Essentially contested concepts: Adjusting rhetoric to fit the situation

Trigger alert: After the summary, this post gets wonky. 

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Summary

Thanks to PD pointing it out, I have recently become aware of the fact that I don't fully understand the concept of the ECC (essentially contested concept) as WB Gallie described in in 1956. Gallie laid out 7 criteria for a disagreement to qualify as an ECC. Some of the criteria I was aware, but some of the 7 I just glossed over and basically ignored. That bothers me. To assuage my cognitive dissonance, I need to adjust my rhetoric.

Long story short: Instead of calling political disagreements that are very likely not resolvable except by reasonable compromise or some form of coercion or force ECCs, I will instead call such disagreements contested concepts (CCs). That label includes ECCs, possible ECCs and things that are clearly not ECCs. 

Or, would the label democratically contested concept (DCC), be better to point out the compromise vs non-compromise ways of dealing with a political disagreement? Since authoritarians do not compromise unless forced to by circumstances, the scope of what can be meaningfully contested by the public, special interests and political opposition is low to none. In other words, democrats contest and compromise, but authoritarians rule as they wish whether special interests, political opposition or most of the public likes it or not.

The point I wanted to make by using the ECC label was to (i) highlight the two options to deal with political non-resolvability, i.e., generally democratic compromise and generally authoritarian non-compromise, and (ii) make clear the personal cognitive or social subjectivity that most intractable political disagreements seem to be heavily grounded in. 

Q: About what % of the American public is sympathetic to openly supportive of some form authoritarian rule for the US?

A: Approximately 25-30% of the American public appears to be sympathetic to or openly supportive of some form of authoritarian rule for the United States. .... 

Hm, that seems to me to be too low. It probably excludes another ~15-20% of Americans who sincerely believe they are pro-democracy but support various forms of authoritarianism in government and law enforcement, e.g., Trump and the Republican Party.

Qs: What is the best label? Is this summary wonky?

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The wonky part

I asked Perplexity this question about ECCs:

Q: About what % of common political issues are essentially contested concepts and what clearly % fall outside of the ECC concept and what % are unclear as to their status as an ECC?

A: A rough estimate might suggest that around 40-50% of common political issues involve ECCs to some degree. [40-60% makes more sense in view of the 20-30% estimates given below] 

Issues Clearly Outside ECCs 

Some political issues are more factual or procedural in nature and fall outside the realm of ECCs. These might include: Specific legal procedures, quantitative economic data, demographic statistics and certain administrative processes. Approximately 20-30% of political issues might fall into this category. 

Unclear Status

There's a significant grey area where it's not immediately clear whether an issue qualifies as an ECC. This category might include: Emerging political concepts that haven't been fully debated, issues that combine both contested and uncontested elements, and topics that are contextually dependent. Roughly 20-30% of political issues might fall into this unclear category.

Perplexity describes the 7 criteria:

Gallie proposed several criteria to identify essentially contested concepts:
1. They must be evaluative, delivering value judgments.
2. They must have an internally complex character.
3. The evaluation must be attributed to the concept as a whole.
4. The concept's elements must be variously describable and open to different interpretations.
5. Users allocate different weights or importance to the concept's elements [and they are aware of this difference in their analyses -- hence my point in constantly harping on getting to stasis in disagreements].
6. The concept must be derived from an exemplar or tradition that unifies competing interpretations.
7. The contestation must be "genuine" and sustained by respectable arguments.

Criteria 1, 4 and 5 make sense to me. That is how I generally viewed ECCs. But criteria 2, 3, 6 and 7 are incomprehensible. 1 and 7 strike me as circular, e.g., 1 is subjective and 7 is incoherent in view of 1 -- a "genuine" disagreement and a "respectable argument" are both value judgments. As for 6, I do not know what exemplar or tradition that unifies competing interpretations means analytically or logically, but some examples are asserted to include, democracy (ancient Athens), art (Renaissance period), social justice (John Rawls' Theory of Justice), religion (the life and teachings of Jesus Christ) and the rule of law (the Magna Carta).

Political concepts that may be mistakenly considered ECCs but may not fully meet the criteria: Sovereignty, citizenship, separation of powers, federalism and dictatorship. 

Q: Please list 7-10 common contested concepts that are not formally ECCs.

A: 1. Intelligence, 2. happiness, 3. success, 4. love, 5. health, 6. morality, 7. culture, 8. religion, 9. education, and 10. progress.

These concepts are often debated and interpreted differently by various individuals and groups, but they may not fully satisfy all of Gallie's criteria for ECCs. The distinction between contested concepts and ECCs can be subtle and depends on careful analysis of how the concept is used and debated in practice. (emphasis added)

OK, I give up. I clearly do not understand the concept of an ECC. Nor do I understand why it is important and useful to carefully distinguish an ECC from a CC, DCC, or whatever other label(s) makes sense. I am not even sure that Perplexity understands it.