Democratic politics in practice often lags far behind the democratic ideals that justify democracy in theory. Where democratic theory postulates the equality of citizens and the accountability of elected officials, democratic practice is often characterised by the absence of accountability and deep political inequality. This paper argues that, under these conditions, citizens have a moral right to engage in political strikes. Such a right can empower citizens to effectively hold officials acc...| Political Philosophy
The Diversity Trumps Ability theorem suggests that, under certain conditions, more diverse groups outperform groups of more individually competent members. Despite initial excitement about the theorem’s application to democratic decision-making, critics have largely dismissed it as irrelevant to real-world democracies. I argue that this dismissal is unwarranted. After informally reconstructing [...]| Political Philosophy Article Feed
The ideas of “territory” and “turf” are important parts of both our folk theory and scholarly treatments of the city. Our territory is where we feel at home and have a measure of control outside of our private residences. Our turf suggests something similar, but less benign, highlighting the potential for exclusion, closure, and conflict. In this paper, I explore a problem for attempts to [...]| Political Philosophy Article Feed
Many institutions and organizations now delegate important decisions to algorithms. These algorithms promise greater predictive accuracy, at a lower operating cost than the human decision-makers they replace. But they also have the distinctive disadvantage of being “black boxes”: we lack intelligible explanations of why they arrive at the decisions they do. Those adversely affected by these [...]| Political Philosophy Article Feed
Given the current and future suffering associated with human-made climate change and the lack of political action in response to it, it seems only natural to feel despair. However, despair has a bad reputation among climate ethicists and in the wider public. In this paper, we will push back against this view and argue that there is considerable value in climate despair. More specifically, we [...]| Political Philosophy Article Feed
The doctrine of effective occupation was developed by colonial powers to justify their sovereignty over newly annexed territories and was measured by animus occupandi, the will to be sovereign; and corpus occupandi, the exercise of sovereignty, both specified by the colonizers themselves. While effective occupation over humans ended through the global decolonization movement, [...]| Political Philosophy Article Feed
This article investigates how future climate governance might be made legitimate and compatible with collective self-determination. I develop an original account of international legitimacy through a domestic analogy between relations among self-determining individuals and relations among self-determining political communities. I argue that ideally, future climate legislation should be [...]| Political Philosophy Article Feed
In a typical clinical trial, researchers are required to obtain participants’ informed consent. But for some policy experiments, it is impracticable to obtain informed consent. As a result, these trials sometimes randomize individuals to interventions without their consent. Some critics allege that these experiments fail to show respect for persons and are therefore unethical. Given that [...]| Political Philosophy Article Feed
A recent view in legal epistemology holds that since knowledge is the standard for proof of criminal guilt, and since there is pragmatic encroachment on knowledge, contrary to current trial practice juries should be told the sentence a defendant would receive if convicted. We argue against this view. First, pragmatic encroachment on legal proof would produce distorted and unjust trial [...]| Political Philosophy Article Feed
What could ground normative restrictions concerning cultural appropriation in cases where they are not grounded by independent considerations such as harm? This paper argues that such claims are best understood as ownership claims. It develops a novel account of ownership claims based on an interest in self-presentation. This account explains how group ownership claims over cultural styles arise in response to certain background conditions of oppression. Ownership-based cultural appropriation...| Political Philosophy
Political Philosophy is a forum for exploring theoretical aspects of public life—moral, political, social, legal and economic. It is an insistently interdisciplinary site for mutual engagement among practitioners of all those disciplines and more. Political Philosophy is methodologically capacious, equally welcoming of work that is formal and abstract or grounded and discursive. It brings liberalism, socialism, feminism, critical theory, critical race theory, game theory and social choice t...| politicalphilosophyjournal.org
According to the informational model, journalism’s primary function is to provide the public with information and help it acquire knowledge and understanding. Opinion journalism appears to conflict with this model. Although it constitutes a major part of the news media, its role remains poorly defined, and many view it with suspicion. This article argues that opinion journalism serves an important epistemic function that is integral to the informational model: to facilitate appropriate unce...| Political Philosophy
