Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Chapter 4 (Draft): John Locke And The Hobbesian Hypothesis: How A Very Similar Colonial Prejudice Found Its Way Into The Natural Rights Justification Of Private Property, Karl Widerquist, Grant Mccall

Karl Widerquist

This chapter is a preliminary draft of Chapter 4 of the book, "Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy." The role of this chapter is to show that what we call "the Hobbesian Hypothesis" is an essential premise in John Locke's justification of private property. The Hobbesian hypothesis, in this context, is the claim that everyone is better off in a society with private land and resource ownership (even if they own no land or resources) than they could reasonably except to be in a society in which these resources remained unowned and people lived as hunter-gatherers. This chapter does not …

Chapter 3 (Draft) The Hobbesian Hypothesis: How A Colonial Prejudice Became An Essential Premise In The Most Popular Justification Of Government, Karl Widerquist, Grant Mccall

Karl Widerquist

This chapter is a draft of Chapter Three of the book that Grant McCall and I are writing. The book is called, "Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy." This chapter shows now Hobbes introduce an empirical claim into his most influential justification of the state. We call this claim the Hobbesian hypothesis: everyone is better off under the authority of a sovereign government than everyone would be outside of that authority. The chapter argue that this hypothesis is a strong, counterfactual, empirical claim about people in small-scale stateless societies that has not been well-established by empirical evidence.

Myths About The State Of Nature And The Reality Of Stateless Societies, Karl Widerquist, Grant Mccall

Karl Widerquist

Conservatism, Stefan Andreasson

Stefan Andreasson

No abstract provided.

The Big Casino, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

This paper uses an analogy to illustrate two things: (1) the economy is and will always be a casino, and (2) in existing societies and most libertarian, liberal, and socialist visions of society individuals are effectively forced to participate in the casino economy. It argues justice requires that individuals must be free from forced participation in such an economy and that the best way to free people from forced participation is the provision of a Basic Income Guarantee.

To Boycott Or Not? A Moral Conundrum, Rebecca Gould

Rebecca Gould

No abstract provided.

Direct (Anti-)Democracy, Maxwell L. Stearns

Maxwell L. Stearns

Legal scholars, economists, and political scientists are divided on whether voter initiatives and legislative referendums tend to produce outcomes that are more (or less) majoritarian, efficient, or solicitous of minority concerns than traditional legislation. Scholars also embrace opposing views on which law-making mechanism better promotes citizen engagement, registers preference intensities, encourages compromise, and prevents outcomes masking cycling voter preferences. Despite these disagreements, commentators generally assume that the voting mechanism itself renders plebiscites more democratic than legislative lawmaking. This assumption is mistaken. Although it might seem unimaginable that a lawmaking process that directly engages voters possesses fundamentally antidemocratic features, this Article …

Beyond Anti-Semitism, Rebecca Gould

Rebecca Gould

Focusing on internal contradictions within the Israeli left, this essay considers the impact of the historical legacy of anti-Semitism on everyday thinking about Israel and the Palestinian territories. Contesting the view that to criticize Israel is to engage in anti-Semitic defamation, it offers an historical account of how Israel's actions in the West Bank have come to be immunized from conscientious criticism. It also documents how progressive media outlets in contemporary Israel have silenced or otherwise marginalized Israel's most active critics.

Why We Demand An Unconditional Basic Income: The Ecso Freedom Case, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

Philippe Van Parijs’s (1995) Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism makes a very thorough and challenging philosophical argument for basic income. But I believe that it has two important limitations that inhibit it from giving a compelling explanation why basic income supporters believe that support for the disadvantage must be not only universal but also unconditional and enough to meet an individual’s basic needs. This essay briefly discusses those limitations and then proposes an alternative argument for basic income that I believe relies on a more compelling concept of freedom, defined below as “Freedom as Effective …

How The Sufficiency Minimum Becomes A Social Maximum, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

This article argues that, under likely empirical conditions, sufficientarianism leads not to an easily achievable duty to maintain a social minimum but to the onerous duty of maintaining a social maximum at the sufficiency level. This happens because sufficientarians ask us to give no weight at all to small benefits for people above the sufficiency level if the alternative is to relieve the suffering of people below it. If we apply this judgment in a world where there are rare diseases and hard-to-prevent accidents that cause people to fall below the sufficiency threshold, all of our discretionary spending will have …

Opinion Polls And Presidential Campaign In Colombia, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

The polls, these surveys do not withstand any rigorous testing. And contrary to expand the formation of public opinion, impaired. To overcome this defect should propose means fewer surveys and more discussions. Presidential campaigns should seek democratic enlargement, and a less massive media exposure to foot the surveys. Simplify

Democracy In Dangerous Places: Colombia. Vote With Paramilitary Preferences, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

This paper discusses the problem of paramilitary violence in Colombia and its effects on democracy. The elections were part of the purpose of self defense and constituted a disguised form to retain its drug trafficking economy. The impacts on institutional technology have been negative: representative democracy, the electoral system and voting, they were not the same. With paramilitary violence changed the electoral map in areas contested by the traditional political parties. Voting with paramilitary preferences mean the biggest challenge is constitutional democracy in Colombia.

Antinomies Of Capitalism (Review Of Globalization Its Discontents Joseph Stiglitz, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

We present the central arguments of the critics on the limits and scope of globalization on the work

The Leviathan Of Thomas Hobbes, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

This interpretation of the Leviathan of Thomas Hobbes line of work includes a project from Concept of the Political by Carl Schmitt. It offers a reading from modern political theory as opposed to rational version of the book of Hobbes. The Leviathan from mythological nature preserves from the Biblical and Talmudic tradition, which opens an understanding of the modern State from the medieval stories. Hobbes is one of the first theorists that paves the way for liberalism, but disputed that his work reflects not strictly liberal thought, but the problems of political power during the Monarchies

The Tragedy Of Forced Displacement, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

o far in 2009, due to the intensification of armed conflict, approximately 15 thousand Colombians crossed some border areas of Colombia with Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela. The Lower Putumayo (Putumayo), area of application of Plan Colombia, was the region most affected by armed confrontation and thus it presented a greater number of Colombians uprooted. From this region generated the most significant exodus to Ecuador (about 7 million people).

Diagrams Of Argumentation, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

This article is aimed at viewing the evidence in the legal and political debate. A relatively little attention in the literature expert. Relying on the philosophy of science and a little less in legal theory, we note that the explanations under inductive legal and political knowledge, and the arguments about evidence and proof, connections are based on probabilistic and assumptions rebuttable and not on speculations embodied theoretical goal. The support base to represent the legal debate - now has strong political component of formal logic and empirical research.

Electoral System And Political Parties. Preliminary Notes To The Colombia Case, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

This brief survey of the origins of electoral system is intended to explain the nature center and get the changes of political system in Colombia. A historical evaluation is necessary. In a wider context the work of Josep Colomer are illustrative. Our goal is to synthesize and compare the evolution and changes in electoral systems, in order to project the electoral history in the Colombian political system. The election rules have not been the same all the time and votes depends on the evolution and transformations of democracies. In a story line that emerges from M. Duverger, shows that factions …

Recent Changes In The Armed Conflict In Colombia, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

Analyst in the strategy and operations of guerrillas and paramilitaries, have suggested that the Colombian conflict analysis should show the differences between clusters paramilitary. Not only because after the 80s, drug trafficking has played a decisive role, but because the geography of territories and control combinations have not been studied sufficiently. Geography of armed conflict should also provide tools to understand the impact of war on natural resources, for example. We sustain that while the drug economy has filtered the structure of semi-groups, promoting market competition and private security protection, drug trafficking does not explain absolutely all sources of violence …

Pierre Bordieu From Latin American, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

This brief paper is a tribute of the French thinker Pierre Bordieu. Plot some political economy issues and relate aspects of the remarkable influence thinker.

Paramilitary Language In The Colombian Armed Conflict, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

The war in Colombia presents, among other characteristics, a high content of oratorical and rhetoric; the different armed actors are disputed, besides territories, the power of the public opinion, with what each violent action is usually accompanied by a discursive or symbolic justification. The present rehearsal offers an analysis of the paramilitary speech, starting from the declarations and interviews to Carlos Castaño, main boss of the selfdefenses. The paramilitary rhetoric is studied here from the theory of the speech acts of Austin-Searle, the theory of the argument of Chaïm Perelman, and the recent works has more than enough Metaphors of …

Sulle Basi Motivazionali Delle Lotte Sociali. Honneth Versus Fraser, In "Iride", Xxiii, N. 60 (2010), Pp. 448-452., Marco Solinas

Marco Solinas

No abstract provided.

¿Dominación Racional O Racionalización De La Dominación? Algunas Notas En Torno A Marx Y Weber, Lucas Jolías

Lucas Jolías

No abstract provided.

A Dilemma For Libertarianism, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

Labyrinth Of Modernity, Interpretation Of The Old Regime And The Revolution Of Alexis De Tocqueville (Laberinto De La Modernidad. Interpretación Del Antiguo Régimen Y La Revolución De Alexis De Tocqueville) Spanish, Fernando Estrada, José Daniel Parra

Fernando Estrada

CIPE in this book presents an interpretation of the Old Regime and the Revolution of Alexis de Tocqueville.

Meditations On Machiavelli (Meditaciones En Maquiavelo) Spanish, Fernando Estrada, José Daniel Parra

Fernando Estrada

The presentation of Machiavelli in the field of studies of Finance, Government and International Relations is twofold. First, show that we can better understand the problems of our time in the footsteps comprehensive than classical authors have left us. A student can recognize progressive power that were taking concepts such as politics, power, status, conflict, political parties, institutions, representation and social movements, from writing original authors as Florentine thinker.

The Physical Basis Of Voluntary Trade, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

The article discusses the conditions under which can we say that people enter the economic system voluntarily. “The Need for an Exit Option” briefly explains the philosophical argument that voluntary interaction requires an exit option—a reasonable alternative to participation in the projects of others. “The Treatment of Effective Forced Labor in Economic and Political Theory” considers the treatment of effectively forced interaction in economic and political theory. “Human Need” discusses theories of human need to determine the capabilities a person requires to have an acceptable exit option. “Capability in Cash, Kind, or Raw Resources” considers what form access to that …

Libertarianism, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

This is an encyclopedia entry on libertarianism covering right-libertarianism, left-libertarianism, and libertarian socialism.

Who Exploits Who?, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

No abstract provided.

The Economic Possibilities Of Our Grandparents, A Retrospective On John Maynard Keynes's Economic Possibilities Of Our Grandchildren, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

John Rawls: Principles That Make Sense., Eric G. Roscoe

Eric G. Roscoe

John Rawls published A Theory of Justice in an attempt to find a balance between equality and liberty through the use of a social contract. For Rawls the theories of utilitarianism and intui-tionism do not fully answer the questions concerning justice in society. My study focuses on the two principles of justice, the liberty and difference principles, which are the center of Rawls' theory. These principles are achieved through a contract developed in what Rawls calls the original position. I have analyzed some of the major arguments against A Theory of Justice and concluded that they have merit when critiquing …