction The distinctiveness of republican thought lies partly in its commitment to civic virtue. This may be conceived of narrowly, as a preparedness to participate in political life, or more broadly, as a commitment to prioritise the common good over sectional interest. In all strands of the republican tradition, civic virtue is understood as a bulwark against corruption, understood simply as the appropriation of political power by private or factional interest. And in turn, of course, corruption engenders unchecked or
From Virtue to Venality examines the problem of corruption in British urban society and politics between 1930 and 1995. It is not a conventional study of the politics of local government since it seeks to place corruption in urban societies in a wider cultural context. It reclaims the study of corruption from political scientists and sociologists for historians but provides theoretical explanations of the causes of corruption testing them against real cases. The legacy of the municipal gospel, public service ideals and ethical principles are analysed to show how public virtues were eroded over time. It argues that the key counterweight against corruption is a strong civil society but that British civil society became detached from the city and urban society allowing corrupt politicians and business men licence to further their own ambitions by corrupt means. Britain’s imperial past deflected political leaders from the evidence before them contributing to their failure to develop reforms. The accounts of corruption in Glasgow – a British Chicago – as well as the major corruption scandals of John Poulson and T. Dan Smith show how Labour controlled towns and cities were especially vulnerable to corrupt dealings. The case of Dame Shirley Porter in the City of Westminster in the late 1980s reveals that Conservative controlled councils were also vulnerable since in London the stakes of the political struggle were especially intense.
This book is the first in-depth study of the changing nature of moral politics within working-class Radicalism between 1820 and 1870. It highlights how Radicalism's attitudes to morality and everyday life shifted from a festive and libertarian culture to a more austere and ascetic politics. This has been done through study of the lives, activism and intellectual influences of a number of key leaders of working-class Radicalism. This culture emphasized moral improvement, temperance and frugality after the 1840s. Although the London Working Men's Association (LWMA) has often been regarded as elitist and reluctant to adopt a leadership position within organised Chartism, several key members were instrumental in forming the organisational basis for Chartism outside of London. These tours illustrate how not only Vincent but many Chartist activists achieved success by adopting the festive and populist ethos evident amongst London Radicals. In reality the advocacy of teetotalism and education were part of a popular ethical turn within the movement, and O'Connor's attempts to present the danger of a split movement was 'artificial'. The principles and strategies that William Lovett and Henry Vincent developed over the course of 1840 became accepted as a core aspect of Chartist political culture. By 1842, Ethical Radicalism became hegemonic within the movement after 1842 largely because of the constitutional, peaceful, and moral politics of electoral interventions. Working-class moral politics was a product of working- class Radicalism in the first half of the century rather than a post- Chartist imposition.
1 Citizenship by civic virtue? Introduction The cases for and against voting rights for prisoners have been widely examined in academic literature and political discourse (see, for example, Abramsky, 2006; Campbell, 2007; Clegg et al., 2006; Easton, 2011; Ewald and Rottinghaus, 2009; Itzkowitz and Oldak, 1973; Kleinig and Murtagh, 2005; Manfredi, 1998; Manza and Uggen, 2006; Mauer, 2011; Plannic, 1987; Ramsay, 2013; Reiman, 2005). It is widely accepted that even in the most advanced liberal democracies there are limitations on the right to vote, depending on
3 The virtues of diversity: pedagogical innovation and contested curricula What other reason can there be for the Jesuits having such easy and happy advancement, than their staying with one particular method and one kind of book? In our case, almost every territory and every town follows their own rules; many a town thinks that it would the greatest shame if its school rector did not find it necessary to compose his own Grammatic and Elementale, a Vocabularium, a Logicam or the like. Anonymous pamphleteer, Augsburg 16931 In the seventeenth century, the Lutheran
expected, by reason of birth, to participate in the army; where the education of the young thus often involves a military element; where the symbolism of warfare and weaponry is prominent in official and private life, and the warlike and heroic virtues are glorified; and where warfare is a predominant government expenditure and/or a major source of economic profit. 1 There are all sorts of untested
1 ‘Virtue appears like an Oak’: 1 William Richardson’s family and background T his motto from the Richardson family crest is certainly appropriate, for William Richardson saw himself as a virtuous man. Yet everyone who knew him found a tenaciously, often belligerently, stubborn man. He conformed to the general eighteenth-century conception of the patriotic, public-spirited citizen being a virtuous man; but Richardson made a virtue from the necessity always to be right. This self-righteous trait revealed itself in a very strict sense of propriety. Richardson
Wood reads Philip Sidney’s New Arcadia in the light of the ethos known as
Philippism, after the followers of Philip Melanchthon the Protestant theologian.
He employs a critical paradigm previously used to discuss Sidney’s Defence of
Poesy and narrows the gap that critics have found between Sidney’s
theory and literary practice. This book is a valuable resource for scholars and
researchers in the fields of literary and religious studies.
Various strands
of philosophical, political and theological thought are accommodated within the
New Arcadia, which conforms to the kind of literature praised by
Melanchthon for its examples of virtue. Employing the same philosophy, Sidney,
in his letter to Queen Elizabeth and in his fiction, arrogates to himself the
role of court counsellor. Robert Devereux also draws, Wood argues, on the
optimistic and conciliatory philosophy signified by Sidney’s New
Arcadia.
of women to read, understand and apply the scriptures to their spiritual and daily lives. Giovanni Bruto similarly sees women’s exposure to Scripture (and other exemplary texts) as a means to virtue: ‘I will not that shee should bee debarred from the commodities of reading and understanding, because it is not onely commodious to a wise and virtuous woman, but a rich and
Nigel Biggar, and its context within Oxford University and its imperial entanglements, are far from the whole story. At the time of writing, Biggar is nearing the end of his career, and will surely be supplanted by other mouthpieces of imperially ventriloquised reaction; and Oxford, by virtue of its special position in the UK higher education system and its immense material wealth, is in many ways an