- I am a Senior Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Politics, History, and International Relations, Loughborough ... moreI am a Senior Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Politics, History, and International Relations, Loughborough University. I am a specialist in political philosophy, with research interests in contemporary political philosophy, British politics, and public policy. I have written two books: Karl Popper (Continuum Press, 2010), and Political Philosophy: A Complete Introduction (London: Hodder, 2012 & New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013). I am currently writing a book on the political theory of lobbying in liberal democratic states.edit
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The book explores the influence of Popper’s work on liberal and conservative political thought, and locates his work within contemporary debates in Anglo-American political philosophy and social thought. It critically assesses Popper's... more
The book explores the influence of Popper’s work on liberal and conservative political thought, and locates his work within contemporary debates in Anglo-American political philosophy and social thought. It critically assesses Popper's work, and draws upon the work of other thinkers and political philosophers in order to evaluate his place in the wider liberal and conservative traditions and the contribution his ideas make to wider normative debates about freedom, equality, and social justice.
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This is the peer reviewed version of the following book reviews: PARVIN, P., 2011. John Rawls: An Introduction by Percy B. Lehning. Reflections on Rawls: An Assessment of His Legacy by Shaun P. Young (ed.) [book reviews]. Political... more
This is the peer reviewed version of the following book reviews: PARVIN, P., 2011. John Rawls: An Introduction by Percy B. Lehning. Reflections on Rawls: An Assessment of His Legacy by Shaun P. Young (ed.) [book reviews]. Political Studies Review, 9 (1), pp. 74 - 75, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-9302.2010.00227_1.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
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... On the funding issue, a recent letter in The Financial Times from Silvana Koch-Merin MEP, Head of the German Liberals in the European Parliament, commented that many NGOs and charities now lobby for change with the... more
... On the funding issue, a recent letter in The Financial Times from Silvana Koch-Merin MEP, Head of the German Liberals in the European Parliament, commented that many NGOs and charities now lobby for change with the government's help.13 EU Commissioner Siim Kallas ...
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Abstract will be provided by author.
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What does the recent public shaming and subsequent exoneration of Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind over accusations of ‘cash for access’ tell us about British democracy? Nothing good, certainly. But did the investigation by Channel Four and... more
What does the recent public shaming and subsequent exoneration of Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind over accusations of ‘cash for access’ tell us about British democracy? Nothing good, certainly. But did the investigation by Channel Four and the Telegraph lift the lid on the secret world of British politics as intended? Phil Parvin suggests not, and argues that the readiness of the public to believe negative stories about politicians means that these ‘stings’ can damage perceptions of British democracy far beyond what is justified by the facts of the case at hand.
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This article introduces this special issue on Participatory Democracy and Inequality, identifying both the primary claims made by the modern iteration of participatory democracy, as well as the main challenges faced by participatory... more
This article introduces this special issue on Participatory Democracy and Inequality, identifying both the primary claims made by the modern iteration of participatory democracy, as well as the main challenges faced by participatory democrats, by drawing on a range of literature, both empirical and theoretical. Despite these challenges, it finds cause for optimism, based on the trajectory of recent research on participatory democracy, and suggests there might be a number of potential means of addressing the problems raised by democratic inequality.
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We share a conviction that the days of big government are over; that centralisation and top-down control have proved a failure. We believe that the time has come to disperse power more widely in Britain today; to recognise that we will... more
We share a conviction that the days of big government are over; that centralisation and top-down control have proved a failure. We believe that the time has come to disperse power more widely in Britain today; to recognise that we will only make progress if we help people to come together to make life better. In short, it is our ambition to distribute power and opportunity to people rather than hoarding authority within government. The Coalition Agreement (Cabinet Office, 2010, 7)
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This is a draft chapter. The final version is available in Handbook on Global Social Justice edited by Craig, G., published in 2018, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/handbook-on-global-social-justice. The material... more
This is a draft chapter. The final version is available in Handbook on Global Social Justice edited by Craig, G., published in 2018, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/handbook-on-global-social-justice. The material cannot be used for any other purpose without further permission of the publisher, and is for private use only.
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This is the accepted version of a paper subsequently published in the serial, Renewal: A journal of social democracy.
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Many democratic theorists assume the value and importance of widespread citizen participation. Many even endorse participatory democracy. I offer an original critique of participatory democracy and the assumptions which underpin it.... more
Many democratic theorists assume the value and importance of widespread citizen participation. Many even endorse participatory democracy. I offer an original critique of participatory democracy and the assumptions which underpin it. Models of democracy which rely on widespread citizen participation are characterised by a paradox – the Participatory Paradox – which renders them practically unachievable and philosophically unstable. Establishing a participatory democracy would require a profound egalitarian restructuring of liberal democratic states in order to rectify the entrenched inequalities which have concentrated power in the hands of socioeconomic elites and marginalised the poor. But this is no easy task. It would require a vast, complex, and long term programme of social, economic, and political reform which would need to be justified independently of the democratic process. That is, paradoxically, the more that political philosophers foreground the importance of democracy, ...
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Written by Phil Parvin and Clare Chambers, who are current political philosophy lecturers and leading researchers, Political Philosophy - The Essentials is designed to give you everything you need to succeed, all in one place. It covers... more
Written by Phil Parvin and Clare Chambers, who are current political philosophy lecturers and leading researchers, Political Philosophy - The Essentials is designed to give you everything you need to succeed, all in one place. It covers the key areas that students are expected to be confident in, outlining the basics in clear jargon-free English, and then providing added-value features like summaries of key thinkers, and even lists of questions you might be asked in your seminar or exam. The book's structure follows that of most university courses on political philosophy, by looking at the essential concepts within political philosophy (freedom, equality, power, democracy, rights, the state, political obligation), and then looking at the ways in which political philosophers have used these fundamental concepts in order to tackle a range of normative political questions such as whether the state has a responsibility to alleviate inequalities, and what interest liberal and democra...
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In order to create an appropriate regulatory framework for ‘the lobbying industry’ we need first to take seriously the size and scope of the industry, argues Phil Parvin. Safeguards to ensure economic power does not simply translate into... more
In order to create an appropriate regulatory framework for ‘the lobbying industry’ we need first to take seriously the size and scope of the industry, argues Phil Parvin. Safeguards to ensure economic power does not simply translate into political power are important but we also need to accept that lobbying is a fundamental aspect of democratic decision-making.
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In Multicultural Odysseys, Will Kymlicka provides a broad and deep survey of recent developments in international minority rights. His central contention is that we are witnessing an 'internationalization' of multiculturalism;... more
In Multicultural Odysseys, Will Kymlicka provides a broad and deep survey of recent developments in international minority rights. His central contention is that we are witnessing an 'internationalization' of multiculturalism; more and more states are moving away from a ...
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In this piece, I offer an original and fundamental critique of a range of approaches to multiculturalism that have dominated the field of Anglo-American political theory since first-wave debates conducted in the 1990s/2000s. I suggest... more
In this piece, I offer an original and fundamental critique of a range of approaches to multiculturalism that have dominated the field of Anglo-American political theory since first-wave debates conducted in the 1990s/2000s. I suggest that the politics of the early twenty-first century, and especially the widespread rise of anti-immigrant and anti-minority sentiments among citizens of liberal democratic states throughout the world, requires political theorists who seek feasible solutions to real-world political problems to reject these theories. I focus on two approaches in particular: political liberalism and the politics of difference. Neither offers a vision of politics that is tenable in the early twenty-first century, I argue, as they both require citizens to deliberate about political matters in ways that they cannot. In discussing these approaches, and finding them wanting, it is revealed that political theorists face a choice. They can present a theory which is realistic in ...
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This piece introduces the overarching themes of the special issue. It maps the current intellectual landscape, and describes the disconnect between a lot of influential academic research on cultural and religious diversity and political... more
This piece introduces the overarching themes of the special issue. It maps the current intellectual landscape, and describes the disconnect between a lot of influential academic research on cultural and religious diversity and political reality. It argues that the rise of anti-immigration and anti-diversity sentiments in many democratic states around the world renders conventional arguments for multiculturalism inapplicable in these states, and calls for a re-appraisal of these theories in order to assess their feasibility and persuasiveness. It outlines the contributions to the special issue, and analyses the themes on which they touch.
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The article evaluates the arguments presented in Jason Brennan’s Against Democracy, Ilya Somin’s Democracy and Political Ignorance and Achen and Bartels’ Democracy for Realists and their implications for democratic theory and practice.... more
The article evaluates the arguments presented in Jason Brennan’s Against Democracy, Ilya Somin’s Democracy and Political Ignorance and Achen and Bartels’ Democracy for Realists and their implications for democratic theory and practice. The article uses their work to shine a light on ongoing and contradictory trajectories of democratic reform in Britain at the local and national levels, and to argue against the widespread view that British democracy should be reformed in ways that give citizens more control over political decisions. These books point to ways in which democracy might be salvaged, rather than replaced, and in which British democracy in particular might be reformed in order to better meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, by focusing less on participation and more on representation. This requires a two-pronged strategy. First, that we reform liberal democratic institutions in ways which better harness the power of non-majoritarian institutions, strengthen form...
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Changing patterns of political participation observed by political scientists over the past half-century undermine traditional democratic theory and practice. The vast majority of democratic theory, and deliberative democratic theory in... more
Changing patterns of political participation observed by political scientists over the past half-century undermine traditional democratic theory and practice. The vast majority of democratic theory, and deliberative democratic theory in particular, either implicitly or explicitly assumes the need for widespread citizen participation. It requires that all citizens possess the opportunity to participate and also that they take up this opportunity. But empirical evidence gathered over the past half-century strongly suggests that many citizens do not have a meaningful opportunity to participate in the ways that many democratic theorists require, and do not participate in anything like the numbers that they believe is necessary. This paper outlines some of the profound changes that have been experienced by liberal democratic states in the 20th and early 21st Centuries, changes which are still ongoing, and which have resulted in declines in citizens participation and trust, the marginalisation of citizens from democratic life, and the entrenchment of social and economic inequalities which have damaged democracy. The paper challenges the conventional wisdom in rejecting the idea that the future of democracy lies in encouraging more widespread participation. The paper takes seriously the failure of the strategies adopted by many states to increase participation, especially among the poor, and suggests that instead of requiring more of citizens, we should in fact be requiring less of them. Instead of seeking to encourage more citizen participation, we should acknowledge that citizens will probably not participate in the volume, or in the ways, many democratic theorists would like, and that therefore we need an alternative approach: a regime which can continue to produce democratic outcomes, and which satisfies the requirements of political equality, in the absence of widespread participation by citizens.
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David Miller's Strangers in our Midst is an important contribution to the debate among political philosophers about how liberal democratic states should deal with the issue of migration. But it is also a thoughtful statement concerning... more
David Miller's Strangers in our Midst is an important contribution to the debate among political philosophers about how liberal democratic states should deal with the issue of migration. But it is also a thoughtful statement concerning how best to do political philosophy and, as such, contributes also to the growing debate within Anglo-American political theory about the relative merits of 'ideal' versus 'non-ideal' normative theorising. Miller's argument in the book builds on his earlier published work in suggesting that political philosophy should be 'for Earthlings': it should not be understood as a process of ideal theorising which ignores political reality. He argues that normative theorists should seek to resolve complex political problems by taking seriously the political context that makes these problems complex, rather than putting aside that context in the interests of deriving first principles. This is a controversial approach, which requires political philosophers to take more seriously than they often do the expressed concerns of citizens living in democratic states and the practical problems associated with applying normative principles in ways which actually help address the issue at hand. This piece discusses some of these themes, and the issue of migration more generally, in order to help frame the debate which follows.
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Liberal democratic states throughout the world are experiencing declining rates of political participation and trust among their citizens. Many political theorists have argued that deliberative democracy offers hope. Deliberative... more
Liberal democratic states throughout the world are experiencing declining rates of political participation and trust among their citizens. Many political theorists have argued that deliberative democracy offers hope. Deliberative democracy, they argue, is a distinctive conception of democracy which improves upon traditional aggregative or majoritarian approaches by providing a more inclusive space in which citizens can collectively deliberate on political decisions. I argue, however, that the deliberative model presupposes and requires widespread participation and trust which it is incapable of ensuring. The more normative weight that is placed upon the need for inclusive deliberation among citizens, the less politically feasible deliberative democracy becomes as a strategy for the reform of liberal democratic states experiencing declines in trust and participation. I therefore argue that deliberative democrats are faced with a choice: they can afford central weight to the idea of deliberation and thus render their theories unfeasible as a strategy for democratic reform, or they can downplay the importance of deliberation in their theories and thus minimise the distinctiveness of deliberative democracy.
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This article looks at Mark Bevir's ideas on the changing nature of the modern state, as expressed in his book, ‘Democratic Governance’. In the book, the author argues that recent developments in the theory and practice of politics have... more
This article looks at Mark Bevir's ideas on the changing nature of the modern state, as expressed in his book, ‘Democratic Governance’. In the book, the author argues that recent developments in the theory and practice of politics have their intellectual roots in wider trends in the academic study of society and politics. In particular, he argues, the rise in what he and others have called ‘the new governance’ – that is, the shift in Britain and elsewhere away from centralised policy making and implementation by state institutions toward policy networks in which the state is merely one actor among many – has emerged as a direct consequence of the rise of ahistorical, universalist social science methodologies.
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Debates about multiculturalism, minority rights, and identity dominated Anglo-American political theory during the majority of the 1990s, and continue to raise important questions concerning the nature of citizenship, community, and the... more
Debates about multiculturalism, minority rights, and identity dominated Anglo-American political theory during the majority of the 1990s, and continue to raise important questions concerning the nature of citizenship, community, and the responsibilities of liberal states. They were popular, too, among policy makers, politicians, and journalists: many academics and practitioners were, for a time, united in their support for multiculturalism. Just as the philosophical literature at that time became more ‘multiculturalist’, so many European states increasingly adopted multiculturalist policies as a way of including historically marginalised groups into mainstream liberal culture or, in some cases, as a way of protecting minority groups from unfair pressures from the majority culture. However, as time has gone on, the multiculturalist turn in liberal political theory, and among many European governments, has waned. In the wake of terrorist atrocities around the world, growing concerns about the erosion of civic and national identity, and fears that cultural recognition can permit illiberal practices, many academics and practitioners have sought to distance themselves from the idea that it is a role of the state to afford special treatment to cultural minorities, and have sought once again to emphasise those common bonds which unite citizens of liberal democratic states, rather than those cultural identities which may serve to divide them. This article evaluates some of the recent philosophical literature on multiculturalism against the changing political landscape in Britain and Europe and suggests that the multiculturalist position remains weakened by a number of crucial ambiguities.
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The continued decline in levels of political engagement among British citizens has led many politicians, commentators and academics from across the political spectrum to advocate a move toward a more direct form of democracy via some kind... more
The continued decline in levels of political engagement among British citizens has led many politicians, commentators and academics from across the political spectrum to advocate a move toward a more direct form of democracy via some kind of localism. The claim is that citizens feel increasingly estranged from the democratic process, and from those organisations on which they have historically relied to represent them within the political system. Consequently, localists argue, there now exists a gap between the people, the institutions which are supposed to work on their behalf, and the decisions made in their name, so the system needs to be reformed in such a way as to give individuals and local communities more of a direct input into the decision-making process. Calls for a more direct form of democracy via localism are popular among members of the progressive left and the ‘new Conservative’ right, and have become so dominant in political discourse that it is often suggested that ‘we are all localists now’. This article raises questions about the localist agenda, and suggests that the adoption of a more direct form of democracy in Britain may not only fail to address the decline in political engagement, but may also result in the exclusion, marginalisation, and oppression of minority groups.
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Democracy in Britain would appear to be in decline. Fewer people are joining political parties; fewer people are participating in general elections; and mass protest on a wide variety of issues is rising. This apparent breakdown in formal... more
Democracy in Britain would appear to be in decline. Fewer people are joining political parties; fewer people are participating in general elections; and mass protest on a wide variety of issues is rising. This apparent breakdown in formal political engagement in Britain and other liberal democracies has led to a renewed claim by many critics inside and outside of academia that traditional representative forms of democratic governance have had their day and need to be replaced by a more direct model of democracy. This paper argues that this would be a mistake, and that moving to a more direct form of democracy would in fact do more to undermine the needs and concerns of minority groups and others than the conventional representative system. It claims that the key lies in addressing those issues which underlie political disengagement, strengthening existing links between the electorate and decision makers, and making sure that political parties adapt to the profound social changes that Britain has experienced in the past few decades. Parties need to reform themselves in order that they are better able to embody the ideals and aspirations of a new, consumerist, disengaged public. Failure to do so will lead to their continued demise and a further weakening of democracy in Britain.
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... ALSO PUBLISHED BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Social Rights Under the Constitution Government and the Decent Life Cecile Fabre A Theory of Political Obligation Membership, Commitment, and the Bonds of Society Margaret Gilbert Boundaries... more
... ALSO PUBLISHED BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Social Rights Under the Constitution Government and the Decent Life Cecile Fabre A Theory of Political Obligation Membership, Commitment, and the Bonds of Society Margaret Gilbert Boundaries and Allegiances ...