- Environmental Political Theory, Political Theory, Green Political Theory, Political Philosophy, Liberalism, History of Political Thought, and 23 moreContemporary Political Theory, Modern Political Philosophy, International Political Theory, Normative Political Theory, Ethical veganism, Animal Rights, Plato and Aristotle, Politics, Ethics, Philosophy Of Climate Change, Climate Justice, Environmental Policy and Governance, Intergenerational justice, Environmental Justice, Environmental Governance, Climate Change, Climate change policy, Environmental Ethics, Justice, Environmental Politics, Climate ethics, Environmental Virtue Ethics, and Virtue Ethicsedit
- https://www.rossmittiga.comedit
Is authoritarian power ever legitimate? The contemporary political theory literature -- which largely conceptualizes legitimacy in terms of democracy or basic rights -- would seem to suggest not. I argue, however, that there exists... more
Is authoritarian power ever legitimate? The contemporary political theory literature -- which largely conceptualizes legitimacy in terms of democracy or basic rights -- would seem to suggest not. I argue, however, that there exists another, overlooked aspect of legitimacy, concerning a government's ability to ensure safety and security. While, under normal conditions, maintaining democracy and rights is typically compatible with guaranteeing safety, in emergency situations, conflicts between these two aspects of legitimacy can and often do arise. A salient example of this is the COVID-19 pandemic, during which severe limitations on free movement and association have become legitimate techniques of government. Climate change poses an even graver threat to public safety. Consequently, I argue, legitimacy may require a similarly authoritarian approach. While unsettling, this suggests the political importance of climate action. For if we wish to avoid legitimating authoritarian power, we must act to prevent crises from arising that can only be resolved by such means.
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We defend a scalar theory of the relationship between material scarcity and justice. As scarcity increases beyond a specified threshold, we argue that deontological egalitarian constraints should be gradually relaxed and consequentialist... more
We defend a scalar theory of the relationship between material scarcity and justice. As scarcity increases beyond a specified threshold, we argue that deontological egalitarian constraints should be gradually relaxed and consequentialist considerations should increasingly determine distributions. We construct this theory by taking a bottom-up approach that is guided by principles of medical triage. Armed with this theory, we consider the range of conditions under which justice (of any form) applies. We argue that there are compelling reasons for thinking that justice applies under a far broader range of conditions than is standardly supposed, including those that could sensibly be labelled as conditions of extreme rather than moderate scarcity.
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There is a long-standing debate over which constitution Aristotle regards as best in Politics. I attempt to clarify his view by reconstructing four principles he uses to assess constitutions, in both ideal and more ordinary circumstances:... more
There is a long-standing debate over which constitution Aristotle regards as best in Politics. I attempt to clarify his view by reconstructing four principles he uses to assess constitutions, in both ideal and more ordinary circumstances: (i) the supremacy-of-virtue principle, (ii) the more-virtuous-citizens-are-better-than-fewer principle, (iii) the equality principle, and (iv) the stability principle. I apply these principles to defend a rank-ordering of constitutions, which situates the ideal aristocracy of Books VII and VIII at the top, and tyranny, along with unmixed forms of democracy and oligarchy, at the bottom.
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Many feel a sense of aversion and tragedy about proposals for engineering the climate. Precautionary concerns only partly explain these feelings. For a fuller understanding, we need a thicker conception of the values and ends of political... more
Many feel a sense of aversion and tragedy about proposals for engineering the climate. Precautionary concerns only partly explain these feelings. For a fuller understanding, we need a thicker conception of the values and ends of political society than “neutralitarian” political theories offer. To this end, I examine how Buddhist and Greek notions of temperance, justice, and freedom bear on the question of geo-engineering. My intention is not to pronounce on whether geo-engineering is morally “right” or “wrong,” but to highlight reasons for thinking it unattractive in a broader sense, thereby strengthening the case for exhausting conventional emissions reductions options.
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Central to W.E.B. Du Bois’s political theory is a conception of ‘‘world’’ remarkably similar to that put forward, years later, by Martin Heidegger. This point is more methodological than historical: I claim that approaching Du Bois’s work... more
Central to W.E.B. Du Bois’s political theory is a conception of ‘‘world’’ remarkably similar to that put forward, years later, by Martin Heidegger. This point is more methodological than historical: I claim that approaching Du Bois’s work as a source, rather than as a product, of concepts that resonated with subsequent thinkers allows us to better appreciate the novelty and vision of his political theory. Exploring this resonance, I argue, helps to refine the notions of world and founding present in each theorist’s work. Yet, it is only by remaining attentive to their differences that we can understand how Du Bois and Heidegger could endorse such dramatically opposed political programs despite similar theoretical starting points.
Full-text available here: https://goo.gl/EJui2K
Full-text available here: https://goo.gl/EJui2K
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Recent scholarship has drawn attention to John Rawls’s concern with stability—a concern that, as Rawls himself notes, motivated Part III of A Theory of Justice and some of the more important changes of his political turn. For Rawls, the... more
Recent scholarship has drawn attention to John Rawls’s concern with stability—a concern that, as Rawls himself notes, motivated Part III of A Theory of Justice and some of the more important changes of his political turn. For Rawls, the possibility of achieving “stability for the right reasons” depends on citizens possessing sufficient moral motivation. I argue, however, that the moral psychology Rawls develops to show how such motivation would be cultivated and sustained does not cohere with his specific descriptions of “pluralist (partially comprehensive)” doctrines. Considering Rawls’s claims that “most” citizens—both in contemporary liberal democracies and in the well-ordered society—possess such doctrines, this incompatibility threatens to undermine his stability arguments. Despite the enormous importance of pluralist doctrines and the potential difficulties they pose for Rawls’s project, remarkably little attention has been paid to them. By critically examining these difficulties, the article begins to address this oversight.
**The final publication is available at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11158-016-9335-0 **
**The final publication is available at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11158-016-9335-0 **
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Action must be taken to combat climate change. Yet, how the costs of climate action should be allocated among states remains a question. One popular answer—the polluter-pays principle (PPP)— stipulates that those responsible for causing... more
Action must be taken to combat climate change. Yet, how the costs of climate action should be allocated among states remains a question. One popular answer—the polluter-pays principle (PPP)— stipulates that those responsible for causing the problem should pay to address it. While intuitively plausible, in recent years, the PPP has been subject to withering criticism. In this article, I develop a new version of the PPP. Unlike most accounts, which focus on historical production-based emissions, mine allocates climate burdens in proportion to each state's annual consumption-based emissions. This change in carbon accounting results in a fairer and more environmentally effective principle. Yet, the revised PPP is incomplete in one key respect: it cannot allocate burdens in the (distant) future, when climate change endures but consumption emissions are low. I therefore supplement it with an ability-to-pay principle. The end-result is a pluralist, bi-phasic account of climate justice that covers all the major climate burdens while remaining sensitive to states' differing contributions and capacities.
**Official version available online: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-97400-2_8
**Official version available online: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-97400-2_8
Taxing carbon-dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions has been proposed for decades as an effective strategy to reorient supply and demand economics toward environmental sustainability. Increasing carbon efficiency is one of the goals... more
Taxing carbon-dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions has been proposed for decades as an effective strategy to reorient supply and demand economics toward environmental sustainability. Increasing carbon efficiency is one of the goals of such an approach, which meshes well with ecological modernization theses. Yet, carbon taxation also fits into larger social and environmental justice frameworks, which aim to reconfigure power relations and address the disproportionate externalities to which marginalized groups are routinely exposed. Because of their malleabil-ity, carbon taxes are lauded as an essential means for responding to the climate crisis by a diverse array of actors and organizations, from the progressive Citizens Climate Lobby to the carbon giant ExxonMobil. As this suggests, the effectiveness of carbon taxation has everything to do with how it is formulated and implemented. Given the popularity of carbon taxation, as well as the need to gain clarity regarding what's entailed by the various forms it may take, we are soliciting abstract-length proposals from scholars in political science, philosophy, law, economics, and related fields, to participate in a fully virtual, international conference hosted by the Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity Initiative, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the Instituto de Ciencia Política, Pon-tificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Although any proposal related to carbon taxation will be considered, we especially welcome papers that explore any of the following themes: ◼ What should governments do with the revenue from a carbon tax? ◼ Should consumers or producers be taxed for carbon emissions? ◼ Carbon taxes and carbon leakage: the problem of "off-shoring" emissions ◼ Democratic and populist movements for and against carbon taxation ◼ Using carbon taxes as "sin taxes" to shame and stigmatize climatically destructive industries ◼ Ending fossil fuel subsidies as a form of carbon taxation ◼ The legal-institutional mechanisms of an effective carbon tax ◼ Carbon taxes and geo-engineering ◼ What a carbon tax can't do While all are invited and encouraged to submit, we strongly welcome proposals from scholars who belong to historically underrepresented groups, particularly those from racial and ethnic minority communities, poor and working-class families, and the LGBTQI community. Abstract submissions should be sent to both of the conference organizers, Yogi Hale Hendlin (hendlin{at}esphil.eur.nl) and Ross Mittiga (ross.mittiga{at}uc.cl), no later than September 30, 2020.
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This course traces the development of Western political thought, from the beginning of the modern era (in the late 15th century) to the beginning of the 20th century. Among other topics, we examine the nature and extent of state power,... more
This course traces the development of Western political thought, from the beginning of the modern era (in the late 15th century) to the beginning of the 20th century. Among other topics, we examine the nature and extent of state power, the ethical bases of individual rights (particularly, the social contract tradition), the emergence of utilitarian statecraft, the value of tradition, early feminist critique, Marxism and the question of revolution, and white supremacy. Two topics, however, warrant special attention throughout the course: the status of the environment and the emergence of modern imperialism. The overall intention of the course is to impart students with a more sophisticated, critical understanding of the political ideas and terms through which most of us think and act every day.
This course introduces some of the most influential texts and themes in Western political thought, from the ancient Greeks through Aquinas. We examine questions like: What is the good life? What is justice? What are the advantages of and... more
This course introduces some of the most influential texts and themes in Western political thought, from the ancient Greeks through Aquinas. We examine questions like: What is the good life? What is justice? What are the advantages of and problems with democracy? What is the best political regime? This course does not merely aim to impart historical information, but to prompt critical engagement with some of the central texts of the Western philosophical tradition. Students are therefore expected to explore and develop their own considered responses to the ideas and arguments encountered in the readings.