The Three Ps of Liberty


Book Description

This book considers the “three Ps” of liberty: pragmatism, pluralism, and polycentricity. These concepts enrich the complex tradition of classical liberal jurisprudence, providing workable solutions based on the decentralization, diffusion, and dispersal of power.




The Three Pillars of Liberty


Book Description

In this landmark study, a thorough audit of British compliance with international human rights standards is carried out. The book identifies 42 violations and 22 near-violationsor causes for concern. It provides an up-to-date description of law and practice withrespect to freedom of information; freedom of expression; freedom of assembly and publicprotest; freedom of association and trade unionism; state surveillance; the right to lifeand liberty; and the right to vote and stand in elections. This study measures political freedom in the United Kingdom specifically against aunique Human Rights Index, specially constructed from international human rightslaws and jurisprudence by the authors. The Index is an important new tool formonitoring human rights around the world. It is already being used to monitor newlegislation in the UK. The Three Pillars of Liberty is the first-ever analysis of both the political and legalsystems for securing political freedom in the UK as a whole. It is the most rigorous andsystematic review of those systems yet published—and finds them wanting. It strikes atthe heart of the historic traditions of government and the rule of law in this country.This book will be essential reading for all those interested in their rights and the rightsof others.




The Pox of Liberty


Book Description

"Werner Troesken looks at the history of the United States with a focus on three diseases (smallpox, typhoid fever, and yellow fever) to show how constitutional rules and provisions that promoted individual liberty and economic prosperity also influenced, for good and for bad, the country's ability to eradicate infectious disease. Ranging from federalism under the Commerce Clause to the Contract Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, Troesken argues persuasively that many institutions intended to promote desirable political or economic outcomes also hindered the provision of public health"--Dust jacket.




Liberty


Book Description

Recent writing on the nature of freedom has served to underline a crucial gap in the academic experience. First--and most obviously--the concept of freedom has been modernized by its application to contemporary institutions. Second, a new approach to the concept of liberty has been pioneered in the construction of new typologies of freedom. Finally, awareness of variety in concepts of freedom has been paralleled in variations in the practice of freedom. The tumultuous history of Western man may be conceptualized as the story of how freedom has become embodied. What is missing from the story is the relationship of concepts to actions.This relationship has been established for some specific notions of freedom. Many of the philosophical analyses--especially recent ones like pragmatism and existentialism--have been predicated on actual human behavior. On the other hand, many classic histories of freedom--those of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, John Bagnell Bury, Guido de Ruggiero, and Harold Laski--have traced the actual development of a definite kind of freedom.This volume contains essays prepared to celebrate the anniversary of the publication of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, revised in the light of discussions by Henry D. Aiken, William Ebenstein, Mark DeWolfe Howe, and David Spitz, as well as other articles, many of them growing out of the discussion either in the form of commentary or independent contributions. There are also two papers written independently (Andrew Hacker and Leonard Krieger).




The Constitution of Liberty


Book Description

Originally published in 1960, The Constitution of Liberty delineates and defends the principles of a free society and traces the origin, rise, and decline of the rule of law. Casting a skeptical eye on the growth of the welfare state, Hayek examines the challenges to freedom posed by an ever expanding government as well as its corrosive effect on the creation, preservation, and utilization of knowledge. In distinction to those who confidently call for the state to play a greater role in society, Hayek puts forward a nuanced argument for prudence. Guided by this quality, he elegantly demonstrates that a free market system in a democratic polity—under the rule of law and with strong constitutional protections of individual rights—represents the best chance for the continuing existence of liberty. Striking a balance between skepticism and hope, Hayek’s profound insights remain strikingly vital half a century on. This definitive edition of The Constitution of Liberty will give a new generation the opportunity to learn from Hayek’s enduring wisdom.




The Price of Liberty


Book Description

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Liberty's First Crisis


Book Description

“Slack engagingly reveals how the Federalist attack on the First Amendment almost brought down the Republic . . . An illuminating book of American history.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review In 1798, with the United States in crisis, President John Adams and the Federalists in control of Congress passed an extreme piece of legislation that made criticism of the government and its leaders a crime punishable by heavy fines and jail time. From a loudmouth in a bar to a firebrand politician to Benjamin Franklin’s own grandson, those victimized by the 1798 Sedition Act were as varied as the country’s citizenry. But Americans refused to let their freedoms be so easily dismissed: they penned fiery editorials, signed petitions, and raised “liberty poles,” while Vice President Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drew up the infamous Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, arguing that the Federalist government had gone one step too far. Liberty’s First Crisis vividly unfolds these pivotal events in the early life of the republic, as the Founding Fathers struggled to define America off the page and preserve the freedoms they had fought so hard to create. “A powerful and engaging narrative . . . Slack brings one of America’s defining crises back to vivid life . . . This is a terrific piece of history.” —Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Thomas Jefferson




The English Radicals


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The Propriety of Liberty


Book Description

In this book, Duncan Kelly excavates, from the history of modern political thought, a largely forgotten claim about liberty as a form of propriety. By rethinking the intellectual and historical foundations of modern accounts of freedom, he brings into focus how this major vision of liberty developed between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries. In his framework, celebrated political writers, including John Locke, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Thomas Hill Green pursue the claim that freedom is best understood as a form of responsible agency or propriety, and they do so by reconciling key moral and philosophical claims with classical and contemporary political theory. Their approach broadly assumes that only those persons who appropriately regulate their conduct can be thought of as free and responsible. At the same time, however, they recognize that such internal forms of self-propriety must be judged within the wider context of social and political life. Kelly shows how the intellectual and practical demands of such a synthesis require these great writers to consider freedom as part of a broader set of arguments about the nature of personhood, the potentially irrational impact of the passions, and the obstinate problems of individual and political judgement. By exploring these relationships, The Propriety of Liberty not only revises the intellectual history of modern political thought, but also sheds light on contemporary debates about freedom and agency.




Liberty's Apostle - Richard Price, His Life and Times


Book Description

It introduces readers to a man largely unknown outside academia but who was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment and who championed, against powerful opposition, many of the rights and liberty’s we take for granted today. As a chronological account it covers and discusses Price’s writing on all the issues which interested him. Among them are political and civil liberty, parliamentary reform, life assurance, mathematics, moral philosophy and the American and French Revolutions. His comments on all these are as important today, and as enlightening, as they were in his time. The book is the first to make extensive use of Price’s correspondence with the likes of Joseph Priestley, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and newly discovered letters from Price’s nephew in Paris during the July 1789 Revolution. This coupled with the chronological approach gives the reader an insight into his thinking and political developments during crucial periods of the eighteenth century Enlightenment and provides a high readable narrative for the general reader.