Table Of ContentJohn Horton · Manon Westphal
Ulrich Willems E ditors
The Political Theory
of Modus Vivendi
The Political Theory of Modus Vivendi
John Horton (cid:129) Manon Westphal (cid:129)
Ulrich Willems
Editors
The Political Theory
of Modus Vivendi
Editors
JohnHorton ManonWestphal
SchoolofPolitics,InternationalRelations InstituteofPoliticalScience
andPhilosophy UniversityofMünster
KeeleUniversity Münster,Germany
Keele,UK
UlrichWillems
InstituteofPoliticalScience
UniversityofMünster
Münster,Germany
ISBN978-3-319-79077-0 ISBN978-3-319-79078-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-79078-7
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In memory of Glen Newey 1961–2017
Preface
Allthecontributionstothisvolumebeganaspaperstotheconference,‘ThePolitical
TheoryofModusVivendi’heldattheUniversityofMünsterinJuly2015,although
they have all undergone revision since then and some have been radically
reconceived.
WearemostgratefultotheCentreofAdvancedStudyinBioethicsinMünsterfor
their generosity infundingtheinitial conference andespeciallytoRuth Langer for
organisingitsoefficiently.
Ourprimarydebtistothecontributors,notleastfortheirpatience,asthevolume
hastakenalittlelongertobringtopublicationthanwewouldhavewished.Wehave
alsobeenhelpedbyanumberofothersinputtingthevolumetogether:CarolynIselt,
Lars Kiesling, Nicolas Kleinschmidt and Judith Rensing. We are also grateful to
JohannesGlaeser,DagmarKernandSrinivasanManavalanattheSpringerPress.
The dedication is in memory of Glen Newey, who died unexpectedly last year.
Glenwasalivelyandactiveparticipantintheoriginalconference,andalthoughhe
hadalreadydecidednottocontributetothebook,hewasanimportantfigureinits
earlygestation.Heismuchmissed.
Keele,UK JohnHorton
Münster,Germany ManonWestphal
Münster,Germany UlrichWillems
vii
Contents
TheorisingModusVivendi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
ManonWestphal
PartI ModusVivendi,LiberalismandRealism
WhyTheorizeModusVivendi?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
FabianWendt
LiberalMoralismandModusVivendiPolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Steven Wall
ModusVivendiandtheMotivationsforCompliance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
RobertaSala
ModusVivendiinaLiberalFramework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
ThomasGutmann
CanModusVivendiSaveLiberalismfromMoralism?ACritical
AssessmentofJohnGray’sPoliticalRealism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
EnzoRossi
ModusVivendiBeyondtheSocialContract:Peace,Justice,
andSurvivalinRealistPoliticalTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
ThomasFossen
PartII ModusVivendiandLegitimacy
ModusVivendiandPoliticalLegitimacy. . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. 131
JohnHorton
ModusVivendiasaGlobalPoliticalMorality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
DavidMcCabe
LegitimacyandModusVivendiTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
FabianWenner
ModusVivendiandLegitimacy:SomeScepticalThoughts. . . . . . . . . . . 185
MattSleat
ix
x Contents
PartIII ModusVivendiandPoliticalPractice
PoliticalThoughtBetweenFinalityandIndeterminacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
MichaelFreeden
MotivesandModusVivendi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
KatharineSchweitzer
ModusVivendiandToleration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
MichaelKühler
InstitutionsofModusVivendiPolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
ManonWestphal
Theorising Modus Vivendi
Manon Westphal
Modus vivendi is a term that suggests limited ambitions and even a pessimistic
attitude towards the circumstances of political life. Literally meaning a “mode of
(co-)living”,modusvivendireferstoastateofaffairsthatonecanlivewith,notone
thatisparticularlyvaluableorsatisfying.Onemightwonder,then,whythetermhas
been receiving increasing attention from political theorists and is currently in the
process of becoming a distinctive focus of political theorising. The goal of this
chapter is to make sense of these developments and to assess where the debate on
modusvivendipresentlystands.IshouldmakeitclearfromthebeginningthatIam
broadly sympathetic to the notion of modus vivendi. Modus vivendi achieves a
welcome diversification of the landscape of contemporary political theorising by
providing an approach that, exactly because its way of thinking about politics is
“none too cheerful” (Newey 2006, p. 266), can strengthen the capacity of political
theorists to assess political possibilities under conditions that are often far from
cheerful, however lamentable that may be. It is this book’s aim to explore and
advance the debate about both the potential of a political theory of modus vivendi
anditsproblems.
Ifmodusvivenditheoryistomeettheexpectationofgroundinganinnovativeand
distinctive form of political theorising, it undoubtedly faces some important
challenges and stands in need of further development in a number of respects.
Eventhoughsomeofthecontributorstothisvolumearemoreoptimisticaboutthe
capacity of modus vivendi to ground a robust political theory than others, this is a
sentimentthattheyallshare.Itistheoverarchingambitionofthisvolumetoprobe
thestrengthsofmodusvivendi,shedacriticallightontheweaknessesandlacunaeof
modusvivenditheorisinginitscurrentform,provideclarificationofsofarneglected
aspects of it and open up perspectives for future developments. While each of the
subsequent chapters has a specific interest in modus vivendi and contributes to a
M.Westphal(*)
InstituteofPoliticalScience,UniversityofMünster,Münster,Germany
e-mail:[email protected]
#SpringerInternationalPublishingAG,partofSpringerNature2019 1
J.Hortonetal.(eds.),ThePoliticalTheoryofModusVivendi,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-79078-7_1
2 M.Westphal
betterunderstandingoftheconceptbydiscussingaparticularaspectoforchallenge
toit,thischapterusesratherbroadbrushstrokes,andnoneoftheissuesraisedwillbe
dealtwithinsatisfactorydepth.TheintentionoftheoverviewIdevelop,however,is
tomapsomeofthecrucialpointsofdisputeinthedebateandlocatetheargumentsof
thesubsequentchapterswithinabroaderframework.
Tothisend,first,Isaysomethingaboutthenotionofmodusvivendiingeneral.
Whatexactlyisamodusvivendi,i.e.whatcharacterisesthephenomenonthatthose
whousemodusvivendiasapoliticalconceptreferto?Second,Iaddressthequestion
of the motives and purposes of a political theory of modus vivendi. What is it that
thosewhomakemodusvivendiacoreconceptoftheirtheorisingfindsoattractive
aboutitandwhydotheythinkitisuseful?Third,Idiscusstheissueoflegitimacy.
One important aspect of debate among theorists of modus vivendi in this regard is
whether and in what sense a political theory of modus vivendi is or should be a
normative theory. While there is little controversy that a political theory of modus
vivendi cannot dispense with ethical content entirely, there is disagreement as to
whatthiscontentisandhowdistinctiveitisbycomparisontothatofotherpolitical
theories.Iillustratesomemainlinesofthedebateonthischallengebyshowinghow
modus vivendi theorists make political legitimacy the mainstay of a moderately
normative agenda for political theorising and what problems this project faces.
Fourth, I sketch how some proposals made by the contributors point to possible
waysoutoftheseproblemsandencourageadiversificationoftheagendaofmodus
vivenditheorising.
1 Modus Vivendi as a Political Concept
The term modus vivendi is not new. In situations where parties that are in dispute
overpoliticalissuesfailtoachievetheirpreferredsolutionandendupbysettlingon
termsofcoexistencethatallfindtosomeextentunsatisfactory,itisrathercommon
tospeakofamodusvivendi.Morespecifically,suchascenarioisoftencalledamere
modus vivendi. The qualifying “mere” is significant here as it gives expression to
what is often associated with a situation referred to as a modus vivendi: a disap-
pointinganddeficientoutcomethatislessthananyone’sideal.Suchaviewcanbe
found in John Rawls’s Political Liberalism where, in anticipation of a possible
objectionagainsthistheory,Rawlsstressesthathisideaofanoverlappingconsensus
onapoliticalconceptionofjusticemustnotbemistakenforameremodusvivendi.
“[S]omewillthinkthatevenifanoverlappingconsensusweresufficientlystable,theideaof
politicalunityfoundedonanoverlappingconsensusmuststillberejected,sinceitabandons
the hope of political community and settles instead for a public understanding that is at
bottomameremodusvivendi”(Rawls2005,p.146;myemphasis).
Theworriedcriticneedsnotbeconcerned,Rawlsexplains,becausetheobjectof
the overlapping consensus, the political conception of justice, “is itself a moral
conception”,which“isaffirmedonmoralgrounds”(Rawls 2005,p.147).Political
