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Can Politics Practice Compassion?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Elisabeth Porter
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Abstract

On realist terms, politics is about power, security, and order, and the question of whether politics can practice compassion is irrelevant. The author argues that a politics of compassion is possible and necessary in order to address human security needs. She extend debates on care ethics to develop a politics of compassion, using the example of asylum seekers to demonstrate that politics can practice compassion with (1) attentiveness to the needs of vulnerable people who are suffering, (2) an active listening to the voices of the vulnerable, and (3) open, compassionate, and appropriate responses to particular needs.

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Type
Research Article
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Hypatia , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , Fall 2006, pp. 97 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by Hypatia, Inc.

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