The State - by Philip Pettit

Book Synopsis

A major new account of the state and its importance by a leading political philosopher

The future of our species depends on the state. Can states resist corporate capture, religious zealotry, and nationalist mania? Can they find a way to work together so that the earth heals and its peoples prosper? Or is the state just not up to the task? In this book, the prominent political philosopher Philip Pettit examines the nature of the state and its capacity to serve goals like peace and justice within and beyond its borders. In doing so, he breaks new ground by making the state the focus of political theory--with implications for economic, legal, and social theory--and presents a persuasive, historically informed image of an institution that lies at the center of our lives.

Offering an account that is more realist than utopian, Pettit starts from the function the polity is meant to serve, looks at how it can best discharge that function, and explores its ability to engage beneficially in the life of its citizens. This enables him to identify an ideal of statehood that is a precondition of justice. Only if states approximate this functional ideal will they be able to deal with the perennial problems of extreme poverty and bitter discord as well as the challenges that loom over the coming centuries, including climate change, population growth, and nuclear arms.

Review Quotes

"[I]mportant, timely, and original."---Donald Bello Hutt & Victoria Kristan, Res Publica

"[T]hematically rich and thought-provoking. . . . The State will surely be a central and unavoidable text going forward for all theorists in politics and law grappling with any of the themes treated, filled as it is with fascinating insights, provocative theses, and powerful arguments."---Christopher F. Zurn, The Review of Politics

"In its ambition and execution, The State resembles such canonical works of political philosophy as Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan (1651) or Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Du contrat social (1762) and will likely be counted among them in time."---Adam Coleman, The Irish Times

"Necessary. . . . The State will be valuable for many generations of political philosophers to come."---Rebecca Buxton, Mind

About the Author

Philip Pettit is L. S. Rockefeller University Professor of Human Values at Princeton University and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, Canberra. He is the author of Republicanism, On the People's Terms, Just Freedom, and other books.