Summary 1 of 41

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Summary 1 of 41 RANDY E. BARNETT, "THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LYSANDER SPOONDER" A DISCUSSION HELD IN JANUARY, 2016. Online: <http://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/lm-spooner Ebooks: <http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2722>. The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (Boston: Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) Bela Marsh, 1860) Summary In this month’s Liberty Matters online discussion Randy Barnett, the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at the Georgetown University Law Center, explores the political thought and constitutional theories of the 19th century American individualist, anarchist, and abolitionist Lysander Spooner (1808-1887). He concludes that “Spooner’s approach to constitutional interpretation, construction, and legitimacy is as fresh today as it was in 1845. Indeed, it is more sophisticated and persuasive than the theorizing of most contemporary legal academics.” He is joined in the discussion by Roderick T. Long, professor of philosophy at Auburn University, Aeon J. Skoble, professor of philosophy at Bridgewater State University, and Matt Zwolinski, associate professor of philosophy at the University of San Diego. 1 of 41 About Liberty Matters and the Online Library of Liberty “Liberty Matters” is a project of Liberty Fund, Inc. which is part of the Online Library of Liberty website. Every two months we ask a leading scholar to present an argument on a particular topic “pertaining to liberty” in a “Lead Essay” and to develop this argument at some length. The “Lead Essay” is posted in the first week of the month. Three or four other scholars will respond to this essay in slightly shorter “Response Essays” during the second week of the month. Once all these ideas and arguments are on the table an open discussion between the various parties takes place over the course of the following weeks. At the end of the month the online discussion is closed. We plan to have discussions about some of the most important online resources which can be found of the Online Library of Liberty website. We will link to these resources wherever possible from the essays and responses of our discussants so our reader can find out more about the topic under discussion. The complete collection of Liberty Matters can be found here <http://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/liberty-matters>. EBook versions of these discussions in PDF, ePub, and Kindle formats can be found at <http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2516>. Copyright & Fair Use Statement "Liberty Matters" is the copyright of Liberty Fund, Inc. This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. These essays and responses may be quoted and otherwise used under "fair use" provisions for educational and academic purposes. To reprint these essays in course booklets requires the prior permission of Liberty Fund, Inc. Please contact the OLL Editor if you have any questions. About the Online Library of Liberty and Liberty Fund The Online Library of Liberty is a project of Liberty Fund, Inc., a private educational foundation established in 1960 to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. The OLL website has a large collection of books and study guides about individual liberty, limited constitutional government, the free market, and peace. Liberty Fund: <www.libertyfund.org>. OLL: <oll.libertyfund.org>. The Debate Lead Essay: Randy E. Barnett, "The Significance of Lysander Spooner" [Posted: Jan.4, 2016] Responses and Critiques 1. Roderick T. Long, "Spooner Defended" [Posted: Jan. 6, 2016] 2. Aeon J. Skoble, "The Spooner Zone: Randy Barnett on Spooner, Natural Rights, and Constitutionalism" [Posted: Jan. 7, 2016] 3. Matt Zwolinski, "On Constitutions, Coercion, and Coordination" [Posted: Jan. 8, 2016] The Conversation 1. Randy E. Barnett, "The Gap" [Posted: Jan. 11, 2016] 2. Matt Zwolinski, "On Clear Cases of Injustice" [Posted: Jan. 13, 2016] 3. Aeon Skoble, "Thesis and Nomos" [Posted: Jan. 13, 2016] 4. Roderick T. Long, "Realism and Reference" [Posted: Jan. 13, 2016] 5. Roderick T. Long, "Legitimacy and Monopoly" [Posted: Jan. 14, 2016] 6. Matt Zwolinski, "Consent, Legitimacy, and Risk" [Posted: Jan. 15, 2016] 7. Roderick T. Long, "No Laws But Just Laws?" [Posted: Jan. 26, 2016] 8. Roderick T. Long, "No Law But the Natural Law?" [Posted: Jan. 26, 2016] 9. Aeon Skoble, "Fake Law or Bad Law?" [Posted: Jan. 26, 2016] 10. Randy E. Barnett, "Procedural Justice and Constitutional Legitimacy" [Posted: Jan. 27, 2016] 11. Roderick T. Long, "Bad Laws and Good Rhetoric" [Posted: Jan. 29, 2016] 12. Roderick T. Long, "Private Judgment and Public Justification" [Posted: Jan. 29, 2016] 13. Roderick T. Long, "More on Private Judgment and Public Justification" [Posted: Jan. 29, 2016] 14. Matt Zwolinski, "Spooner on Historical Injustice" [Posted: Jan. 31, 2016] 15. Roderick T. Long, "Lysander Spooner’s Theory of Class" [Posted: Jan. 31, 2016] 16. Roderick T. Long, "Lysander Spooner’s Theory of Property" [Posted: Feb. 1, 2016] 17. Aeon Skoble, "Rectification and Knowledge" [Posted: Feb. 2, 2016] 2 of 41 About the Authors Randy E. Barnett is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and is Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. After graduating from Northwestern University and Harvard Law School, he tried many felony cases as a prosecutor in the Cook County States’ Attorney’s Office in Chicago. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Constitutional Studies, Professor Barnett has been a visiting professor at Penn, Northwestern and Harvard Law School. His coauthored book, A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (Palgrave) was published in 2013. New expanded editions of his books, Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (Princeton) and The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law (Oxford) were published in 2015. His other books include The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Contracts (Oxford 2010), Contracts: Cases and Doctrine (Wolters Kluwer, 5th ed. 2012), and Constitutional Law: Cases in Context (Wolters Kluwer, 2nd ed. 2013). His book Our Republican Constitution: Securing the Liberty and Sovereignty of the People will be published by HarperCollins in April 2016 - <http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062412280/ref=cm_sw_su_dp>. His website is <http://www.randybarnett.com/>. Roderick T. Long is a professor of philosophy at Auburn University; president of the Molinari Institute and Molinari Society; a senior fellow of the Center for a Stateless Society; and cofounder of the Alliance of the Libertarian Left. He received his philosophical training at Harvard (A.B. 1985) and Cornell (Ph.D. 1992), and has taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan. Among his books are Reason and Value: Aristotle versus Rand (2000) and Wittgenstein, Austrian Economics, and the Logic of Action (forthcoming from Routledge); he is the editor of the Molinari Review and The Industrial Radical, and co-editor of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies and Anarchism/Minarchism: Is a Government Part of a Free Country? Roderick describes himself as an Aristotelean/Wittgensteinian in philosophy and a left-libertarian market anarchist in social theory. He blogs at Austro-Athenian Empire <http://aaeblog.com/> and Bleeding Heart Libertarians <http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/> amongst others. He wrote the lead essay for an earlier Liberty Matters discussion (in May 2013) on “Gustave de Molinari’s Legacy for Liberty,” and participated in another (in November 2014) on “Herbert Spencer’s Sociology of the State.” Aeon J. Skoble is professor of philosophy at Bridgewater State University. He is the author of Deleting the State: An Argument about Government (Open Court, 2008), the editor of Reading Rasmussen and Den Uyl: Critical Essays on Norms of Liberty (Lexington Books, 2008), and co-editor of Political Philosophy: Essential Selections (Prentice-Hall, 1999) and Reality, Reason, and Rights (Lexington Books, 2011). Besides his academic work, he has frequently lectured and written for the Institute for Humane Studies and the Foundation for Economic Education, and he is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute. His main research includes theories of rights, the nature and justification of authority, and virtue ethics. In addition, he writes widely on the intersection of philosophy and popular culture, among other things co-editing the best-selling The Simpsons and Philosophy (Open Court, 2000) and three other books on film and television. Matt Zwolinski is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of San Diego and co-director of USD’s Institute for Law and Philosophy. His research in political philosophy is split between two main areas of interest. The first focuses on questions regarding the nature, intellectual history, and philosophical defensibility of libertarian political theory. In this area, he has published recently on the implications of libertarian theory for the problem of environmental pollution, a libertarian argument for the moral limits of markets, and the relationship between libertarianism and the welfare state. He is currently finishing work on a book with John Tomasi tentatively titled A Brief History of Libertarianism, which is under contract with Princeton University Press. Professor Zwolinski’s second area of research deals with the nature and moral significance of exploitation for both individual morality and political institutions. He has explored this issue in numerous articles
Recommended publications
  • 1The Strengths and Limits of Philosophical Anarchism
    THE STRENGTHS AND LIMITS OF 1 PHILOSOPHICAL ANARCHISM THE BASIC DEFINITION of state legitimacy as the exclusive right to make, apply, and enforce laws is common, clearly visible in Max Weber and contemporary political philosophy and found less explicitly in the classical contract thinkers.1 A. John Simmons, drawing on Locke, writes that “A state’s (or government’s) legitimacy is the complex moral right it possesses to be the exclusive imposer of binding duties on its sub- jects, to have its subjects comply with these duties, and to use coercion to enforce the duties” (Simmons 2001, 130). Similar definitions—whether vis-à-vis legitimacy or authority—with slight alterations of terms and in conjunction with a series of other ideas and conditions (for example, “authoritativeness,” background criteria, the difference between force and violence) can be found in Robert Paul Wolff (1998, 4), Joseph Raz (2009), Richard Flathman (1980), Leslie Green (1988), David Copp (1999), Hannah Pitkin (1965, 1966), and others. The point is that the justification of state legitimacy and the (corresponding) obligation to obey involve, more often than not, making, applying, and enforcing laws: political power. Often left out of these discussions—with important exceptions—are the real practices of legitimate statehood, and perhaps for good reason. What philosophers who explore the question of legitimacy and authority are most often interested in—for a variety of reasons—is the relation of the individ- ual to the state, that is, whether and to what extent a citizen (or sometimes a noncitizen) has an obligation to obey the state. As Raz notes, part of the explanation for this is that contemporary philosophical interest in questions of political obligation emerged in response to political events in the 1960s (Raz 1981, 105).
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Counter-Economics?
    What is counter-economics? Should the State cease to exist, the • Drivers in some states who do not Counter-Economy would simply be The run in front of their cars with lanterns so The Counter-Economy is the sum of all Economy. as not to scare horses; non-aggressive Human Action which is for- Other names for practicing counter- and many others. Did you find yourself on bidden by the State. Counter-economics is economists (other than black marketeers) the list? the study of the Counter-Economy andits are practices. The Counter-Economy includes • Tax evader, tax rebel, tax resister; How counter-economics works the free market, the Black Market, the • Smuggler (of Bibles to Saudi Arabia, “underground economy,” all acts of civil and drugs to New York, or humans to Califor- Suppose you can make $10,000 for social disobedience, all acts of forbidden nia); each shipment (or whatever counter-eco- association (sexual, racial, cross-religious), • Trucker convoys; nomic act), and you can perform ten a and anything else the State, at any place or • Pornographers, prostitutes, procur- month. Once a month, someone in your line time, chooses to prohibit, control, regulate, ers, and other sexual entrepreneurs; gets arrested. You have 23 competitors. Half tax, or tariff. The Counter-Economy ex- • Gold bugs, food hoarders, windfall are convicted, half of them lose all their cludes all State-approved action (the “White profiteers, and others who refuse to believe appeals and are forced to pay a fine of half Market”) and the Red Market (violence and official economic mysticism; a million dollars and spend six months in theftnotapproved by the State).
    [Show full text]
  • Yale Law & Policy Review Inter Alia
    Essay - Keith Whittington - 09 - Final - 2010.06.29 6/29/2010 4:09:42 PM YALE LAW & POLICY REVIEW INTER ALIA The State of the Union Is a Presidential Pep Rally Keith E. Whittington* Introduction Some people were not very happy with President Barack Obama’s criticism of the U.S. Supreme Court in his 2010 State of the Union Address. Famously, Justice Samuel Alito was among those who took exception to the substance of the President’s remarks.1 The disagreements over the substantive merits of the Citizens United case,2 campaign finance, and whether that particular Supreme Court decision would indeed “open the floodgates for special interests— including foreign corporations—to spend without limits in our elections” are, of course, interesting and important.3 But the mere fact that President Obama chose to criticize the Court, and did so in the State of the Union address, seemed remarkable to some. Chief Justice John Roberts questioned whether the “setting, the circumstances and the decorum” of the State of the Union address made it an appropriate venue for criticizing the work of the Court.4 He was not alone.5 Criticisms of the form of President Obama’s remarks have tended to focus on the idea that presidential condemnations of the Court were “demean[ing]” or “insult[ing]” to the institution or the Justices or particularly inappropriate to * William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics, Princeton University. I thank Doug Edlin, Bruce Peabody, and John Woolley for their help on this Essay. 1. Justice Alito, who was sitting in the audience in the chamber of the House of Representatives, was caught by television cameras mouthing “not true” in reaction to President Obama’s characterization of the Citizens United decision.
    [Show full text]
  • Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora Neale Hurston on War, Race, the State, and Liberty
    SUBSCRIBE NOW AND RECEIVE CRISIS AND LEVIATHAN* FREE! “The Independent Review does not accept “The Independent Review is pronouncements of government officials nor the excellent.” conventional wisdom at face value.” —GARY BECKER, Noble Laureate —JOHN R. MACARTHUR, Publisher, Harper’s in Economic Sciences Subscribe to The Independent Review and receive a free book of your choice* such as the 25th Anniversary Edition of Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, by Founding Editor Robert Higgs. This quarterly journal, guided by co-editors Christopher J. Coyne, and Michael C. Munger, and Robert M. Whaples offers leading-edge insights on today’s most critical issues in economics, healthcare, education, law, history, political science, philosophy, and sociology. Thought-provoking and educational, The Independent Review is blazing the way toward informed debate! Student? Educator? Journalist? Business or civic leader? Engaged citizen? This journal is for YOU! *Order today for more FREE book options Perfect for students or anyone on the go! The Independent Review is available on mobile devices or tablets: iOS devices, Amazon Kindle Fire, or Android through Magzter. INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE, 100 SWAN WAY, OAKLAND, CA 94621 • 800-927-8733 • [email protected] PROMO CODE IRA1703 Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora Neale Hurston on War, Race, the State, and Liberty ✦ DAVID T. BEITO AND LINDA ROYSTER BEITO he ideals of liberty, individualism, and self-reliance have rarely had more enthusiastic champions than Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora TNeale Hurston. All three were out of step with the dominant worldview of their times. They had their peak professional years during the New Deal and World War II, when faith in big government was at high tide.
    [Show full text]
  • Originalism and Constitutional Construction
    Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2013 Originalism and Constitutional Construction Lawrence B. Solum Georgetown University Law Center, [email protected] This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1301 http://ssrn.com/abstract=2307178 82 Fordham L. Rev. 453-537 (2013) This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, Legal History Commons, and the Legal Theory Commons ORIGINALISM AND CONSTITUTIONAL CONSTRUCTION Lawrence B. Solum* Constitutional interpretation is the activity that discovers the communicative content or linguistic meaning of the constitutional text. Constitutional construction is the activity that determines the legal effect given the text, including doctrines of constitutional law and decisions of constitutional cases or issues by judges and other officials. The interpretation-construction distinction, frequently invoked by contemporary constitutional theorists and rooted in American legal theory in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, marks the difference between these two activities. This Article advances two central claims about constitutional construction. First, constitutional construction is ubiquitous in constitutional practice. The central warrant for this claim is conceptual: because construction is the determination of legal effect, construction always occurs when the constitutional text is applied to a particular legal case or official decision. Although some constitutional theorists may prefer to use different terminology to mark the distinction between interpretation and construction, every constitutional theorist should embrace the distinction itself, and hence should agree that construction in the stipulated sense is ubiquitous.
    [Show full text]
  • Markets Not Capitalism Explores the Gap Between Radically Freed Markets and the Capitalist-Controlled Markets That Prevail Today
    individualist anarchism against bosses, inequality, corporate power, and structural poverty Edited by Gary Chartier & Charles W. Johnson Individualist anarchists believe in mutual exchange, not economic privilege. They believe in freed markets, not capitalism. They defend a distinctive response to the challenges of ending global capitalism and achieving social justice: eliminate the political privileges that prop up capitalists. Massive concentrations of wealth, rigid economic hierarchies, and unsustainable modes of production are not the results of the market form, but of markets deformed and rigged by a network of state-secured controls and privileges to the business class. Markets Not Capitalism explores the gap between radically freed markets and the capitalist-controlled markets that prevail today. It explains how liberating market exchange from state capitalist privilege can abolish structural poverty, help working people take control over the conditions of their labor, and redistribute wealth and social power. Featuring discussions of socialism, capitalism, markets, ownership, labor struggle, grassroots privatization, intellectual property, health care, racism, sexism, and environmental issues, this unique collection brings together classic essays by Cleyre, and such contemporary innovators as Kevin Carson and Roderick Long. It introduces an eye-opening approach to radical social thought, rooted equally in libertarian socialism and market anarchism. “We on the left need a good shake to get us thinking, and these arguments for market anarchism do the job in lively and thoughtful fashion.” – Alexander Cockburn, editor and publisher, Counterpunch “Anarchy is not chaos; nor is it violence. This rich and provocative gathering of essays by anarchists past and present imagines society unburdened by state, markets un-warped by capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancap Conversion Therapy
    AnCap Conversion Therapy By @ C ats A nd K alash Introduction This is a list of videos, essays, and books to introduce AnCaps and other Right-Libertarians to Left- Libertarianism. Not ALL opinions held by the listed authors and creators reflect my personal beliefs. My intention with this document is to provide enough introductory resources to dispel misconceptions Right- Libertarians may have about the left and allow them to see things from a more left-wing perspective. Yes the title is a little cheeky but it’s all in good fun. I ask any Right-Libertarians who come across this document view the listed content with an open mind. I think it’s important we all try to scrutinize our own beliefs and ask ourselves if our current positions are truly consistent with the values we hold, values of liberty, justice, etc. I also ask that you don’t watch just one video and come to a conclusion, this is a list for a reason. You don’t have to read/watch everything in one sitting, you can bookmark or download the list and come back to different parts of it later. What is Left-Libertarianism? “Left-Libertarianism” can be used to refer to different things, but in the context of this document it refers to a specific group of ideologies or tendencies which heavily revolve around Libertarian values and to varying extents, free markets. Mutualism, Individualist-Anarchism, and Agorism can all be considered “Left-Libertarian” tendencies. Some may also include Georgism and Left-Rothbardianism in that list as well.
    [Show full text]
  • Reviewing Randy Barnett, Restoring the Lost Constitution: the Presumption of Liberty (2004
    University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 2007 Restoring the Right Constitution? (reviewing Randy Barnett, Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (2004)) Eduardo Peñalver Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Eduardo Peñalver, "Restoring the Right Constitution? (reviewing Randy Barnett, Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (2004))," 116 Yale Law Journal 732 (2007). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EDUARDO M. PENALVER Restoring the Right Constitution? Restoringthe Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty BY RANDY E. BARNETT NEW JERSEY: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2004. PP. 384. $49.95 A U T H 0 R. Associate Professor, Cornell Law School. Thanks to Greg Alexander, Rick Garnett, Abner Greene, Sonia Katyal, Trevor Morrison, and Steve Shiffrin for helpful comments and suggestions. 732 Imaged with the Permission of Yale Law Journal REVIEW CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 734 I. NATURAL LAW OR NATURAL RIGHTS? TWO TRADITIONS 737 II. BARNETT'S NONORIGINALIST ORIGINALISM 749 A. Barnett's Argument 749 B. Writtenness and Constraint 752 C. Constraint and Lock-In 756 1. Constraint 757 2. Lock-In 758 D. The Nature of Natural Rights 761 III. REVIVING A PROGRESSIVE NATURALISM? 763 CONCLUSION 766 733 Imaged with the Permission of Yale Law Journal THE YALE LAW JOURNAL 116:73 2 2007 INTRODUCTION The past few decades have witnessed a dramatic renewal of interest in the natural law tradition within philosophical circles after years of relative neglect.' This natural law renaissance, however, has yet to bear much fruit within American constitutional discourse, especially among commentators on the left.
    [Show full text]
  • Danziger, Edmund Jefferson Indians and Bureaucrats ENG 1974 University of Illinois Press Daris & Al
    1 Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque anarchiste DIRA Mai 2011 [email protected] bibliothequedira.wordpress.com 514-843-2018 2035 Blv Saint-Laurent, Montréal Bibliothèque DIRA, Mai 2011. 2 Présentation ................................................................................................................................................................. 3 -A- ................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 -B- ................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 -C- ............................................................................................................................................................................... 13 -D- ............................................................................................................................................................................... 20 -E- ............................................................................................................................................................................... 23 -F- ................................................................................................................................................................................ 24 -G- ..............................................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Brill's Companion to Anarchism and Philosophy
    Brill’s Companion to Anarchism and Philosophy Edited by Nathan Jun LEIDEN | BOSTON For use by the Author only | © 2018 Koninklijke Brill NV Contents Editor’s Preface ix Acknowledgments xix About the Contributors xx Anarchism and Philosophy: A Critical Introduction 1 Nathan Jun 1 Anarchism and Aesthetics 39 Allan Antliff 2 Anarchism and Liberalism 51 Bruce Buchan 3 Anarchism and Markets 81 Kevin Carson 4 Anarchism and Religion 120 Alexandre Christoyannopoulos and Lara Apps 5 Anarchism and Pacifism 152 Andrew Fiala 6 Anarchism and Moral Philosophy 171 Benjamin Franks 7 Anarchism and Nationalism 196 Uri Gordon 8 Anarchism and Sexuality 216 Sandra Jeppesen and Holly Nazar 9 Anarchism and Feminism 253 Ruth Kinna For use by the Author only | © 2018 Koninklijke Brill NV viii CONTENTS 10 Anarchism and Libertarianism 285 Roderick T. Long 11 Anarchism, Poststructuralism, and Contemporary European Philosophy 318 Todd May 12 Anarchism and Analytic Philosophy 341 Paul McLaughlin 13 Anarchism and Environmental Philosophy 369 Brian Morris 14 Anarchism and Psychoanalysis 401 Saul Newman 15 Anarchism and Nineteenth-Century European Philosophy 434 Pablo Abufom Silva and Alex Prichard 16 Anarchism and Nineteenth-Century American Political Thought 454 Crispin Sartwell 17 Anarchism and Phenomenology 484 Joeri Schrijvers 18 Anarchism and Marxism 505 Lucien van der Walt 19 Anarchism and Existentialism 559 Shane Wahl Index of Proper Names 583 For use by the Author only | © 2018 Koninklijke Brill NV CHAPTER 10 Anarchism and Libertarianism Roderick T. Long Introduction
    [Show full text]
  • Campaign Finance Reform Is a Voting Rights Issue: the Campaign Finance System As the Latest Incarnation of the Politics of Exclusion
    African-American Law & Policy Report VOLUME 5 2002 NUMBER 1 ARTICLE Campaign Finance Reform is a Voting Rights Issue: The Campaign Finance System as the Latest Incarnation of the Politics of Exclusion John Powell* I. INTRODUCTION Though the iron is hot for campaign finance reform,1 at the political forefront the issue is framed one-dimensionally. The Black Congressional Caucus' ambivalent support of the recent reform bills proposed in Congress illustrates that these reform measures may fail to address the distinct impli- cations of the campaign finance system for communities of color.2 Conserv- * Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School, and Executive Director, Institute on Race and Poverty. 1. See Elisabeth Bumiller & Philip Shenon, President Signs Bill on Campaign Gifts; Begins Money Tour, N.Y. TIMES, Mar. 28, 3002, at Al (noting President George W. Bush's observation that the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act is "the culmination of more than six years of debate among legislators, citizens and groups"). 2. See Cedric Muhammad, A Deeper Look, The Real Campaign Finance Reform Issue, (Sept. 7, 2000) at http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?ID= 191; Alison Mitchell, 2 Groups in House are at a Focal Point on Campaign Bill, N.Y. TIMES, July 12, 2001, at Al (noting that a AFRICAN-AMERICAN LAW & POLICY REPORT [VOL. 5:1 atives and liberals agree that the present structure of campaign financing needs to be reformed, but neither has substantially addressed the issue of race. Reform is needed but the current debate is too narrow. This paper will address the needs of low-income communities with particular focus on communities of color.
    [Show full text]
  • AGORIST CLASS THEORY a Left Libertarian Approach to Class Conflict Analysis
    AGORIST CLASS THEORY A Left Libertarian Approach to Class Conflict Analysis By Wally Conger Drawing on the unfinished work of Samuel Edward Konkin III With a foreword by Brad Spangler AGORIST CLASS THEORY A Left Libertarian Approach to Class Conflict Analysis By Wally Conger Drawing on the unfinished work of Samuel Edward Konkin III with a foreword by Brad Spangler DEDICATION This work is dedicated to Sam, who got the ball rolling. Foreword The very term evokes mental imagery, and rightly so, of bloody tyrants and their apologists — from the killing fields of Cambodia to the massacre in the Katyn Forest, from statist dupes calling for more government power to "fight poverty" to Trotsky's bastard ideological grandchildren that are called "neo-conservatives." It has been a fig leaf for banditry and the ravening twin thirsts for power and blood. It has been the mantra of those who would conspire to realize Orwell's nightmare vision of a totalitarian boot forever stomping on a human face. I'm referring to the other war — the Class War. Marxist doctrine held, in a nutshell, that the relationship between the common people (the proletariat) and the elite (capitalists) was a continu- ation of the master and slave relationship of ancient times — and that any means, regardless of how ostensibly evil it may appear, was justifiable in addressing that iniquitous inequity. With the meltdown of nearly all avowedly Marxist states in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the notion of a Class Struggle was supposed to be consigned to the dustbin of history along with the rest of the smoke and mirrors of Marxist ideology.
    [Show full text]