The Political Morality of Liberal Democracy
Cambridge University Press, 11/23/2009
EAN 9780521115186, ISBN10: 0521115183
Hardcover, 25000 pages, 23.6 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
In this important new work in political and constitutional theory, Michael J. Perry elaborates and defends an account of the political morality of liberal democracy: the moral convictions and commitments that in a liberal democracy should govern decisions about what laws to enact and what policies to pursue. The fundamental questions addressed in this book concern (1) the grounding, (2) the content, (3) the implications for one or another moral controversy and (4) the judicial enforcement of the political morality of liberal democracy. The particular issues discussed include whether government may ban pre-viability abortion, whether government may refuse to extend the benefit of law to same-sex couples and what role religion should play in the politics and law of a liberal democracy.
Part I. Liberal Democracy, Human Rights, and Religious Faith
1. Liberal democracy and human rights
2. Liberal democracy and religious faith
Part II. First Principles
3. The right to moral equality
4. The right to religious freedom
5. Beyond religious freedom
the right to moral freedom
6. Religion as a basis of lawmaking
Part III. First Principles Applied
7. Abortion
8. Same-sex unions
Part IV. The Constitution of Liberal Democracy
9. Protecting constitutionally entrenched rights
the courts' - in particular, the US Supreme Court's - proper rule.