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Full-Text Articles in Political Theory

Book Review. Secession: The Morality Of Political Divorce From Fort Sumter To Lithuania And Quebec By Allen Buchanan, Mary Ellen O'Connell Aug 2016

Book Review. Secession: The Morality Of Political Divorce From Fort Sumter To Lithuania And Quebec By Allen Buchanan, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Mary Ellen O'Connell

No abstract provided.


Situating Political Obligation In Political Ontology: Ethical Marxism And The Embedded Self, Chris A. Chambers Jan 2016

Situating Political Obligation In Political Ontology: Ethical Marxism And The Embedded Self, Chris A. Chambers

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Though various obligations typically affect our behavior without being recognized, they have a substantial impact on how we operate as human beings. The relationships we have between, say, our parents when in their household obligate us to take out the trash at certain times and wash the dishes after dinner. The relationships we have between our closest friends often oblige us to hear them out when they have undergone a traumatic experience. Upon reflection, it may be easy to point out a number of the obligations which inform our social behavior. What is not so easy, however, is pointing out …


Rights, Individualism, Community: Aristotle And The Communitarian-Liberalism Debate, Jeffery Nicholas Jul 2015

Rights, Individualism, Community: Aristotle And The Communitarian-Liberalism Debate, Jeffery Nicholas

Jeffery Nicholas

I argue that Aristotle could not be a fore-runner to liberalism, because his view of humanity is that human beings are constituted by a community and achieve self-fulfillment only as so constituted. Thus, Aristotle endorses a unique position that defends the freedom and self-development of the individual within the parameters of a social order.


Responding To The Global Ecological Challenge: The Persuasive Power Of A Local Approach, Iris A. Burniece Feb 2014

Responding To The Global Ecological Challenge: The Persuasive Power Of A Local Approach, Iris A. Burniece

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Climate change threatens to impact our planet in ways that will have far-reaching effects on both human populations and the ecological foundations humanity depends on for its survival. The urgent task of reforming environmental policy has proven to be rather complex, which is in large part due to the abrasive relationship between the transboundary character of ecological problems and the inherent sovereignty of states. On the international level, the UN strategy has focused on multilateral treaties; although, it has failed to produce any real affect due to institutional weaknesses. States pursuing their own variants of environmental reform have—at least in …


The Structural Injustice Of Forced Migration And The Failings Of Normative Theory, David Ingram Oct 2013

The Structural Injustice Of Forced Migration And The Failings Of Normative Theory, David Ingram

David Ingram

I propose to criticize two strands of argument - contractarian and utilitarian – that liberals have put forth in defense of economic coercion, based on the notion of justifiable paternalism. To illustrate my argument, I appeal to the example of forced labor migration, driven by the exigencies of market forces. In particular, I argue that the forced migration of a special subset of unemployed workers lacking other means of subsistence (economic refugees) cannot be redeemed paternalistically as freedom or welfare enhancing in the long run. I further argue that contractarian and utilitarian approaches are normatively incapable of appreciating this fact …


The Structural Injustice Of Forced Migration And The Failings Of Normative Theory, David Ingram Jan 2012

The Structural Injustice Of Forced Migration And The Failings Of Normative Theory, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

I propose to criticize two strands of argument - contractarian and utilitarian – that liberals have put forth in defense of economic coercion, based on the notion of justifiable paternalism. To illustrate my argument, I appeal to the example of forced labor migration, driven by the exigencies of market forces. In particular, I argue that the forced migration of a special subset of unemployed workers lacking other means of subsistence (economic refugees) cannot be redeemed paternalistically as freedom or welfare enhancing in the long run. I further argue that contractarian and utilitarian approaches are normatively incapable of appreciating this fact …


Communitarianism And Republicanism, Richard Dagger Jan 2004

Communitarianism And Republicanism, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Communitarianism and republicanism are closely related schools of thought - so closely related that friend and foe alike sometimes conflate them. The relationship is evident in their Latin roots: communitarians are concerned with communitas, the common life of people who form a community, and republicans are devoted to the res publica, the good of the public. Of the two, however, only republicanism traces its lineage as well as its name to ancient Rome. Indeed, scholars often look beyond Rome to the philosophers and city-states of ancient Greece, particularly Aristotle and Sparta, for the origins of republicanism. For the …


Rights, Individualism, Community: Aristotle And The Communitarian-Liberalism Debate, Jeffery L. Nicholas Jan 2003

Rights, Individualism, Community: Aristotle And The Communitarian-Liberalism Debate, Jeffery L. Nicholas

Jeffery L Nicholas

I argue that Aristotle could not be a fore-runner to liberalism, because his view of humanity is that human beings are constituted by a community and achieve self-fulfillment only as so constituted. Thus, Aristotle endorses a unique position that defends the freedom and self-development of the individual within the parameters of a social order.


Rights Of Inequality: Rawlsian Justice, Equal Opportunity, And The Status Of The Family, Justin Schwartz Jan 2001

Rights Of Inequality: Rawlsian Justice, Equal Opportunity, And The Status Of The Family, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Is the family subject to principles of justice? In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls includes the (monogamous) family along with the market and the government as among the "basic institutions of society" to which principles of justice apply. Justice, he famously insists, is primary in politics as truth is in science: the only excuse for tolerating injustice is that no lesser injustice is possible. The point of the present paper is that Rawls doesn't actually mean this. When it comes to the family, and in particular its impact on fair equal opportunity (the first part of the the Difference …


Book Review. Secession: The Morality Of Political Divorce From Fort Sumter To Lithuania And Quebec By Allen Buchanan, Mary Ellen O'Connell Jan 1992

Book Review. Secession: The Morality Of Political Divorce From Fort Sumter To Lithuania And Quebec By Allen Buchanan, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.