Joan Tronto’s Moral and Political Theory of Care
Joan Tronto’s Moral and Political Theory of Care

Summary/Abstract: In today's liberal democracies we face the deficit of care in various forms in specific areas of our social life. In the mainstream of social and political philosophical thinking, there are no concepts that would examine care as a moral, political, and social practice at the same time. Creating effective strategies and making changes that would be an adequate response to the deficit of care requires the identification and application of effective theoretical tools for the study, analysis, and understanding of this complex phenomenon. The article presents the current feminist ethics of care as a theory in the space of feminist thinking, that offers inspiring and useful conceptions in this context. The text focuses on the analysis of the moral and political theory of care, as elaborated by the American philosopher Joan Tronto (1993, 2013), one of the leading representatives of the current feminist ethics of care. Author explained how Tronto´s concept makes it possible to understand how the deficit of care conditions the crisis of care in their various forms, and how this deficit is linked to the deficit of democracy and the crisis of the trust in democratic institutions. The article examined how careful research of care and critical analysis of the power relations as a part of its context are a prerequisite for the democratization of care practice. It is concluded that the research practices enabling contextual and critical understanding of the particular care practice, could be a starting point for social change toward better care and more democratically caring society.

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