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The Virtue Of Liberality In American Communal Life, Linda R. Hirshman

Michigan Law Review

This article attacks the barriers to articulation of a theory of the good and advocates discussion of the substance of a good regime, specifically, a good American regime. Part I of this article addresses in some detail the civic republicans' revival of interest in the common life. I propose that it is dauntingly difficult, if not impossible, to articulate a satisfying version of a common life without a theory of the good life, an undertaking traditionally associated with authoritarianism and elitism. Rather than abandoning the enterprise, however, I propose to reopen the assumption that the association automatically rules out any …