<\/p>
Mediating institutions \u2013 those formations and associations that stand between the individual and the state \u2013 are essential for freedom, we\u2019re often told. I agree with the aim, but have questions about whether the notion of mediating institutions gets at it. <\/p>\n
The main objection is that the theory appears to leave the two poles \u2013 state and individual \u2013 untouched. State remains state, individual remains individual, but now there\u2019s a demilitarized zone between. That\u2019s better than no demilitarized zone, but we\u2019d like something more transforming. <\/p>\n
It thus assumes a part-whole contrast that is unworkable. <\/p>\n
Parts and wholes don\u2019t exist in themselves, but only in perichoretic union with each other. There are no wholes without coordinated parts, no parts that don\u2019t unite in wholes. The theory of mediating institutions reifies parts and wholes as separate entities; the empty space between them is filled with mediating institutions. But there is no empty space between them. <\/p>\n
Milbank puts it this way: \u201cmultiple associations [do not] \u2018mediate\u2019 between part and whole, but become themselves a new sort of context, a never \u2018completed\u2019 and complexly ramifying \u2018network,\u2019 involving \u2018confused,\u2019 overlapping jurisdictions, which disperses and dissolves political sovereignty.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mediating institutions \u2013 those formations and associations that stand between the individual and the state \u2013 are essential for freedom, we\u2019re often told. I agree with the aim, but have questions about whether the notion of mediating institutions gets at it. The main objection is that the theory appears to leave the two poles \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"yoast_head":"\n