Working Papers

Abstract: While there are many disputes as to the meaning of the rule of law and as to the ultimate grounds of its value, it is generally accepted that the municipal rule of law is a good thing. Should we similarly regard the international rule of law as a good thing? This paper argues that the international rule of law is best defended on the the unlikely grounds of personalism, republicanism, and legal positivism.

Abstract: An important debate has arisen within the republican literature regarding how contemporary economies might be structured so as to enhance rather than detract from freedom. Many authors have expressed concern that modern employment relations impose significant domination on workers, and indeed a few have argued that the wage-labor system does so necessarily. The structure of work is rapidly changing, however, and there are some indications that the traditional wage-labor system might be giving way to a new ‘platform economy’ in which market participants coordinate with one another directly through decentralized spot contracts in a digital platform. This paper will argue that while the rise of the platform economy has the potential to ease concerns about workplace domination, it introduces significant new concerns about the uncontrolled power to constitute digital marketplaces. Republicans are better positioned to articulate and address these concerns than are rival political doctrines such as mainstream liberalism.

Abstract: Different authors mean different things by ‘cultural domination’. This paper considers a variety of ways we might think about cultural domination in the light of contemporary republican theory. It argues that people can be dominated in their forms of cultural expression, and that culture can be an important instrument in facilitating the domination of some people by others. However, it argues against expanding the conception of domination to include cases where impersonal cultural formations systemically disadvantage the members of certain groups.

Abstract: Adam Smith’s theory of economic value figures among the more widely debated of his contributions to the history of economic thought. On the traditional interpretation, Smith inherits from his predecessors a subjective value theory that anticipates the modern marginal utility account; unfortunately, he abandons it in favor of a misguided cost of production theory, and thereby delays the development of economics for nearly a century. This paper argues that Smith needs a distinct account of natural prices to serve as the normative benchmark for evaluating market prices, and that he introduces a cost of production theory of the former precisely because it is especially useful in attacking monopolies and the colonial system.