A Conversation with Carole Pateman: Reflections on Democratic Participation, The Sexual Contract, and Power Structures

Abstract

Steve On: Professor Pateman, we were very enthusiastic to secure an interview with you and to discuss your latest research. Many thanks for agreeing to this interview. To begin, Contract and Domination, which you co-authored with Charles Mills, came out in 2007. Perhaps, not everyone has had a chance to read this book, but it is safe to assume that most political theorists, and surely those working in contemporary political theory, have heard of and read The Sexual Contract (hereafter TSC), which had appeared in 1988. TSC has received the Lippincott Award for ‘a work considered still significant 15 years since the original publication’. Andrew Vincent (2004, 128) in his book The Nature of Political Theory describes TSC as a ‘seminal work’, contributing to our understanding of patriarchy and how social contract underwrites it.