Liberalism Research Articles

Liberalism’s Difficult Relationship with the Welfare State

This paper makes two related points. First, as liberals have started to realize that the welfare state is unable to deliver on egalitarian theories of justice, they have increasingly tried to dissociate their theories from the welfare state. Second, dissociating from the welfare state type of thinking is difficult for some liberal egalitarian theories such as John Rawls's theory of justice as his theory shares some of the same underlying thinking as found in the welfare state. For example, Rawls's understanding of universal citizenship and the difference principle resembles some of the aspects of the welfare state on how social equality and citizenship are tied to productivity and society as a venture of mutual cooperation. Consequently, liberals are caught in a difficult relationship where they can only partially move beyond the welfare state. Because of this affinity liberals should move beyond a Rawlsian framework, as Rawls's theory is difficult to completely dissociate from the welfare state.

News Translation as Media Work in Agency Journalism? Evidence from United News of India Urdu

ABSTRACT Western liberal media theories often neglect to recognize “news translation” as one of the journalistic practices. This paper problematizes this dominant understanding of journalistic practice and expands the Bourdieusian media sociology project beyond western media systems by applying it to Indian agency journalism. A case study of the United News of India Urdu (UNIU) serves as the basis for this examination, drawing on an ethnography of news production practices, and supplemented with in-depth interviews conducted with Muslim journalists from 2018 to 2020 across four major Indian cities. Through this investigation, the paper asserts that “news translation” is indeed a vital but contested component of media work within the sphere of Indian-language journalism. The paper uses “media work” as a key concept to demonstrate that UNIU’s journalists are anchored in the field of journalism, as is evidenced by their institutional-cum-organizational location and their application of the elements of journalistic practice to their work.

Can We Design Spontaneity? Hayek, Design, and the Normative Appeal of Spontaneous Orders

Spontaneous orders are an essential concept in political theory and political economy. Such orders entail the impossibility of predicting outcomes in detail and hence controlling and directing social processes. Many phenomena characterizing contemporary societies can be depicted as spontaneous orders, from the housing and financial markets to the evolution of norms and trends. Yet, it is well known that not every spontaneous order is beneficial. Therefore, what form of political framework is compatible with recognizing such orders? In this article, I address this problem through the example of the work of Friedrich Hayek, a prominent liberal theorist of spontaneous orders. His work shows the necessity to theorize a government of spontaneous orders based on maximizing reasonable expectations and individual freedom. I finally emphasize what such a theory implies for political power, which is not abolished but should handle complexity appropriately.

Analysis of Indonesian coal export policy

Indonesia's coal exports play an important role in driving the country's economy and are one of its main export commodities. As one of the world's largest coal producers, Indonesia consistently contributes significantly to the global market. This research aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the export policy of coal commodities in Indonesia. The research method is qualitative, using a descriptive analysis approach. The study examines policies related to coal exports, including government regulations, trade rules, environmental regulations, and other policies that influence the Indonesian coal export process or policy changes that affect Indonesian coal exports. At the same time, it analyses the effects and implications of these policies on the export of coal commodities in Indonesia. The research uses the theory of trade liberalism as a framework to address the research objectives. The findings indicate that Indonesia's coal export policy significantly impacts the coal industry, the national economy and international market dynamics. Although mercantilism may persist for a certain period, the dominance of liberalism, which adheres to the principles of market mechanism, has successfully surpassed the influence of mercantilism. Thus, this research contributes to a better understanding of the role of coal in Indonesia's export context and provides a basis for future policy improvements.

Who belongs to the “historic nation”? Fictive ethnicity and (iI)liberal uses of religious heritage

ABSTRACT Scholars in various academic disciplines have pointed out how national religious heritage is increasingly appropriated by the far right, to construct a false binary between secular Christian European states on the one hand, and Islam on the other. This article contributes to this literature by examining how these political developments, often deemed “illiberal”, are enabled by “liberal” uses of religious heritage. Using the lens of what Étienne Balibar calls “fictive ethnicity”, the article examines how both liberal and illiberal uses of religious heritage in Western Europe construct a historic nation to which only dominant groups can lay claim, which contributes to the symbolic and material marginalisation of minorities. This has repercussions for analyses of socio-political exclusion and for liberal nationalist theory: addressing contemporary inequalities requires not only limiting explicitly exclusionary forms of nationalism, but also actively unsettling the widespread ontology of homogeneity underpinning national fictive ethnicities.

Property-time: serial archives, settler logics, and illiberal space–time oddities

Liberal theories of property assume a linear and serialized temporal orientation facilitated by title registries, recording systems, and the exaltation of land archives. These assumptions, what I call ‘property-time’, can be productively put into relation with dominant geographic theories of space in two ways. First, I argue that distinguishing liberal notions of property-time from geographic space–time allows us to observe a key dialectic involving the attachment of value (and capital) to space, a process that tracks alongside contradictions of capitalist desire: the desire to continually reshape space (becoming) and to extract enduring and permanent, individuated value from it (being). Second, liberal temporalities of property struggle to apply in illiberal global contexts. Here, states enact urban accumulation regimes that deviate from linear, individuated and sequential notions of property by manipulating records and surgically erasing past ownership. These acts are often characterized as forms of state variegation and provisionality. They are also endemic to how both capital and value are created and/or arbitraged by states through the land regime. These formations remain difficult to connect to traditional theories about the production of value under capital because assumed time logics of property limit our theoretical capacity to describe illiberal urban accumulation regimes.

A Land Acknowledgment in a Different Key: Palestine, Solidarity and the Disruption of the Liberal Script

Rather than the exception to an otherwise progressive intellectual environment in North American, and specifically Canadian universities, the suppression of speech related to Palestine reveals the racial limits of a settler-colonial liberal politics of acknowledgment and reconciliation. The mainstream or institutional conceptualisation of academic freedom does not address the structural racism and settler-colonial realities within which Canadian universities are embedded, rendering them as ‘natural’ allies for Israeli institutions and state practices. A complicated, if revealing, moment of exposure of the limits of the liberal script of reconciliation is the land acknowledgment, which has become, since October 2023, an opportunity grasped by some critical scholars to acknowledge the links between the ongoing genocide in Palestine and settler colonialism across Turtle Island. Tracing the oppositional functions of the land acknowledgment, this article exposes the political limits of a liberal racial order, which is explicitly challenged by expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation.

Towards an ontology of struggle: The Marxist-Humanist theory of social transformation in the work of Raya Dunayevskaya

This article outlines Dunayevskaya’s original but underappreciated contribution to Marxism as a body of theory and practice. Focusing specifically on her Marxist-Humanist ‘ontology of struggle’ in its various dimensions, it draws out her engagement with Marx such that a new, vitalised account of social transformation is elaborated. From her critique of labour and state capitalism to her account of the dual movement between practice and theory, to her attentiveness to the ‘voices from below’ and to the ‘new passions and forces that develop in the bosom of society’, a theory is elaborated that expands the traditional Marxian dialectic to the struggles of racialised groups, women and other minorities. In so doing, it offers a basis from which to re-appraise liberatory politics, and to renew the emancipatory thrust of Marx’s writings.

Critical Contextual Empiricism and the Politics of Knowledge

What are philosophers doing when they prescribe a particular epistemology for science? According to science and technology studies, the answer to this question implicates both knowledge and politics, even when the latter is hidden. Exploring this dynamic via a specific case, I argue that Longino’s “critical contextual empiricism” ultimately relies on a form of political liberalism. Her choice to nevertheless foreground epistemological concerns can be clarified by considering historical relationships between science and society, as well as the culture of academic philosophy. This example, I conclude, challenges philosophers of science to consider the political ideals and accountability entailed by their prescribed knowledge practices.

POPULIST NATIONALISM WHETHER ‘TRUMP’-ING THE LEGITIMACY IN THE CAUSE OF SOCIAL EQUALITY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW?

The election of Trump marks the watershed in the history of International Law being an exemplification of a growing trend of populist nationalism globally, particularly after Brexit. Scholars recognize the predominant mode of articulation of these nationalist sentiments to be within the ‘cultural backlash’ theory. The authors explore the underlying legitimacy of the nationalist cause as being depicted by the concern of the economic have-nots over the unequal spread of the gains of globalization as having the potential to shatter the uncertain basis of international co-operation founded on trans-national economic integration. Deep tension ensues from this discrepancy between the non-progressive, retaliatory and state-centered claims of nationalism despite the legitimacy of the cause being universal. Such elitist articulation of a state’s interests/concerns in international law paves the way for a predominant use of the consensual theory to explain the scope of international co-operation, raising a problematic concern as to whether it is possible to by such distorted representation of the underlying legitimate claims of the people to trivialize the central liberal values, now universally accepted, as matters of mere politics and not governed by rules of law? Constitutionalism in international law is considered herein as an instrument to institutionalize the hierarchical superiority of certain liberal values and non-derogable core principles including the ideal of social equality as a basis of world peace. The researchers present this as one method to optimally reconcile the tensions in the present global order as it ultimately provides a framework to curtail the ability of those wielding the state’s political power to further the elitist agenda at the cost of the legitimate demand of the people, the ultimate beneficiaries of an international legal order. The paper emphasizes the urgent need to ease out these tensional elements, as realizing the goal of social equality is possible only by international co-operation.

RAJA RAMMOHAN ROY: AN ANALYSIS OF HIS LIBERAL THINKING

Liberalism is one of the dominant political ideologies in the Nineteenth Century in Europe and today globally. Locke, Bentham, Mill, and all other liberalists seek to establish individual liberty and rights of the individuals. These are the core political values of liberalism. However, in the history of Indian political thought, Raja Rammohan Roy was a social reformer, the father of India’s Renaissance, the inaugurator of Modern India, and the ‘prophet of humanity’, had provided his liberal political views and argued it was the best ideology for the development and progress of India and its societies. He also speaks for individual liberty, freedom of the nations, rights of the individuals and their education, faith in democracy and constitutionalism, international coexistence, liberal perception of law and legislation, etc. All these made him a truly liberal thinker in India.

‘The Private is Political’. The Problem of the Private/Public Divide in the Light of Feminist Theory of the Second Half of the 20th Century

Starting from the slogan ‘The Private is Political’, resounding in the American women’s liberation movement, a feminist critique of the separation of the private (domestic/family) sphere and the public sphere, in its early modern form, is presented. The private sphere, with women assigned to it, is, on the grounds of early modern political theory, outlawed from the rules deemed to apply to the public world, and impregnated from sound analysis and possible reform. The separation of the private and the political masks the interdependence between the two spheres and serves to legitimise gender inequality. Feminist theory problematizes this divide and reveals the complex interplay between private and public. Two themes stand out in the analysis: the subsumption of women under the family based on liberal theories of the social contract, and the idealisation of the domestic sphere, imagined as an emotional and moral refuge, in opposition to the public world, marked by egoism and impersonality. This construction serves an ideological function, reinforcing the separation attributing women to the home and family.

Foreign views on the culture of Soviet Kazakhstan: an analysis of historiography

The research conducted by American scholars focused on themes such as nationality, language, religion, politics, modernization, and cultural change. These scholars sought to understand the implementation of Sovietnational policies in a multi-ethnic society like Kazakhstan and the delicate balance between Soviet identityand ethnic identities within the union. Language reform and its impact on cultural and linguistic diversitywere also explored, along with the interaction between Islam and the secular ideology of the Soviet state. Theeffects of Soviet modernization programs on Kazakhstani society, including the disruption of traditional prac-tices and ways of life, were investigated. Moreover, the study examined how Soviet policies influenced cul-tural institutions, literary practices, and artistic expression, highlighting the tensions between conformity toSoviet norms and the preservation of a distinctive Kazakh cultural identity. The article acknowledges that thebroader global dynamics of the Cold War era influenced the interpretive frameworks and assumptions ofthese scholars. As part of an intellectual tradition shaped by Western liberal values, American scholars oftentook a critical stance toward the Soviet system. Their research emphasized the failures, problems, and resistance generated by Soviet policies, including state modernization, national policies, and language reforms.The article concludes that despite valuable contributions from scholars such as Wheeler, Allworth, and Con-nolly, a comprehensive examination of Kazakh culture during the Soviet period through the lens of foreignhistoriography remains lacking. It highlights the need for further research to deepen our understanding of themultifaceted aspects of Sovietera Kazakh culture, shedding light on the complexities and contradictions inherent in the Soviet project.

Victorian Omniscience and Liberal Politics in Anthony Trollope’s The Warden

Victorian Omniscience and Liberal Politics in Anthony Trollope’s The Warden

КОНЦЕПЦИЯ КУЛЬТУРНОГО НАЦИОНАЛИЗМА И ЕЁ РЕАЛИЗАЦИЯ В ИРЛАНДИИ В XIX – НАЧАЛЕ XX ВВ.

In the article, the authors attempt to analyze one of the most important components of the Irish national movement of the 19th – early 20th centuries, cultural nationalism. Irish nationalism throughout its history has tended to variously highlight issues of political liberation or self-government, agrarian and religious issues. Priorities largely depended both on the prevailing ideas of the leaders of the movement in a particular period, and on the corresponding political and social atmosphere. An important role was also played by the commitment of the leaders of nationalist organizations to the methodology for implementing their programs, be it “physical” or “moral strength”. However, the total dictatorship of Britain in imposing English culture, language, traditions, education with severe pressure on Irish culture, demanded from nationalists the formation of the identity of the Irish nation, the renovation of the rich national heritage. With the change in the social state of society at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, cultural nationalism gained a huge audience, while updating new directions in culture. The revolution of 1916-1923, while solving the problem of winning independence, also included the problem of national self-identification.

Political conjuncture and daily prison life: the political platform of the Liberal Alliance re-signified in the struggle of the common prisoners of the Recife House of Detention (1930-1935)

Este artigo examina a correlação entre os acontecimentos da Revolução de 1930 e a organização política dos presos comuns na Casa de Detenção do Recife. Inicialmente, buscamos compreender como a temática prisional foi instrumentaliza pela Aliança Liberal para expor politicamente o governo de Estácio Coimbra. Em seguida, escrutinamos como os presos utilizaram essa retórica política para pressionar e demandar os gestores da prisão e a própria interventoria. Para tanto, analisaremos a trajetória institucional do preso comum Claudino Augusto da Silva, um conhecido criminoso da cidade e liderança política na prisão. Entendemos que sua atuação política na prisão permite trazer à baila aspectos ainda pouco explorados pela história das prisões no contexto da Era Vargas.

Regulating European Union’s Border in Africa

Ceuta and Melilla are two enclaves that belong to Spain in Morocco and have become the contact points of the irregular migrants coming from Africa that are attempting to reach the European continent. The enclaves have utilized innovative technology and barbed wire, but immigrant crises have occurred over the years. Despite the crises, the Spanish and Moroccan governments choose to perform a semi-permeable border. This article explains the semi-permeable border using the liberal institutional theory. This article argues that a semi-permeable border is chosen by the Spanish and Moroccan governments to fulfill their mutual self-interests. The Spanish government agrees to perform a semi-permeable border to retain the symbolic border of the region. The blurring overlap in the enclaves has put the Spanish government to use help from the European Union to conduct security measures in the region. The Moroccan government agrees to perform a semi-permeable border to retain its influence over the enclaves and uses the immigrant crises as a bargaining chip for the European Union. The European Union maximizes the performance of a semi-permeable border to pursue its interest, which is to conduct the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Agreement.

Political liberalism, public reason and the Goldilocks problem: On Michelman’s Constitutional Essentials

Michelman's Constitutional Essentials raises important questions about the idea of political liberalism and related idea of public reason. This essay offers a sympathetic commentary while also exploring the importance of the idea of reciprocity for both Rawls and Michelman.

Has the owl flown with regard to ‘the constitutional theory of political liberalism’?

These are difficult times for the project of ‘political liberalism’. Frank Michelman is one of the most distinguished advocates for liberal constitutionalism, and one can only wonder if the time has past – that is, if the ‘owl of Minerva’ has perhaps flown – with regard to a constitutional project identified very much with the mid-20th century.

Corporate Social Responsibility in The Disinformation Age

Following a long period in which pressures to adopt CSR practices came largely from the left, the current communication environment has become far more divisive with the rise of illiberal political pressures from the right. These conflicting pressures arise from irreconcilable communication logics that threaten the future of CSR. This paper examines how these disruptive communication logics reflect the changing roles of disinformation in CSR communication, highlighting two overlapping eras: (1) the history of some companies using disinformation strategically to avoid or misrepresent CSR commitments; and (2) the more recent addition of what we term systemic disinformation generated by politicians, think tanks, and irresponsible competitors. These disinformation spheres challenge liberal democratic values and amplify attacks on CSR values. We discuss the dilemmas for companies seeking to adopt more responsible business practices and explore the implications of CSR communication becoming increasingly linked to larger societal conflicts over the nature of democracy.