Comprehensive Liberalism Research Articles

Rawls, Mill, and the Puzzle of Political Liberalism

This article examines John Rawls’s turn toward a purely political liberalism by comparing and contrasting it with the comprehensive liberalism he imputes to John Stuart Mill. We argue that Mill and Rawls have similar views about individual autonomy, despite Rawls’s insistence to the contrary. We contend that Rawls accords a much larger role to the state in enforcing justice than does Mill. Whereas Rawls’s view of justice rests ultimately on state enforcement, Mill sees justice reaching into many institutions, but accords the state a lesser role in this. Mill’s view of justice rests on a view of progress and moral psychology not shared by Rawls. In the service of stability, Rawls demands more agreement from citizens about justice than does Mill, but these demands undermine the stability that Rawls so desires. The differences between Rawls and Mill discussed here are not elucidated by the distinction between political and comprehensive liberalisms.

Quantifying the Economic Effects of an EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement

The European Union and Japan have recently launched negotiations about a bilateral free trade agreement as means of economic stimulation, with trade as a driving force to create growth and wealth. Since customs duties are already low, the success of the liberalization process hinges on the potential elimination of non-tariff barriers. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on two possible liberalization scenarios, a less ambitious and a comprehensive trade liberalization. In contrast to classical studies our paper builds on the modern trade literature, accounting for the dominance of intra-industry trade between the two economies and the existence of heterogeneous firms. Furthermore, we model a search-and-matching labor market allowing us to quantify employment effects of trade liberalization. We find that a comprehensive liberalization increases Japanese GDP by 0.86 per cent, whereas the EU only experiences an additional 0.21 per cent of real GDP growth. Most of the growth in real GDP is due to firms’ efficiency gains, while unemployment is only reduced by a small amount. Other world regions experience small reductions of GDP due to trade diversion effects.

Muslim Reformists, Female Citizenship, and the Public Accommodation of Islam in Liberal Democracy

AbstractThe European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in a trilogy of cases involving Muslim claimants, has granted state parties to the European Convention on Human Rights a wide margin of appreciation with respect to the regulation of public manifestations of Islam. The ECHR has justified its decisions in these cases on the grounds that Islamic symbols, such as the ḥijāb, or Muslim commitments to the shari‘a — Islamic law — are inconsistent with the democratic order of Europe. This article raises the question of what kinds of commitments to gender equality and democratic decision-making are sufficient for a democratic order, and whether modernist Islamic teachings manifest a satisfactory normative commitment in this regard. It uses the arguments of two modern Muslim reformist scholars — Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and ‘Abd al-Ḥalīm Abū Shuqqa — as evidence to argue that if the relevant degree of commitment to gender equality is understood from the perspective of political rather than comprehensive liberalism, doctrines such as those elaborated by these two religious scholars evidence sufficient commitment to the value of political equality between men and women. This makes less plausible the ECHR's arguments justifying a different treatment of Muslims on account of alleged Islamic commitments to gender hierarchy. It also argues that in light of Muslim modernist conceptions of the shari‘a, there is no normative justification to conclude that faithfulness to the shari‘a entails a categorical rejection of democracy as the ECHR suggested.

Liberal Autonomy as a Pluralistic Value

For many liberals, the value of individual autonomy is the foundation of Uberai political morality; it underwrites individuals' rights and liberties and liberal notions of justice, marks the limits of liberal toleration, and sets the terms on which a liberal society can also be a multicultural society (e.g., Raz 1986; Kymlicka 1989; 1995; Rawls 1993; Tamir 1993; Habermas 1994). Yet, for many multiculturalists, the liberal value of individual autonomy is an obstacle to building a multicultural democracy; it is seen as too 'sectarian', demanding, or intolerant a value on which to base political morality for a culturally diverse society (e.g., Young 1990; Margalit and Halbertal 1994; Parekh 2000; Galston 2002; Kukathas 2003; Modood 2007). In this essay, I want to argue that autonomy is a much more 'open', democratic, and accommodating value than both these liberal and multiculturalist accounts suggest.Of course, one might reasonably ask why persevere with liberal autonomy at all. As the multiculturalism literature now abundantly attests, there are, after all, other theoretical and even liberal approaches available that promise to be far more accommodating of cultural difference than any autonomy-based approach is likely to be. If autonomy commands attention, it is because of its pervasive place as a governing value in liberal democracies today. Part of the new thinking associated with the Enlightenment, autonomy's influence as a public value largely emerged in the twentieth century. That influence has only continued to grow. While never reaching the ubiquity prescribed by so-called 'comprehensive liberals', the valorisation of autonomy has increasingly come to inform - or be reflected in - the law, public policy, and even interpersonal relations in liberal democracies (Inglehart and Welzel 2005). Indeed, it is fair to say that the rise of autonomy as a governing value constitutes something of a world historical transformation. But this is also why it is important to scrutinize what is claimed in the name of respecting autonomy. As we will see, though often deployed as a blunt instrument and argument stopper, the liberal value of autonomy in fact offers a platform for democratic contestation and intercultural dialogue about the permissible limits of liberal toleration. My point of departure, then, is that autonomy also speaks to the interests of cultural minorities negotiating life today in liberal societies, and that they would do well also to speak the language of autonomy.I will begin (part 1) by canvassing the concept of autonomy relevant to this discussion. Autonomy is a notoriously slippery concept to pin down, so it is essential to clarify the dimensions of the concept that are implicitly appealed to in law and public policy. I will suggest a framework for operationalizing autonomy as a multidimensional political value, and which allows mainstream and minority practices to be assessed and compared on their 'autonomy credentials'. Thereafter, I will consider, in turn, three areas where the value of autonomy lends itself to considerable interpretive and practical latitude. The first (part 2) concerns the applicability of autonomy; that is, whether specific practices can be said to satisfy or violate the dimensions of autonomy. The second area (part 3) involves the issue ?? prioritization. This aspect occurs implicitly inasmuch as the dimensions of autonomy have differential political force in liberal practice, and arises circumstantially where cases pit the autonomy of different parties against each other or where other compelling public interests are at stake. In each case, judgments need to be made regarding how best to honor the value of autonomy in the circumstances. The final substantive part (4) argues that judgments concerning the applicability and prioritization of the dimensions of autonomy in relation to minority cultural practices should be informed by how a society treats mainstream practices and cases. …

Rushing toward currency convertibility

AbstractIn 1989, Turkey became one of the first—and few—emerging economies to fully liberalize its capital account. Given the adverse macro-economic conditions before the reforms, it is puzzling that Turkish policy-makers implemented policies amounting to a comprehensive and imprudent capital account liberalization. Using in-depth interviews with a significant number of key decision-makers behind capital account liberalization and employing archival material from news sources on the debates surrounding the reform process, this article examines the policy objectives and rationale behind the Turkish capital account liberalization. The main argument is that capital account liberalization represented a political rationality that put a premium on short-term expansion through funds from the rest of the world. This liberalization was a policy response to decreasing rates of economic growth and demands from organized labor and public employees for better working conditions and higher wages. Thus, this article shows that these distributional conflicts and the trajectory of economic growth were important determinants of the timing and scope of capital account liberalization in Turkey.

Soviet Policies Toward Dissent, 1953-1986

In the wake of Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, Soviet policies on dissent took shape with the abandonment of mass terror as a method of rule, followed by a comprehensive liberalization of Soviet legal codes. As dissent gradually became organized and public from the late 1950s, a pattem of keeping arrests of dissidents to a minimum emerged. To do this, an escalating array of lesser measures was devised, from cautionary conversations with KGB officers to job dismissal. As dissent diversified in the late 1960s and 1970s to include religious, nationalist, social, and human rights movements, it gained increasing support from the West. The Kremlin often had difficulty taking this into account. In the mid-1970s, its desire for detente with the West led to concessions on human rights, including a reduction in arrests. These were exploited by dissidents, but soon retracted with detente's collapse in 1979-80, and the U.S.S.R.'s isolation. Nonetheless, Soviet policies on dissent varied within relatively narrow limits, and only changed dramatically from 1986 under Mikhail Gorbachev.

Realizing ‘Political’ Neutrality

Political liberalism is supposed to be neutral among reasonable comprehensive doctrines, including comprehensive liberalism. Some critics think that it implicitly assumes comprehensive liberalism. I argue that political liberalism has the resources to avoid this charge and chart a path between sectarianism and unprincipled accommodation that allows a range of policy justifications onto the political agenda of a scope that honors the ideal of neutrality.

The limits of civic education: The divergent implications of political and comprehensive liberalism

Education has become one of the foremost arenas in which political liberals attempt to differentiate their account from that of comprehensive liberals. Rawls posits that the requirements of his theory, as laid out in Political Liberalism, will be far less stringent than those of liberals such as Kant, Mill or Joseph Raz. However, a number of influential theorists, most notably Amy Gutmann and Eamonn Callan, have argued that this divergence occurs only at the level of theoretical justification, and does not imply that the two varieties of liberalism will prescribe significantly different educational policies. This article refutes this argument and shows that a more detailed focus on the civic aims of political liberals will reveal significant differences in their position on educational questions from those of their comprehensive rivals.

Does corruption foster growth in Bangladesh?

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to unveil the relationship between corruption and economic growth in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is designed to combine both theory and empirical work.FindingsBangladesh poses a positive relation between corruption and growth. This relationship has been significant since 1977 when Bangladesh embarked on a market economy and unleashed private investment, but failed to implement corresponding reforms in bureaucracy and major public utilities. As a result, consumers with rising income and producers with thriving business opportunities confronted public regulatory bodies for utilities and permits, and indulged in increasing corruption. Thus, both corruption and economic growth increased with the pace of privatisation and the market economy in Bangladesh. Hence, a positive association between corruption and growth, though spurious and co‐incidental, becomes apparent.Research limitations/implicationsA bigger sample size for survey can be covered in the future.Practical implicationsWhile corruption does not foster growth, it greases the wheels of commerce in Bangladesh's regulation‐heavy systems that would otherwise impede businesses.Social implicationsIt can be argued that Bangladesh has the potentials to make growth performance even brighter if corruption can be further reduced through comprehensive liberalisation and bureaucratic reform.Originality/valueConventional wisdom suggests that corruption impedes economic growth. But this relationship is not that simple and straight forward in Bangladesh as it initially appears to be. Other institutional factors must be addressed before spurring growth in the country. This finding has implications to the development policymakers of Bangladesh or other emerging economies that experience both high growth and high corruption.

Liberalization and Growth: An Econometric Study of Bangladesh

Bangladesh adopted a liberal economic regime, particularly in the areas of trade, finance, and capital account, since mid-1980s. This study seeks to evaluate the impact of liberalization on the country’s economic growth by analyzing the 1974-2002 data with the help of cointegration and error correction methods. The empirical results suggest that long-run economic growth in Bangladesh is largely explained by physical capital and real interest rate and growth remains unaffected by short-term changes in labor force and secondary enrollment ratio. While financial liberalization has had significant negative impacts on economic growth implying that financial reforms failed to attract new investment due to adverse investment climate, the effects of trade and capital account liberalizations were rather insignificant, possibly due to weak supply response and lack of credibility of such reform programs. Bangladesh will not reap the full benefits of any comprehensive liberalization measures unless it can improve infrastructure and quality of governance, the paper argues.

ENHANCING ECONOMIC INTEGRATION IN SOUTH ASIA: ISSUES AND PROSPECTS FOR CLOSER MONETARY COOPERATION

Though SAARC has the stated goal of an economic union and a common currency, after a quarter of a century, these remain distant goals as political tensions between India and Pakistan have hindered any real progress on a regional scale. Barriers to trade and factor mobility are high in the region as a whole, though considerable liberalisation has been achieved through various bilateral agreements involving India and some of its neighbours. The conventional economic conditions for a common currency are also currently absent as patterns of shocks are non-synchronised, trade links are weak and factor mobility much constrained. Deeper intraregional economic integration requires much more comprehensive trade and investment liberalisation among member nations. While the political conditions for a single currency are unlikely to emerge in the foreseeable future, steps towards closer monetary cooperation through a South Asian Monetary System — building on the existing SAARCFINANCE network — may provide an institutional framework for enhancing regional integration. However, such cooperation will have to be conceived as a component of a sustainable transitional strategy which commits to a serious programme of deeper trade liberalisation to facilitate greater integration with the rest of the world, and most importantly, with East Asia.

Trade policy and specialization in developing countries

This paper examines the impact of trade policy on specialization patterns in ten Latin American countries over the period 1985–1998. These countries are natural case studies because in the last decades they implemented comprehensive trade liberalization programs, both generally and preferentially, starting from relatively high tariff protection levels. Our econometric results suggest that reducing own most favored nation tariffs is associated with increasing manufacturing production specialization. Furthermore, we find that preferential trade liberalization and differences in the degree of unilateral openness have resulted in increased dissimilarities in manufacturing production structures across countries. These results are robust across specialization measures and estimation methods.

Immanuel Kant (International Library of Essays in the History of Social and Political Thought). Edited by Arthur Ripstein

Immanuel Kant (International Library of Essays in the History of Social and Political Thought). Edited by Arthur Ripstein

Current challenges for efficient electricity grids

The comprehensive liberalisation of the electricity market at the end of the last century has initiated a dynamic development. The politically determined disjunction of the network operation from generation, commerce and distribution which broke open the value added chain concerning the business organisation is to induce competition and consequently lower prices. Thus, besides a secure electricity supply, profitability, efficiency, quality and environmental aspects constitute present aims and have led to an enormous increase of complexity in the power supply. Furthermore, the imponderability and uncertainty of competition processes in a liberated market aggravate prognoses for future investment decisions. Not least the anymore rising electricity demand, the emerging of a single European power market as well as technically pushed changes in the production structure, due to the emergence of alternative forms of power generation such as wind or solar energy, biomass energy or fuel cells, account for electric networks which afford complex planning and regulation mechanisms. This article gives a survey of various requirements posed on electricity networks and concludes with a short description of solution approaches to safeguard a cost-saving and secured future electricity supply.

Growth responses to competitive shocks: Market structure dynamics under liberalisation

Liberalisation transforms market structures through the responses of incumbent firms and entrants to freedom of choice. Market shares tend to turn more volatile, and the agility and competitiveness of small, as against large, firms determine whether markets grow more concentrated, or less. We analyse the way these processes played out in Indian manufacturing industries over the 17-year period from 1981, spanning the domestic liberalisation of 1985 and the more comprehensive reforms of 1991. An observer looking at summary measures of market concentration might conclude that not much happened under either liberalisation episode. In fact, market share grew significantly more turbulent, and the relationship between market share-growth and initial share changed considerably. Domestic and comprehensive liberalisation saw different types of course corrections in these processes. But in both liberalisation episodes they tended to offset one another in their impact on observed market concentration, which therefore, changed little.

Toward a Social Epistemic Comprehensive Liberalism

ABSTRACTFor well over a decade, much of liberal political theory has accepted the founding premise of Rawls's political liberalism, according to which the fact of reasonable pluralism renders comprehensive versions of liberalism incoherent. However, the founding premise presumes that all comprehensive doctrines are moral doctrines. In this essay, the author builds upon recent work by Allen Buchanan and develops a comprehensive version of liberalism based in a partially comprehensive social epistemic doctrine. The author then argues that this version of liberalism is sufficiently accommodating of the fact of reasonable pluralism. The conclusion is that the founding premise of political liberalism admits of a counterexample; there is a version of comprehensive liberalism that is sufficiently pluralistic.

Toward a Social Epistemic Comprehensive Liberalism

Toward a Social Epistemic Comprehensive Liberalism

Comprehensive Liberalism and Civic Education in the Republic of Ireland

Civic education has become an important issue in the Republic of Ireland. The new pluralism of Irish life, the encouragement of active citizenship by the government and the proposals for a new Leaving Certificate subject in civic education all require a number of difficult normative and institutional choices to be made. Although the direct inculcation of particular values characterises most of these proposals, I argue that such attempts to directly form students’ characters are ill‐suited to a diverse, liberal polity and explore the consequences of a comprehensive Millian liberalism for the civic education curriculum and the structure of schooling in contemporary Ireland. I conclude that Ireland’s educational institutions are peculiarly capable of responding to the diversity of a modern liberal society.

Social Epistemic Liberalism

The author builds upon recent work by Allen Buchanan and develops a comprehensive version of liberalism based in a partially comprehensive social epistemic doctrine. The author then argues that this version of liberalism is sufficiently accommodating of the fact of reasonable pluralism. The conclusion is that the founding premise of political liberalism admits of a counterexample; there is a version of comprehensive liberalism that is sufficiently pluralistic.

The Future of Radio Regulation: The Need for a Level Playing Field

Congress and the FCC should free over the air broadcast radio from regulations that are not imposed on its competitors to allow it to compete with satellite radio and other media. Furthermore, the playing field is best leveled by deregulating down, rather than regulating up with new restrictions on satellite radio, local content included. While other unregulated competitors continue to steal away market share and advertising dollars, terrestrial radio broadcasting remains one of America's most heavily regulated media sectors. Volumes of FCC regulations apply to them that do not apply to any of the other new competitors or the numerous other multiple platform technologies which offer audio content. The two arguments supplied by the broadcast industry as reasons for regulatory intervention by Congress and the FCC however, are for the purpose of restricting the ability of satellite radio to offer local content, rather than comprehensive liberalization of the traditional terrestrial radio broadcast sector. Such arguments involve terrestrial radio's position as a carrier of last resort of local information, and regulatory disparity. Legitimate as those concerns may be, this is an opportunity for terrestrial radio to exploit its advantages in the local programming market over satellite radio operators, since it takes a significant investment in human infrastructure (reporters, producers, etc.) to provide a true local media presence. Regarding regulatory disparity, certainly as the lines continue to blur between formerly distinct media sectors and media technologies continue to converge, it will become increasingly difficult for policymakers to enforce the old regulatory regime. It is this marketplace scenario though by which the regulate up strategy will benefit neither terrestrial nor satellite radio providers, whereas the regulate down strategy would suit the level playing field argument of the broadcast industry even further.