ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book suggests novel approaches to political theory. It argues that too often, contemporary political theoretical conversations fail to accommodate the political theoretical aspects of a normative concern. The book then focuses on philosophical claims about the differences between liberal and democratic rights, and demonstrates that these understate the many ways in which governments might be democratic, and gloss over the undemocratic aspects of liberalism. It also proposes an approach to political philosophy that explores the relations between facts, norms and dignity and distinguishes three ways in which descriptive claims stating non-normative facts might bear on normative claims such as principles of social justice and human rights. The book offers an account of the significance of the three relations by articulating a specific view which was called as ‘dignitarianism’.
