Towards a Liberal Utopia?


Book Description

The first part of this fascinating book outlines the dreams of liberal economics and political scientists. The thinkers sketch out frameworks for policy, which, in increasing the domain for individual action, will give rise to beneficial results and lead to a better and more prosperous soceity. The second part of the book shows how an earlier generation of liberal economists turned ideas into action. Led by Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, the authors writing for the IEA helped to turn back the tide of collectivism by exposing its intellectual failings.




Towards a Liberal Utopia?


Book Description

Socialists have never been shy of sketching out their dreams of a better world, but that better world has never materialised in socialist countries. Indeed, socialism has frequently achieved the precise opposite of what was intended by its architects.The first part of Towards a Liberal Utopia? outlines the dreams of liberal economists and political scientists. These are not the dreams of people who wish to achieve their plans through central direction and who believe they know the precise outcome of the process called liberalisation. Rather our liberal thinkers sketch out frameworks for policy, which, in increasing the domain for individual action, will give rise to beneficial results that cannot be foreseen in detail. This will not lead to utopia, but the authors are confident that greater freedom will lead to better and more prosperous society.The second part of the book shows how an earlier generation of liberal economists turned ideas into action. Led by Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, the authors writing for the Institute of Economic Affairs helped to turn back the tide of collectivism by undermining its intellectual foundations. They were so successful that no serious political party now proposes a platform of central planning. As the authors featured in the first part of the book make clear, however, that does not mean that there are no new dragons of collectivism to slay. Some battles may have been won, but the war of ideas continues.Towards a Liberal Utopia? is essential reading for all those who are curious to know how the liberal economic agenda will develop over the coming generation.




Towards a Liberal Utopia?


Book Description

Towards a Liberal Utopia? is a free-market manifesto for the next fifty years covering a diverse range of policy areas, including health, education, social security, pensions, labour markets, tax policy, Europe and the environment. In addition to these visions of the future, Ralph Harris describes the success of the IEA in changing the climate of opinion in its first 50 years. Given the impact that the ideas of IEA authors have had on policy-making in the last 50 years - for example in trade union reform, removal of exchange and rent controls, the control of inflation, independence of central banks and the development of road user charging - Towards a Liberal Utopia? is essential reading for those keen to learn about the ideas that should dominate the policy agenda in the coming decades.




WTF!


Book Description

What would America look like if the liberals ultimately triumph, say by the year 2050? "WTF! This is a Liberal Utopia!" - a satire on liberalism, all the unintended consequences of this heart felt way of looking at the world around oneself, usually in the cloistered halls of academia, some government agency, some left-wing, nonprofit activist organization and, or congress. A really fantabulous glimpse at what the future holds when these magnificent, starry-eyed wonders finally come out on top! By 2050, America will have gone through some slight changes thus resulting in many really noteworthy phenomena. For one, there is no longer any need for elections: there will be a "Forever President" whose last name could be 'Castro.' Furthermore, odds are 'welfare moms' will have largely replaced small business enterprises with their monthly, government stipends; most Americans will as likely as not have never worked, because it is distinctly possible that there won't be any save for those "shovel ready jobs" the Democrats will in all likelihood keep bringing up. Gaia, Mother Earth, will have probably been rescued from the threatening effects of “Global Warming,” “Global Cooling,” and “Climate Change,” by turning to more agrarian economy where ‘maze’ is likely to be the cornerstone. For those lucky enough to own wheeled transportation, they will likely be driving around in either battery-powered, bubble cars made of styrofoam, or Latino lowriders which might look a lot like sparklers driving along the potholed highways of tomorrow. The English language will have been replaced by local, cultural colloquialisms with phonetics playing the principle role for making up words and phrases and writing them out. All this and more will be seen through the eyes of one of those liberal visionaries, an Ivy League English Professor whose name is Felix Schwartz; the narrator, the author and “the reader.” A glimpse into our wondrous future and what awaits us all when the magnificent munificents are finally given the reins to take America down that ‘Yellow Brick Road’ to their utopian, imaginary 'World of OZ.' "WTF! This is a Liberal Utopia!"




The United Utopian States of America


Book Description

The United Utopian States of America is a politically inspired book that points out numerous things that liberals in power are doing to compromise the safety, independence, and well being of our country. It depicts a nation that the liberals are working so hard to achieve. It then destroys the concepts and logic the liberals use in an attempt to further their push towards a perfect world. The author uses humor, sarcasm, and more common sense than can be found in the entire Democratic Party, to entertain as well as alert Americans of the danger posed by the liberal agenda. If America wishes to continue to thrive as a world leader, Americans need to become more aware of the things being done internally in our country that jeopardize that possibility. By banning drilling on domestic soil, liberals insure our dependence on foreign nations. By forcing our soldiers to fight sensitive battles liberals deny them the ability to win wars. By removing Christianity from all aspects of American society, liberals insure eventual chaos and the moral breakdown of our country. By excusing bad behavior by pointing to worse behavior, liberals prove they are unfit leaders and miserably unable to keep our nation strong, respected and admired. This book is a great way to look at what the left considers utopia and at the same time shows us exactly why the perfect world will be forever unattainable. It also points out how dangerous it would be to allow the left to implement its plan to create an American utopia. When a liberal makes demands hes actually selling you something you really dont want. When he tells you something, its a pretty good bet your getting less than half the truth on any given matter. Its not a good idea to trust liberals with the security of our nation and its an even worse idea to ignore their efforts to further their agenda. By ignoring their ridiculous claims and ideas, weve allowed liberals to get a foothold and with that theyve been able to gain ground. In fact, if we dont put and end to their foolishness soon this land wont be ours anymore. It will be theirs. Please enjoy The United Utopian States of America, and please be aware of the harm directed at our nation by liberals in the modern Democratic Party. Tell your friends and family to vote and to vote Right if you wish to continue enjoying freedom and prosperity here in America.




Liberalism as Utopia


Book Description

This book explores the legal culture of nineteenth-century Mexico and explains why liberal institutions flourished in some social settings but not others.




Political Uses of Utopia


Book Description

Utopia has long been banished from political theory, framed as an impossible—and possibly dangerous—political ideal, a flawed social blueprint, or a thought experiment without any practical import. Even the "realistic utopias" of liberal theory strike many as wishful thinking. Can politics think utopia otherwise? Can utopian thinking contribute to the renewal of politics? In Political Uses of Utopia, an international cast of leading and emerging theorists agree that the uses of utopia for politics are multiple and nuanced and lie somewhere between—or, better yet, beyond—the mainstream caution against it and the conviction that another, better world ought to be possible. Representing a range of perspectives on the grand tradition of Western utopianism, which extends back half a millennium and perhaps as far as Plato, these essays are united in their interest in the relevance of utopianism to specific historical and contemporary political contexts. Featuring contributions from Miguel Abensour, Étienne Balibar, Raymond Geuss, and Jacques Rancière, among others, Political Uses of Utopia reopens the question of whether and how utopianism can inform political thinking and action today.




Rawls Explained


Book Description

In this context Rawls challenges us to see the world through the lens of fairness. Injustice can only be effectively challenged if we can articulate, to ourselves and to others, both why a situation is unjust and how we might move towards justice. Political philosophy at its best offers both an answer to the why of injustice and the how of political and economic change. --




Rawls's Law of Peoples


Book Description

This volume examines Rawls's theory of international justice as worked out in his controversial last book, The Law of Peoples.




The End Of Utopia


Book Description

We are facing the end of politics altogether, Russell Jacoby argues in The End of Utopia. Political contestation is premised on people's capacity for offering competing visions of the future, but in a world that has run out of political ideas and no longer harbors any utopian visions, real political opposition is no longer possible. In particular, Jacoby traces the demise of liberal and leftist politics. Leftist intellectuals and critics no longer envision a different society, only a modified one. The left once dismissed the market as exploitative, but now honors it as rational and humane. The left used to disdain mass culture, but now celebrates it as rebellious. The left once rejected pluralism as superficial, but now resurrects pluralist ideas in the guise of multiculturalism.Ranging across a wide terrain of cultural and political phenomena—the end of the Cold War, the rise of multiculturalism, the acceptance of mass culture, the eclipse of independent intellectuals—Jacoby documents and laments a widespread retreat from the utopian spirit that has always been the engine for social and political change.