Structural Domination And Freedom As Non-domination

This thesis focuses on the central concept in neo-Roman republicanism,freedom as nondomination,and attempts to provide a much broader and more general concept of domination,which is structural domination that has been mostly put aside in agentcentered conceptualization of domination by Philip Pettit and his proponents.This thesis argues that agent-centered domination which is based on dominator's arbitrary will is insufficient and too narrow a concept to account for diversified dominations in contemporary society,particularly those subordinations which are latent in sociopolitical structure.More specifically,first,by emphasizing the structural characteristic of arbitrary power,domination as a hierarchy-based asymmetric power relationship,should be conceptualized together with the question of how it comes into being,rather than how a dominator exercise power on an arbitrary basis.Second,by maintaining the interacting feature between structure and agency when constructing and reproducing dominating structure,the sociopolitical conditions which enables domination to be exercised should be placed at the center of concern about the durability of domination,rather than any particular agent's arbitrary will.Third,by shedding light on freedom as non-domination,this thesis maintains that one more dimension should be put into the conception of freedom in republican theory which is liberation from structural domination,which can overcome the restriction of agent-centered conceptualization.