The therapeutic state : justifying government at century's end
The therapeutic state : justifying government at century's end
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治疗状态：在世纪末证明政府的合理性
DOI：
10.5860/choice.36-0622
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发表时间：
1998
影响因子：
0.7
通讯作者：
J. L. Nolan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
J. L. Nolan
美国对于其政府的角色和作用一直存在着深深的矛盾心理。在关于政府恰当的范围和规模的激烈公众讨论之下，潜藏着有关国家的根本目的及其权力基础的根本性问题。美国不断变化且日益多样化的文化环境使得就政府存在的理由达成共识变得更加困难。在《治疗型国家》一书中，詹姆斯·诺兰向我们展示了这些未解决的困境在世纪末是如何交织在一起的。如今，面临公众信心持续下降的美国政府，已经采纳了一种道德理解的治疗准则来使其自身的存在合法化。通过广泛涉及教育、刑事司法、福利、政治言辞和民法等领域，诺兰令人信服地说明了政府如何越来越多地将治疗精神作为其计划和政策的正当理由，这一发展将深刻影响政府与公民之间的关系。诺兰的论述口吻毫无争议性，令人耳目一新。他描绘了文化与政治之间的辩证关系，并在鲜明的历史对比背景下，一个又一个地列举了美国政府运作过程中治疗意识出现的例子。
The United States has always been profoundly conflicted about the role and utility of its government. Simmering just beneath the surface of heated public discussions over the appropriate scope and size of government are foundational questions about the very purpose of the state, and the basis of its authority. America's changing and diversifying cultural climate makes common agreement about the government's raison d'etre all the more difficult. In The Therapeutic State, James Nolan shows us how these unresolved dilemmas have coalesced at century's end. Today the American state, faced with a steady decline in public confidence, has embraced a therapeutic code of moral understanding to legitimize its very existence. By ranging widely across education, criminal justice, welfare, political rhetoric, and civil law, Nolan convincingly illustrates how the state increasingly turns to the therapeutic ethos as a justification for its programs and policies, a development that will profoundly influence the relationship between government and citizenry. In a tone refreshingly free of polemic, Nolan charts the dialectic relationship between culture and politics and, against the backdrop of striking historical contrasts, gives example after example of the emergence of therapeutic sensibilities in the processes of the American state.