Conceptualizing human dignity as a political concept

Existing concepts of dignity struggle when applied to political practice. Dignity is assumed to be something intrinsic, insufficiently conceptualized, or overextended. Different accounts highlight important dimensions of dignity yet often conflate ontological grounding (what dignity is) with realization (how dignity is realized in political practice). As a result, disputes about dignity’s meaning are frequently framed as disagreements about its essence when they concern instead how dignity is specified and operationalized in political practice. This article contributes a conceptual architecture that shows how dignity functions as a political concept, clarifying which uses are coherent. Separating conceptual levels, the article shows that different accounts are not necessarily incompatible but operate at different levels. This reframing allows to evaluate dignity claims more precisely and to diagnose when appeals to dignity mask disagreement rather than conceptual incoherence.