Thomistic Aristotelians on Practices, Governing and Institutions

Both Alasdair MacIntyre and Jacques Maritain have provided Thomistic Aristotelianism with ways of contesting legitimations of workers’ institutionalized domination. MacIntyre does so in terms of goodsGoods and rationalities internal to practices, which he defines in contradistinction to managerial institutions and their goods of money, powerPower and status. Maritain’s way of doing so is instead expressed in terms of autonomy and the rights of the working person, as a species of human rights. The chapter attempts to summarize and explain each of these strategies in their own terms, whilst also trying to establish their compatibility.