How’s this for public engagement – Philip Pettit‘s theory of republican freedom is a very real force in shaping Spanish government policy, it turns out; and not only that, he has been involved in auditing these policies for their success in achieving these theoretical objectives. For more on the background to this, see A Political Philosophy in Public Life: Civic Republicanism in Zapatero’s Spain, and for a critical consideration, there is this. Would be interesting to know how this is playing now, in the wake of how the finanical crisis is resonating in Spain.