Debates over the privatization of formerly public industries and service are common in contempora... more Debates over the privatization of formerly public industries and service are common in contemporary politics. The overall goal of this paper is to suggest a normative framework within which deliberations over public ownership might take place. I draw this framework from Plato’s Republic, which I claim justifies public ownership as a means to ensuring that citizens labour as craftsmen rather than moneymakers; according to Plato’s social ontology, only craftsmen can constitute a genuine society and hence enjoy access to the full array of goods for the sake of which society comes into existence. This justificatory structure implies that public ownership is only a means for ensuring the appropriate teleology of labour; if there turn out to be better means, so be it. But what does turn out to be indispensable on this view, as G. A. Cohen understood, is an ethos of justice, especially among those in charge of regulating social institutions.
This paper suggests we conceive of socialism as a normative ideal that is multiply realizable at ... more This paper suggests we conceive of socialism as a normative ideal that is multiply realizable at the institutional level as opposed to being tied to specific policies like state ownership and restriction of markets. To highlight the revisionary nature of this conception, I suggest we call it neo-socialism. I begin with the most well known neo-socialist theory, G. A. Cohen's Why Not Socialism? On Cohen's view the debate between socialists and left-liberals concerns whether " express reciprocity " , whereby citizens produce and exchange with each other's needs directly in mind, is a necessary feature of an ideal society. Having shown that Cohen's own justification for the socialist position fails, I argue for it by means of an immanent critique of left-liberalism. Drawing on Margaret Gilbert's argument that joint action entails special rights and responsibilities, I rework Cohen's camping trip example to produce a prima facie case for thinking that citizens have an obligation to produce and exchange with each other's needs in mind. I then refine the argument, concluding that participants in large-scale economic cooperation must treat express reciprocity as the default mode of deliberation, and that this allows us to explain, justify and revise the traditional socialist policy platform.
Debates over the privatization of formerly public industries and service are common in contempora... more Debates over the privatization of formerly public industries and service are common in contemporary politics. The overall goal of this paper is to suggest a normative framework within which deliberations over public ownership might take place. I draw this framework from Plato’s Republic, which I claim justifies public ownership as a means to ensuring that citizens labour as craftsmen rather than moneymakers; according to Plato’s social ontology, only craftsmen can constitute a genuine society and hence enjoy access to the full array of goods for the sake of which society comes into existence. This justificatory structure implies that public ownership is only a means for ensuring the appropriate teleology of labour; if there turn out to be better means, so be it. But what does turn out to be indispensable on this view, as G. A. Cohen understood, is an ethos of justice, especially among those in charge of regulating social institutions.
This paper suggests we conceive of socialism as a normative ideal that is multiply realizable at ... more This paper suggests we conceive of socialism as a normative ideal that is multiply realizable at the institutional level as opposed to being tied to specific policies like state ownership and restriction of markets. To highlight the revisionary nature of this conception, I suggest we call it neo-socialism. I begin with the most well known neo-socialist theory, G. A. Cohen's Why Not Socialism? On Cohen's view the debate between socialists and left-liberals concerns whether " express reciprocity " , whereby citizens produce and exchange with each other's needs directly in mind, is a necessary feature of an ideal society. Having shown that Cohen's own justification for the socialist position fails, I argue for it by means of an immanent critique of left-liberalism. Drawing on Margaret Gilbert's argument that joint action entails special rights and responsibilities, I rework Cohen's camping trip example to produce a prima facie case for thinking that citizens have an obligation to produce and exchange with each other's needs in mind. I then refine the argument, concluding that participants in large-scale economic cooperation must treat express reciprocity as the default mode of deliberation, and that this allows us to explain, justify and revise the traditional socialist policy platform.
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