Conceptual debates about proportionality and its moral and political force need to be placed in historical and institutional context. Conceptual, moral, political, and practical questions about proportionality are inextricably linked. This insight should lead us away from the dominant conception of proportionality as a moral precept and toward a political conception of proportionality that is inevitably shaped by prevailing conceptions of what proportionality is for and, in modern democracies, is grounded in democratic practices and the institutional structures of democratic states. This insight has important implications for the prevailing disciplinary division of labor, calling into question the tendency to separate conceptual and philosophical from social theories of punishment. It is important to try to understand the conditions under which stable constraints on the state’s power to punish, and accountability mechanisms adequate to guaranteeing the fittingness of punishment by reference to democratically endorsed standards—which seem to be the key animating concerns of contemporary appeals to proportionality—are most likely to be realized, and conversely where they are likely to be most under threat. This is both an important issue in itself, and a case study in the interaction between concept and context.

中文翻译：

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透视比例：哲学、历史和制度

关于相称性及其道德和政治力量的概念辩论需要置于历史和制度背景下。关于相称性的概念、道德、政治和实践问题密不可分。这种洞察力应该使我们摆脱作为道德准则的主流比例概念，而走向比例政治概念，这种概念不可避免地受到比例原则的流行概念的影响，并且在现代民主国家中，它以民主实践和制度结构为基础的民主国家。这种见解对流行的学科分工具有重要意义，让人质疑将惩罚的概念和哲学与社会理论分开的趋势。重要的是要尝试理解在何种条件下对国家惩罚权力的稳定约束，以及通过参考民主认可的标准来保证惩罚的适当性的问责机制——这似乎是当代诉诸相称性的主要关注点——最有可能实现，反之，它们最有可能受到威胁。这本身既是一个重要问题，也是概念与语境相互作用的案例研究。反之，他们可能最容易受到威胁。这本身既是一个重要问题，也是概念与语境相互作用的案例研究。反之，他们可能最容易受到威胁。这本身既是一个重要问题，也是概念与语境相互作用的案例研究。