Plato and the Police: Dogs,Guardians, and Why Accountability is the Wrong Answer |
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| Authors: | Samantha Deane Amy Shuffelton |
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| Institution: | Loyola University Chicago |
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| Abstract: | Attention to significant commonalities between the position of teachers and police officers, we suggest, illuminates problematic aspects of their position within a democracy. Demographically, both the teaching force and the police force are disproportionately white, yet the commonalities extend beyond race. We suspect too little attention has been paid to other social categorizations, namely social class and gender. Toward this end, we explore the significant commonalities between the position of teachers and police officers and suggest that aspects of their position within a democracy make accountability a problematic tactic for addressing systematic failures. In this article we turn to Plato's discussion of the guardians for his ideal Republic because Plato squarely faces a problem that still dogs us: How are those persons given the right to uphold order to be prevented from turning on the polis they are meant to protect? The answer we offer rests on a theorization of a middle position and on a democratically situated ethical response to the other. |
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