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ather than a resource or property of persons and is connected to the
abilities of agents to bring about significant affects, either by furthering
their own interests or affecting the interests of others, positively
or negatively. [17] I have argued elsewhere that these abilities depend
upon the extent to which individuals are able to determine and satisfy
their vital and agency needs. [18] The ability to determine and satisfy my
needs depends upon the prevailing political and economic institutions
and representatives and whether or not I find myself in situations of
domination. A situation of domination arises when the existing power
relations do not give me (or my group) the power to determine my (or
our) needs. This can take various forms. Existing power relations can:
a) mislead me in my attempts to identify my needs, e.g., patriarchy; b)
ensure that I do not have the means or voice to express my needs, e.g.,
apartheid South Africa; c) disable meaningful evaluation of needs, e.g.
unregulated liberal capitalism. [19]
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Groups
First, though, what is a group? A contemporary definition provides
a good starting point: a group is ‘a collective of individuals who are
connected with each other in ways that are relevant to them, and/or
others, and thereby affect their behaviour and/or that of others’. [20]
The connection that binds the members of a group may be as a result
of their gender, class, form of employment, lack of employment, material
condition, political cause, and so on. A group is therefore distinct
from other kinds of associations since it is characterised by a durable
connection amongst the members and one that is of significance or
is meaningful. So a gathering of a collection of friends on a Sunday
morning in the park is not a group in this sense, unless of course they
happen to be gathering as members of, say, the Westdene Sunday
17
Geuss, Philosophy and Real Politics (Princeton UP 2008), p. 27; Lukes, Power: A Radical
View, 2 nd Ed. (Palgrave 2005), pp. 63, 65, 109.
18
The Political Philosophy of Needs (CUP 2003).
19
Cf. ‘domination’ in Pettit, Republicanism and Lovett, A General Theory of Domination
and Justice (CUP 2010).
20
Vieira and Runciman, Representation (Polity 2008), p. 86.