Market Freedom as Antipower

American Political Science Review 107 (3):593-602 (2013)
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Abstract

Historically, republicans were of different minds about markets: some, such as Rousseau, reviled them, while others, like Adam Smith, praised them. The recent republican resurgence has revived this issue. Classical liberals such as Gerald Gaus contend that neo-republicanism is inherently hostile to markets, while neo-republicans like Richard Dagger and Philip Pettit reject this characterization—though with less enthusiasm than one might expect. I argue here that the right republican attitude toward competitive markets is celebratory rather than acquiescent and that republicanism demands such markets for the same reason it requires the rule of law: because both are essential institutions for protecting individuals from arbitrary interference. I reveal how competition restrains—and in the limit, even eradicates—market power and thereby helps us realize “market freedom,” i.e., freedom as non-domination in the context of economic exchange. Finally, I show that such freedom necessitates “Anglo-Nordic” economic policies.

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Robert S. Taylor
University of California, Davis

Citations of this work

Algorithmic domination in the gig economy.James Muldoon & Paul Raekstad - 2023 - European Journal of Political Theory 22 (4):587-607.
Markets.Lisa Herzog - forthcoming - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2013.

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References found in this work

Political Liberalism.John Rawls - 1993 - Columbia University Press.
The social contract.Jean-Jacques Rousseau - 1947 - Harmondsworth,: Penguin Books. Edited by Charles Frankel.
Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government.Philip Pettit - 1999 - Philosophical Quarterly 49 (196):415-419.
Freedom as antipower.Philip Pettit - 1996 - Ethics 106 (3):576-604.

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