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Chapter 1 - The Structure and Recurring Patterns of the Perpetual Struggle against Domination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2025

Allen Buchanan
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
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Summary

Chapter 1 lays out the main features of my descriptive-explanatory theory of how the struggle between hierarchs and resisters drives the evolution of morality and institutions. It identifies several recurring patterns in the struggle, including the following: (1) efforts by a party to the struggle to recruit new members to their coalition can prompt them to appeal to the interests of groups that have hitherto been neglected, resulting in more inclusive moral ideas; (2) A group G’s efforts to employ moral concepts in their struggle against group B can result in those concepts being used against group A by a group C. This occurred, for example, when the concept of natural rights employed by the upper classes in their struggle against excessive monarchial power in England eventually provided a weapon for increasing the political power of the masses and diminishing the power of those when who originally invoked the concept of natural rights. (3) A G can make what they take to be a low-cost concession to their opponents, Group B, thereby unwittingly providing their opponents with resources that they can use to inflict great losses on Group A. This chapter also identifies several ways in which the struggle between hierarchs and resisters can help bring about morally progressive changes, while emphasizing that progressive changes, like changes in general, are usually the unintended consequences of self-interested strategic behavior.

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Ideology and Revolution
How the Struggle against Domination Drives the Evolution of Morality and Institutions
, pp. 38 - 107
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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