PANEL 2 - DISTRIBUTION, POWER RESOURCES, AND DOMINATION

CONVENOR NUNZIO ALÌ 
 
All inquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected].

Talking about the “distribution” of power is common in political philosophy, political science, and public debate. We often claim, for instance, that democracy ideally requires political power to be distributed equally—or at least widely—among citizens. However, the literature remains unclear about what, if anything, should actually be distributed when we speak of power. Although it is widely recognized that the exercise of power depends on the possession of certain material and non-material bases of power, or power resources – such as wealth, knowledge, or reputation – there is still no consensus that the distribution of these resources is essential to prevent the arbitrary exercise of power, namely domination.

This panel seeks to advance the discussion on the role that power resources play in the
conceptualization of social justice and domination. In this regard, several key questions arise: Does a distributive perspective misconstrue the meaning of power? Does reasoning in terms of power resources fall into the so-called “vehicle fallacy”? If power resources are usually understood in terms of “power to,” how can they be related to “power over”? Why do classical theories of justice so often underestimate the role of power? Are power resources an adequate conceptual vocabulary for theorizing gender and racial inequalities? Are poverty and inequality forms of power deprivation?

The purpose of this panel is to promote interdisciplinary dialogue across political philosophy, political theory, and critical social theory, in order to investigate whether, and how, the distribution of power resources is relevant to securing freedom as non-domination, equality of status, and social fairness.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Power as a distributive issue.
•  How to identify and classify power resources.
• Structural domination and the role of power resources.
• Power concentration, oligarchy, and the erosion of democratic participation.
• The role of power resources in republican and neo-republican theories.
• Social justice and the problem of power.
• Power resources and gender or racial relations.