A Classical Liberal Blog on Political Science, Economics, Philosophy, Law, and More
At e3ne.org, I have posted some reflections on my last discussion with the Ethics & Economics Challenge students, on the topic of private property rights. The work of Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson on how property rights support high levels of development plays a prominent role. Here's a scatter plot from their famous 2001 paper: Economies … Continue reading Property Rights: Necessary but Not Sufficient for Prosperity
At the Daily Beast, Keli Goff has a piece on "Why Blacks Aren't Libertarians." In fact, however, she may be a libertarian; at least, nothing in this piece shows why she cannot be. However, she definitely rejects a kind of dogmatic, absolutist libertarianism that she has encountered - and reasonably so, in my view. Here … Continue reading How Dogmatic Libertarians Drive People Away
Matt Zwolinski of Bleeding Heart Libertarians has written an excellent series of posts on the libertarian justification of property rights. Here's the latest. The first and most important thing to note about both Locke and Nozick’s arguments is that, unlike utilitarian arguments, they are individualistic rather than collectivistic in nature. For the utilitarian, all that … Continue reading Matt Zwolinski on Property Rights
Over at Bleeding Heart Libertarians, there have been some interesting posts recently on moralized and non-moralized conceptions of freedom. Jason Brennan says defining liberty to mean only negative liberty is "linguistic revisionism" without philosophic import. He then makes the case that bleeding-heart libertarianism (or Rawlsianism or various other non-traditionally-libertarian conceptions of property rights) does not … Continue reading Freedom as a Moral Concept (Update)
Here are the essay questions from the final exam I gave in "Introduction to Political Philosophy" last semester. How would you answer these questions? 3.1 Rights to Property Answer one of these questions. 1. What is John Rawls’ “difference principle,” and how does he defend it? What are its implications for the welfare state? Is … Continue reading My Introduction to Political Philosophy Final Exam
George Will has a good column today on civil asset forfeiture abuse. He highlights an ongoing case in Tewksbury, Mass., where the DOJ and local police department are colluding to seize a motel from the owners because some drug dealers have stayed there in the past. The government is not claiming that the owners knew … Continue reading Will on Forfeiture Abuse
Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi have a thought-provoking piece entitled, "A Bleeding Heart History of Libertarianism," in the latest Cato Unbound. They criticize postwar libertarians (specifically mentioning Mises, Rand, and Rothbard) for seeing property rights as absolute and, in their view, regarding the welfare of the working poor as irrelevant to moral justifications for capitalism: … Continue reading “Neoclassical Liberalism,” Property Rights, and Capitalism
Another bizarre case of town government versus the property owner. DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- DeKalb County is suing a local farmer for growing too many vegetables, but he said he will fight the charges in the ongoing battle neighbors call “Cabbagegate.” Fig trees, broccoli and cabbages are among the many greens that line the soil … Continue reading County Sues Farmer Over Too Many Crops
The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report has been released. You can read a summary in the Washington Post or go directly to download the report and the fascinating data tables here. As one might expect, the US has slipped from first to fourth (of 139 nations) over the past several years. Some of the data … Continue reading Business versus the State: the World Economic Forum
A Town of Tonawanda building inspector wants to destroy my native plant garden through misapplication of town weed laws. But my garden is legal, and I can prove it...
Ron Paul has stepped into the continuing saga of the “ground zero mosque” with what seems to me to be a reasonable statement, albeit one that will not earn him too many friends on the Right. Congressman Paul reduces things to their essentials: The debate should have provided the conservative defenders of property rights with a … Continue reading Ron Paul v. the “Sunshine Patriots”
I like James Taranto's take on Rand Paul's view of the 1964 Civil Rights Act: Far from being evasive, Paul has shown himself to be both candid and principled to a fault. We do mean to a fault. In this matter, Paul seems to us to be overly ideological and insufficiently mindful of the contingencies … Continue reading Taranto on Paul on Civil Rights
This post is simply meant to draw readers' attention to the interesting conversation going on in the comment thread on the "Property and Serfdom" post below. Kyle Baxter asks: If the original distribution is unjust (e.g. it depended on the violation of rights), but at some point just rules for trade were implemented (ones based … Continue reading Tenable Property Rights
The distinguishing characteristic of classical liberalism from other liberalisms is its view of property rights. On the classical liberal account, a distribution of property is just if it is a consequence of just transfer, where transfer is generally just if and only if voluntary or appropriately compensatory for wrongs. As Nozick noted, this unpatterned, "side … Continue reading Property and Serfdom
To be honest, I'd prefer passage of open carry laws in states that do not allow it or require a permit to open carry. I feel safer knowing who is packing and who is not. But here is an AP story on Arizona's effort to expand government protection of the right to bear arms: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_re_us/us_xgr_concealed_weapons_arizona. According to … Continue reading Arizona to Allow Concealed Weapons Without Permit
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