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Full-Text Articles in Political Theory
'Democratic Taxation' And Quantifiable Action: Scientizing Dilemmas, Mindy Peden
'Democratic Taxation' And Quantifiable Action: Scientizing Dilemmas, Mindy Peden
Mindy Peden
Against the easy presupposition that such a thing as 'democratic taxation' not only exists but is also practicable, this paper points to the dilemma posed by what I call 'quantifiable action.' The essay develops an approach to theorizing the place of taxation in political theory that counters trends in fiscal sociology, political science, and liberal theory by highlighting how taxation presumably violates the requirement that self-government includes an absence of instrumental rationality on the part of democratic citizens. For this reason, taxation presents a persistent problem for any concept of self-government, and may usefully be regarded as a technology of …
The Entrepreneurial Assumption: Thinking About Taxes In Contemporary Political Theory, Mindy Peden
The Entrepreneurial Assumption: Thinking About Taxes In Contemporary Political Theory, Mindy Peden
Mindy Peden
This article argues that contemporary political theory often contains an obscured supposition that I call the entrepreneurial assumption. This assumption can be seen most clearly when political theorists who do not have economic expertise per se theorize the relationship between their political thought and taxation. In order to explicate the entrepreneurial assumption, the article engages in close readings of John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Ronald Dworkin. By elaborating on each of these authors' views, the importance of preserving “talent” through a system of taxation, the centrality of the entrepreneurial assumption can be seen more clearly.
Lots Of Luck: Contextualizing Sortition In Approaches To Chance, Mindy Peden
Lots Of Luck: Contextualizing Sortition In Approaches To Chance, Mindy Peden
Mindy Peden
Explores the ways in which luck and chance have been understood by political theorists. Contemporary political thinkers understand luck to describe those situations in which the individual subject has no control. Chance, however, has been understood in a variety of ways over time, beginning with Aristotle suggesting that chance is the “coincidental intersection of two separate causes.” Enlightenment thinkers argue, however, from a more deterministic perspective suggesting that chance is an epistemological category resulting from a deficit of human knowledge. In other words, the world is deterministic and certain even if not predictable by humans. That the world is a …