The Political Value of Time: Citizenship, Duration, and Democratic Justice

Waiting periods and deadlines are so ubiquitous that we often take them for granted. Yet they form a critical part of any democratic architecture. When a precise moment or amount of time is given political importance, we ought to understand why this is so. The Political Value of Time explores the idea of time within democratic theory and practice. Elizabeth F. Cohen demonstrates how political procedures use quantities of time to confer and deny citizenship rights. Using specific dates and deadlines, states carve boundaries around a citizenry. As time is assigned a form of political value it comes to be used to transact over rights. Cohen concludes with a normative analysis of the ways in which the devaluation of some people's political time constitutes a widely overlooked form of injustice. This book shows readers how and why they need to think about time if they want to understand politics.

Author: Elizabeth F. Cohen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 03/01/2018
Pages: 188
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.62lbs
Size: 9.01h x 6.15w x 0.49d
ISBN: 9781108412254

About the Author
Cohen, Elizabeth F.: - Elizabeth F. Cohen is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, New York. She is the author of Semi-Citizenship in Democratic Politics (Cambridge, 2009), and other scholarship has featured in Citizenship Studies, Perspectives on Politics and Ethics and International Affairs. She has also published op-eds in newspapers including the Washington Post and Politico.