Ilya Somin Research Articles

Empowering Permanent Minorities: Foot Voting and Positive Freedom for Radicals

Foot voting—that is, an individual’s choice of a government, or of a governance regime such as that offered by a corporation or a homeowner’s association--has been advocated by libertarian law professor Ilya Somin in two recent books (2016, 2021) that emphasize the relative thoughtfulness of foot voters who are making important personal choices compared to the relative ignorance of ballot box voters whose individual votes are hardly ever outcome-determinative. This paper adopts Somin’s case for foot voting and suggests an additional ground for supporting it: giving radical minorities opportunities to exercise self-determination in a way that they are unable to do in majoritarian democratic and business systems in which public policies and corporate governance are targeted to the median voter, shareholder, employee, and consumer. Relying centrally on Mill (1859), Rawls (1999, 2005), and mechanism design theory (Maskin, 1999), it argues that it is in the practical and moral interest of non-radicals and radicals alike that there should be more support in business ethics and elsewhere than there is now for voluntary, partly self-governing, radical local political communities—“codominia”--and to serve and link these communities with small and large radical businesses—“coenterprises.” Although the paper is primarily conceptual, it also includes a qualitative empirical component, in the forms of introductory discussions of a survey on interest in joining radical communities that was administered to students in Southeast Asia, and of how the reforms proposed have a precedent in the long-standing Dutch and Belgian systems of pillarized community self-determination.

When Political Ignorance is really harmful for Democracy: Moral Intuitions and Biased Attitudes in Voting Behaviour

Ignorance about political related issues has long been considered a threat to democracy. This paper revolves around the concept of political ignorance, focusing especially on Ilya Somin’s book Democracy and Political Ignorance and going beyond his standpoint in two ways. First of all, it moves away from the notion of factual knowledge by showing that political ignorance cannot be limited to a matter of information quality. On the contrary, it shows that ignorance concerns the formation of opinions about political facts, which are the bricks with which disagreement is built. Then, using the insights of the Moral Foundation Theory by Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues, the paper argues that moral intuitions represent an additional source of bias that current research on the problem of voters’ ignorance should address. While Somin argues that biased moral values are the outcome of ignorance, Moral Foundation Theory suggests that moral intuitions are a robust determinant of people’s political views as they make factual knowledge partially irrelevant and also make people with different moral minds unable to understand the basis of reciprocal factual argumentations.

The right to move and the right to exclude: Ilya Somin and ‘foot voting’

The right to move and the right to exclude: Ilya Somin and ‘foot voting’

The choice of efficiencies and the necessity of politics

ABSTRACT Efficiency requires legislative political institutions. There are many ways efficiency can be promoted, and so an ongoing legislative institution is necessary to resolve this choice in a politically sustainable and economically flexible way. This poses serious problems for classical liberal proposals to constitutionally protect markets from government intervention, as seen in the work of Ilya Somin, Guido Pincione & Fernando Tesón and others. The argument for the political nature of efficiency is set out in terms of both Pareto optimality and aggregate welfare maximisation, and similar arguments can be generalised to other social values.

Introduction, Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom

Ballot box voting is often considered the essence of political freedom. But it has two major shortcomings: individual voters have little chance of making a difference, and they also face strong incentives to remain ignorant about the issues at stake. Voting with your feet, however, avoids both of these pitfalls and offers a wider range of choices. In Free to Move, Ilya Somin explains how broadening opportunities for foot voting can greatly enhance political liberty for millions of people around the world. People can vote with their feet through international migration, by choosing where to live within a federal system, and by making decisions in the private sector. These three types of foot voting are rarely considered together, but Somin explains how they have important common virtues and can be mutually reinforcing. He contends that all forms of foot voting should be expanded and shows how both domestic constitutions and international law can be structured to increase opportunities for foot voting while mitigating possible downsides. Free to Move addresses a variety of common objections to expanded migration rights, including claims that the self-determination of natives requires giving them the power to exclude migrants, and arguments that migration is likely to have harmful side effects, such as undermining political institutions, overburdening the welfare state, increasing crime and terrorism, and spreading undesirable cultural values. While these objections are usually directed at international migration, Somin shows how a consistent commitment to such theories would also justify severe restrictions on domestic freedom of movement. That implication is an additional reason to be skeptical of these rationales for exclusion. By making a systematic case for a more open world, Free to Move challenges conventional wisdom on both the left and the right. The Introduction summarizes the core argument of the book and provides an outline of the chapters that follow.

Reply to 'How Foot Voting Enhances Political Freedom'

The author comments on and critiques a paper by Ilya Somin in favor of more or less unconstrained immigration. The author disputes Somin's libertarian arguments for big scale immigration both on economic and other normative bases.

Giving epistocracy a Fair Hearing

ABSTRACT Thanks to Inquiry for hosting this symposium, and thanks to Ilya Somin, Robert Talisse, Gordon Allen, and Enzo Rossi for participating it. It’s an honor. I’m especially grateful for their contributions because the five of us come from similar enough starting points that our debates can be productive. None of us have any patience for romantic, pie-in-the-sky depictions of democracy or for the knee-jerk dogma that all the problems of democracy can be fixed with more democracy. All are concerned about real-world practical problems. We recognize you can’t counter a complaint of the form ‘These institutions have these problems’ by responding, ‘Oh, but if everyone behaved the way my theory requires them to behave, those institutions would be fine.’

Representing the People: British Democracy in an Age of Political Ignorance

The article evaluates the arguments presented in Jason Brennan’s Against Democracy, Ilya Somin’s Democracy and Political Ignorance and Achen and Bartels’ Democracy for Realists and their implications for democratic theory and practice. The article uses their work to shine a light on ongoing and contradictory trajectories of democratic reform in Britain at the local and national levels, and to argue against the widespread view that British democracy should be reformed in ways that give citizens more control over political decisions. These books point to ways in which democracy might be salvaged, rather than replaced, and in which British democracy in particular might be reformed in order to better meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, by focusing less on participation and more on representation. This requires a two-pronged strategy. First, that we reform liberal democratic institutions in ways which better harness the power of non-majoritarian institutions, strengthen formal epistocratic checks and balances, and embrace the move towards greater political elitism in order to appropriately constrain the popular will and to ensure rigorous scrutiny within a traditionally configured representative democratic system. Second, that we explore ways of incorporating citizens’ voices at different points in the democratic system in order to circumvent some of the problems these authors describe and to ensure that the strengthening of representative institutions does not unfairly marginalise citizens. Achen CH and Bartels LM (2016) Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Brennan J (2016) Against Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Somin I (2016) Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter, 2nd edn. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective, edited by Iljoong Kim, Hojun Lee and Ilya Somin (Eds.)

Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective, edited by Iljoong Kim, Hojun Lee and Ilya Somin (Eds.)

The grasping hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the limits of eminent domain

On June 23, 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the city of New London, Connecticut, could condemn fifteen residential properties in the Fort Trumbull area and transfer them to a new private owner. The of eminent domain to take private property for works is generally considered a permissible public use under the Fifth Amendment. In New London, however, the land was condemned to promote private development. Ilya Somin argues that Kelo represents a serious - and dangerous-error. Not only are economic development and closely related blight condemnations unconstitutional under most theories of legal interpretation, they also tend to victimize the poor and the politically weak, and to destroy more economic value than they create. Kelo exemplifies these patterns: the neighbors who chose to fight their evictions had little political power, while the influential Pfizer Corporation played an important role in persuading officials to proceed with the project. In the end, the poorly conceived development plan failed: the condemned land lies empty to this day. A notably unpopular verdict, Kelo triggered an unprecedented political backlash, with forty-five states passing new laws intended to limit the of eminent domain. But many of the new state laws turned out to impose few or no genuine constraints. The Kelo backlash led to significant progress, but not nearly as much as it would first appear. Despite its outcome, the closely divided ruling in Kelo shattered what many believed to be a consensus that virtually any condemnation qualifies as a use. With controversy over this issue sure to continue, The Grasping Hand offers an analysis of the case alongside a history of the meaning of and the of eminent domain and an evaluation of options for reform.

Democracy, Voter Ignorance, and the Limits of Foot Voting

ABSTRACTIn Democracy and Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin argues that the supposed informational advantages of “foot voting”—exercising exit options and making market-based choices—over voting at the ballot box tell in favor of decentralizing and limiting government. But the evidence Somin offers for the superiority of “foot voting,” based on an analysis of the politics of the Jim Crow-era South, is unpersuasive and internally inconsistent. Second, even if Somin is correct that foot voters have greater incentives to acquire information than ballot-box voters do, this would not in itself be a good reason to favor foot voting. For Somin shows little interest in considering why we might value democratic decision making. Thus, Somin's argument is unlikely to persuade anyone not already committed to the superiority of market-based solutions to social and political problems.

Economics of the undead: zombies, vampires, and the dismal science

Introduction: Grave Thoughts on the Dismal Science by Glen Whitman and James Dow Part I: Soulless Mates Human Girls and Vampire Boys, Part 1: Looking for Mr. Goodbite, by Glen Whitman Human Girls and Vampire Boys, Part 2: 'Til Death Do Us Part, by Glen Whitman Part II: Apocalyptonomics Packing for the Zombie Apocalypse, by James Dow Is It Still a Fallacy When Zombies Break the Windows?, by Steven Horwitz and Sarah Skwire To Truck, Barter... And Eat Your Brains!!! Pursuing Prosperity in a Post-Productive World, by Brian Hollar What Happens Next? Endgames of a Zombie Apocalypse, by Kyle William Bishop, David Tufte, and Mary Jo Tufte Order, Coordination, and Collective Action among the Undead, by Jean-Baptiste Fleury and Alain Marciano Part III: Blood Money Investing Secrets of the Undead, by James Dow Zombification Insurance, by Eleanor Brown and Robert Prag Monsters of Capital: Vampires, Zombies, and Consumerism, by Lorna Piatti-Farnell Trading with the Undead: A Study in Specialization and Comparative Advantage, by Darwyyn Deyo and David T. Mitchell Buy or Bite?, by Enrique Guerra-Pujol To Shoot or to Stake, That Is the Question: The Market for Anti-Vampire Weapons, by Charlotte Weil and Sebastien Lecou Taxation of the Undead: Non-Sentient Entities, by Joseph Mandarino Part IV: The Dead Body Politic Tragedy of the Blood Commons: The Case for Privatizing the Humans, by Glen Whitman Zombies as an Invasive Species, by Michael E. O'Hara What Would the Reasonable Man Do in a World Gone Mad?, by Brian Hollar Brain-Dead vs. Undead: Public Ignorance and the Political Economy of Responses to Vampires and Zombies, by Ilya Somin Sinking Our Teeth into Public Policy Economics: A Taste of Immortality, by Fabien Medvecky Where Oh Where Have the Vampires Gone? An Extension of the Tiebout Hypothesis to the Undead, by A.L. Phillips, M.C. Phillips, and G.M. Phillips Part V: Brain Food The Economics of Bloodlust, by Ian Chadd Between Gods and Monsters: Reason, Instinct, and the Artificial Vampire, by Daniel Farhat Killing Time: Dracula and Social Discoordination, by Hollis Robbins Pop Culture Bibliography Contributor Biographies

Review of Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter by Ilya Somin (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013)

Review of Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter by Ilya Somin (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013).

Democracy and political ignorance: why smaller government is smarter

One of the biggest problems with modern democracy is that most of the public is usually ignorant of politics and government. Often, many people understand that their votes are unlikely to change the outcome of an election and don't see the point in learning much about politics. This may be rational, but it creates a nation of people with little political knowledge and little ability to objectively evaluate what they do know. In Democracy and Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin mines the depths of ignorance in America and reveals the extent to which it is a major problem for democracy. Somin weighs various options for solving this problem, arguing that political ignorance is best mitigated and its effects lessened by decentralizing and limiting government. Somin provocatively argues that people make better decisions when they choose what to purchase in the market or which state or local government to live under, than when they vote at the ballot box, because they have stronger incentives to acquire relevant information and to use it wisely.

Ilya Somin, Democracy and political ignorance: why smaller government is smarter

Ilya Somin, Democracy and political ignorance: why smaller government is smarter

The Constitutionality of the Individual Mandate

Since the Affordable Care Act was passed, numerous lawsuits have been filed arguing that the federal mandate that individuals obtain health insurance is unconstitutional. Three appeals courts have issued mixed rulings, and the matter will probably ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. In this video roundtable, Wendy Mariner moderates a discussion between legal scholars Jack Balkin and Ilya Somin focusing on the relevant constitutional issues.

Stillborn Crusade: The Tragic Failure of Western Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918-1920.

Journal Article Stillborn Crusade: The Tragic Failure of Western Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918–1920. By Ilya Somin. (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1996. x, 236 pp. $32.95, ISBN 1-56000 274-3.) Get access Frederick S. Calhoun Frederick S. Calhoun Centerville, Virginia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 84, Issue 1, June 1997, Page 276, https://doi.org/10.2307/2952842 Published: 01 June 1997