Republic of Equals: Predistribution and Property-Owning Democracy (Oxford Political Philosophy) - Hardcover

Thomas, Alan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0190602112 ISBN 13: 9780190602116

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

The first book length study of property-owning democracy, Republic of Equals argues that a society in which capital is universally accessible to all citizens is uniquely placed to meet the demands of justice. Arguing from a basis in liberal-republican principles, this expanded conception of the economic structure of society contextualizes the market to make its transactions fair. The author shows that a property-owning democracy structures economic incentives such that the domination of one agent by another in the market is structurally impossible. The result is a renovated form of capitalism in which the free market is no longer a threat to social democratic values, but is potentially convergent with them. It is argued that a property-owning democracy has advantages that give it priority over rival forms of social organization such as welfare state capitalism and market socialist institutions. The book also addresses the currently high levels of inequality in the societies of the developed West to suggest a range of policies that target the "New Inequality" of our times. For this reason, the work engages not only with political philosophers such as John Rawls, Philip Pettit and John Tomasi, but also with the work of economists and historians such as Anthony B. Atkinson, François Bourguignon, Jacob S. Hacker, Lane Kenworthy, and Thomas Piketty.

About this title

From the Back Cover

It will be tremendously fertile in terms of its future effects on intellectual debates, and may even turn out to have some real (if, perhaps, indirect) political influence insofar as it is read by those thinking through the future political programmes of social democratic and left-liberal political parties... The book is testimony to many years of sustained work across a range of related literatures, and shows a sound grip on the debates with which it deals and with which it engages. - Martin O'Neill, Department of Politics, University of York.

About the Author

Alan Thomas is currently Professor of Ethics at the University of York. Educated at Cambridge, Harvard (as a Kennedy Scholar), and Oxford Universities he has held visiting appointments at the University of British Columbia, Tulane University, St. Louis University and the Australian National University. His interests in philosophy include moral and political philosophy, epistemology and the philosophy of mind

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0190602112
• ISBN 13: 9780190602116
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 472