How to Respond to the Neo-populist Discourse on Care: Care as Common Ground

• In Event: Care Ethics Critiques of the Current Political Moment

Abstract

Neo-populism can be characterized in many ways, but one way that is frequently overlooked is that new-populism embraces a discourse about protectionist care. By this, I refer to a form of care that is, as Iris Young described it, masculinity, and built upon a gender hierarchy of men protecting their women. As Young observed, this is not a discourse for democratic citizens. The paper will examine Neopopulist claims, especially in the USA, to demonstrate that they do view the world from this standpoint of protectionist care. It will then offer an analysis about the world-view entailed in this doctrine, (one which it shares with most varieties of neoliberalism) namely, that the world is composed of winners and losers, and that caring for oneself and one’s family entails positioning oneself as “winners,” i.e., people with a certain forms of privilege. In contrast, I explore everyday acts of care in communities, among politically active groups in the margins and others, to show that a politics which starts discursively from care provides a basis for thinking of citizens as equals, rather than as winners and losers.

Author

• Joan C. Tronto, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities