Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-18T14:42:18.200Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Risk and Self-Respect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2018

Alice Baderin  and
Lucy Barnes
Alice Baderin
Affiliation:
Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Lucy Barnes*
Affiliation:
School of Public Policy, University College London
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: l.barnes@ucl.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What is the nature of the experience of risk? Risk can impose distinctive burdens on individuals: making us anxious, impairing our relationships and limiting our ability to plan our lives. On the other hand, risky situations are sometimes exciting, liberating and even empowering. The article explores the idea that risk can result in benefits for the individuals who bear it. Specifically, we evaluate John Tomasi’s claim that the experience of economic risk is a precondition of individual self-respect. Philosophical claims about the social bases of self-respect such as Tomasi’s have not been subjected to sufficient empirical scrutiny. The article exemplifies an alternative approach, by integrating philosophical argument with the analysis of large-scale survey data. Whilst Tomasi’s claim has force in some contexts, evidence from the economic domain shows that risk tends to undermine rather than to support self-respect.

Keywords

riskself-respectempirical political philosophy
Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 1419 - 1437
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balint, Michael (1987) Thrills and Regressions. London: Karnac Book.Google Scholar
Baderin, Alice and Barnes, Lucy (2018) Replication Data for: Risk and Self-Respect, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AUX9W1, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:VDT6T0iB3/hS8GCQaY+bHQ==Google Scholar
Bird, Edward J (2001) Does The Welfare State Induce Risk-Taking. Journal of Public Economics 80, 357–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgard, Sarah A, Brand, Jennie E and House, James S (2009) Perceived Job Insecurity and Worker Health in the United States. Social Science and Medicine 69, 777–785.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, Gerald A (2016) Capitalism, Freedom and the Proletariat. Pp. 163–182 in The Liberty Reader, edited by David Miller. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Daly, Michael and Delaney, Liam (2013) The Scarring Effect of Unemployment throughout Adulthood on Psychological Distress at Age 50: Estimates Controlling for Early Adulthood Distress and Childhood Psychological Factors. Social Science and Medicine 80, 19–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dekker, Sidney WA and Schaufeli, Wilmar B (1995) The Effects of Job Insecurity on Psychological Health and Withdrawal: A Longitudinal Study. Australian Psychologist 30, 57–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diener, Ed, Suh, Eunkook M, Lucas, Richard E and Smith, Heidi M (1999) Subjective Well-Being: Three Decades of Progress. Psychological Bulletin 125, 276–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doppelt, Gerald (2009) The Place of Self-Respect in a Theory of Justice. Inquiry 52, 127–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrie, Jane Elizabeth, Shipley, Martin John, Marmot, Michael Gideon, Stansfeld, Stephen Alfred and Smith, George Davey (1998) An Uncertain Future: The Health Effects of Threats to Employment Security in White-Collar Men and Women. American Journal of Public Health 88, 1030–1036.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finkelstein, Claire (2003) Is Risk a Harm? University of Pennsylvania Law Review 151, 963–1001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finucane, Melissa L, Slovic, Paul, Mertz, CK, Flynn, James and Satterfield, Theresa A (2000) Gender, Race and Perceived Risk: The ‘White Male’ Effect. Health, Risk and Society 2, 159–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gecas, Viktor and Schwalbe, Michael L (1983) Beyond the Looking-Glass Self: Social Structure and Efficacy-Based Self-Esteem. Social Psychology Quarterly 46, 77–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giddens, Anthony (1991) Modernity, and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Gourevitch, Alex (2014) Welcome to the Dark Side: A Classical-Liberal Argument for Economic Democracy. Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 3–4, 290–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gowder, Paul (2014) Market Unfreedom. Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 3–4, 306–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Francis (2009) Subjective Employment Insecurity Around the World. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 2, 343–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacker, Jacob (2008) The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hacker, Jacob S, Rehm, Phillip and Schlesinger, Mark (2013) The Insecure American: Economic Experiences, Financial Worries, and Policy Attitudes. Perspectives on Politics 11, 23–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iversen, Torben and Soskice, David (2001) An Asset Theory of Social Policy Preferences. American Political Science Review 95, 875–893.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, Elisabeth and Newman, Katherine S (2008) Rising Angst? Change and Stability in Perceptions of Economic Insecurity. Pp. 74–101 in Laid Off, Laid Low: Political and Economic Consequences of Employment Insecurity, edited by Katherine S. Newman. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Joint Health Surveys Unit of NatCen Social Research and the Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL (University College London) (2011) Health Survey for England. Available (with registration) from the UK Data Service: https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=7260&type=Data%20catalogue. Accessed 11 April 2013.Google Scholar
Katz, Jack (1988) Seductions of Crime: Moral and Sensual Attractions in Doing Evil. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Langer, Ellen J (1975) The Illusion of Control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 32, 311–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupton, Deborah and Tulloch, John (2002) ‘Life Would Be Pretty Dull Without Risk’: Voluntary Risk-Taking and Its Pleasures. Health, Risk and Society 4, 113–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyng, Stephen (1990) Edgework: A Social Psychological Analysis of Voluntary Risk Taking. American Journal of Sociology 95, 851–886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massey, Stephen J (1983) Is Self-Respect a Moral or a Psychological Concept? Ethics 93, 246–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nolan, Jane P, Wichet, Ines C and Burchell, Brendan J (2000) Job Insecurity, Psychological Well-Being and Family Life. Pp. 181–209 in The Insecure Workforce, edited by Edmund Heery and John Salmon. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Oberdiek, John (2017) Imposing Risk: A Normative Framework. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
OECD (2013) OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-Being. Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264191655-en, accessed 14 June 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Neill, Martin (2012) Free (and Fair) Markets without Capitalism: Political Values, Principles of Justice, and Property-Owning Democracy. Pp. 75–100 in Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond, edited by Martin O’Neill and Thad Williamson. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, Stephen (2007) Risk, Harm, Interests and Rights. Pp. 190–209 in Risk: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by Tim Lewens. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pettit, Philip (2007) A Republican Right to Basic Income? Basic Income Studies 2, 1–8.Google Scholar
Rawls, John (1982) The Basic Liberties and their Priority. Pp. 3–87 in The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, edited by Sterling M. McMurrin. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John (1999) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John (2001) Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rehm, Phillip, Hacker, Jacob S and Schlesinger, Mark (2012) Insecure Alliances: Risk, Inequality, and Support for the Welfare State. American Political Science Review 106, 386–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schimmack, Ulrick and Diener, Ed (2003) Predictive Validity of Explicit and Implicit Self-Esteem for Subjective Well-being. Journal of Research in Personality 37, 100–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwander, Hanna and Häusermann, Silja (2013) Who Is In and Who Is Out? A Risk-Based Conceptualization of Insiders and Outsiders. Journal of European Social Policy 23, 248–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sennett, Richard (1998) The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Slovic, Paul (2000) The Perception of Risk. London: Earthscan Publications.Google Scholar
Sunstein, Cass R (2005) Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sverke, Magnus, Hellgren, Johnny and Näswall, Katharina (2002) No Security: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Job Insecurity and Its Consequences. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 7, 242–264.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tomasi, John (2012) Free Market Fairness. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tulloch, John and Lupton, Deborah (2003) Risk and Everyday Life. London: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
University of Essex, Institute for Social and Economic Research (2010) British Household Panel Survey: Waves 1–18, 1991–2009 [data collection], 7th edition. UK Data Service. SN: 5151. Available from http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-5151-1, accessed 25 October 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winkelmann, Liliana and Winkelmann, Rainer (1998) Why are the Unemployed So Unhappy? Evidence from Panel Data. Economica 65, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolff, Jonathan (2009) Disadvantage, Risk and the Social Determinants of Health. Public Health Ethics 2, 214–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolff, Jonathan and de-Shalit, Avner (2007) Disadvantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Baderin and Barnes Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AUX9W1
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Baderin and Barnes supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Baderin and Barnes supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 447.9 KB