Summer-School in “Political Philosophy & Public Policy:
Predistribution and Property-Owning Democracy”, by Professor Stuart White (Oxford) and Professor Martin O’Neill (York)
Course Description: In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in issues at the intersection of political philosophy and public policy. In particular, attention has increasingly turned to the question of what kind of institutions and policies would be needed in order to create a significantly more just society.
Contemporary circumstances of rising inequality and severe austerity add to the urgency of thinking creatively, in a philosophically informed way, about alternative economic arrangements. Initiatives such as Occupy have protested the apparent lack of political imagination in response to the financial crisis and its consequences, underscoring the need to consider and explore alternatives.
This summer-school will examine one broad current of thinking about alternatives associated with the idea of “predistribution”. It will look in particular at John Rawls's idea of a “property-owning democracy”; at the relationship between strategies of “predistribution” and “redistribution”; and at specific policy proposals such as universal basic income, basic capital, and models of “high road” capitalism. A key issue to consider will be whether predistribution strategy can be thought of primarily in terms of 'human capital', jobs and wages or needs also to encompass productive and financial assets (and, if so, in what ways). A further issue to be explored is the trade off between equality and efficiency in the different social arrangements of a property-owning democracy, a basic income guarantee, and the traditional welfare state.
When: 14-18 July 2014
Where: Auditório novo do Instituto de Letras e Ciências Humanas (ILCH), University of Minho, Braga (Portugal)
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PROGRAM
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Day 1 Afternoon (July 14)
16h00 Welcome words by João Cardoso Rosas, Michele Loi and Roberto Merrill
16h10 Symposium on Martin O'Neill & Thad Williamson (Eds.). (2012). Property-owning Democracy: Rawls and beyond. John Wiley & Sons.
Chair: José de Sousa e Brito
Comments by: David Alvarez, Lisa Fuller, Siba Harb, Milena Lavigne, Lucas Petroni. Replies by Martin O’Neill
18h00 Lecture 1: Martin O’Neill, Predistribution: The Very Idea
---------------------------------
Day 2 Morning (July 15)
Chair: Sara Amighetti
10h00 Lecture 2: Stuart White, Predistribution: labourist or liberal?
Presentations:
Juliana Bidadanure, Basic Income versus Basic Capital: an intergenerational perspective
Jorge Mateus, Predistribution and basic income as the libertarian shortcut to replace the welfare state
Day 2 Afternoon
Chair: Juliana Bidadanure
14h30 Lecture 3: Stuart White, Predistribution and the commons
Presentations:
Sara Amighetti, UBI and the Boundary Problem: What is the scope of unconditional basic income policies?
Franck Lecocq, Beyond Market and State : rethinking gouvernance and property of the commons
------------------------------------
Day 3 Afternoon (July 16)
Chair: Siba Harb
14h30 Lecture 4: Martin O’Neill, Rawlsian Property-Owning Democracy: Prospects and Problems
Presentations:
Reima launonen, Reclaiming Properties – Rawlsian Property-owning Democracy as a Way to Renew Welfare State
John Wilesmith, Property-Owning Democracy vs. Welfare-State Capitalism: Two Conceptions of Ideal-Types in Rawlsian Political Theory
---------------------------------
Day 4 Morning (July 17)
Chair: João Cardoso Rosas
10h00 Lecture 5: Augusto Santos Silva, Pre-distributive versus re-distributive policy: opposition or complementarity?
Presentations:
Michael Bennett, Ethical implications of economic consequences of predistribution
Robert Lepenies, Efficiency, Economics and Technocratic Optimism in Rawls’s Theory of Justice
Day 4 Afternoon
Chair: Pedro Teixeira
14h30 Lecture 6: Stuart White, Post-democracy and the politics of predistribution
Presentations:
Eric Fabri, From appropriation to property: can a fair appropriation legitimate private property right?
Charles Delmotte, Endowment-taxation as an infringement of self-ownership. Towards a self-ownership friendly taxation theory
---------------------------------
Day 5 Morning (July 18)
Chair: Michele Loi
10h00 Lecture 7: Martin O’Neill, Predistribution, Public Policy and the future of social democracy
Presentations:
Thomas Ferretti, Current accounts of « predistribution » and their limits
Haye Hazenberg, Is the state a property owner? Rousseau and Hume on international property ownership
13h30 End of school
-------------
This event is organized by the Political Theory Group of CEHUM, University of Minho (Braga).
Contacts: Roberto Merrill ([email protected]) or Michele Loi ([email protected])
Course Description: In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in issues at the intersection of political philosophy and public policy. In particular, attention has increasingly turned to the question of what kind of institutions and policies would be needed in order to create a significantly more just society.
Contemporary circumstances of rising inequality and severe austerity add to the urgency of thinking creatively, in a philosophically informed way, about alternative economic arrangements. Initiatives such as Occupy have protested the apparent lack of political imagination in response to the financial crisis and its consequences, underscoring the need to consider and explore alternatives.
This summer-school will examine one broad current of thinking about alternatives associated with the idea of “predistribution”. It will look in particular at John Rawls's idea of a “property-owning democracy”; at the relationship between strategies of “predistribution” and “redistribution”; and at specific policy proposals such as universal basic income, basic capital, and models of “high road” capitalism. A key issue to consider will be whether predistribution strategy can be thought of primarily in terms of 'human capital', jobs and wages or needs also to encompass productive and financial assets (and, if so, in what ways). A further issue to be explored is the trade off between equality and efficiency in the different social arrangements of a property-owning democracy, a basic income guarantee, and the traditional welfare state.
When: 14-18 July 2014
Where: Auditório novo do Instituto de Letras e Ciências Humanas (ILCH), University of Minho, Braga (Portugal)
------------
PROGRAM
------------
Day 1 Afternoon (July 14)
16h00 Welcome words by João Cardoso Rosas, Michele Loi and Roberto Merrill
16h10 Symposium on Martin O'Neill & Thad Williamson (Eds.). (2012). Property-owning Democracy: Rawls and beyond. John Wiley & Sons.
Chair: José de Sousa e Brito
Comments by: David Alvarez, Lisa Fuller, Siba Harb, Milena Lavigne, Lucas Petroni. Replies by Martin O’Neill
18h00 Lecture 1: Martin O’Neill, Predistribution: The Very Idea
---------------------------------
Day 2 Morning (July 15)
Chair: Sara Amighetti
10h00 Lecture 2: Stuart White, Predistribution: labourist or liberal?
Presentations:
Juliana Bidadanure, Basic Income versus Basic Capital: an intergenerational perspective
Jorge Mateus, Predistribution and basic income as the libertarian shortcut to replace the welfare state
Day 2 Afternoon
Chair: Juliana Bidadanure
14h30 Lecture 3: Stuart White, Predistribution and the commons
Presentations:
Sara Amighetti, UBI and the Boundary Problem: What is the scope of unconditional basic income policies?
Franck Lecocq, Beyond Market and State : rethinking gouvernance and property of the commons
------------------------------------
Day 3 Afternoon (July 16)
Chair: Siba Harb
14h30 Lecture 4: Martin O’Neill, Rawlsian Property-Owning Democracy: Prospects and Problems
Presentations:
Reima launonen, Reclaiming Properties – Rawlsian Property-owning Democracy as a Way to Renew Welfare State
John Wilesmith, Property-Owning Democracy vs. Welfare-State Capitalism: Two Conceptions of Ideal-Types in Rawlsian Political Theory
---------------------------------
Day 4 Morning (July 17)
Chair: João Cardoso Rosas
10h00 Lecture 5: Augusto Santos Silva, Pre-distributive versus re-distributive policy: opposition or complementarity?
Presentations:
Michael Bennett, Ethical implications of economic consequences of predistribution
Robert Lepenies, Efficiency, Economics and Technocratic Optimism in Rawls’s Theory of Justice
Day 4 Afternoon
Chair: Pedro Teixeira
14h30 Lecture 6: Stuart White, Post-democracy and the politics of predistribution
Presentations:
Eric Fabri, From appropriation to property: can a fair appropriation legitimate private property right?
Charles Delmotte, Endowment-taxation as an infringement of self-ownership. Towards a self-ownership friendly taxation theory
---------------------------------
Day 5 Morning (July 18)
Chair: Michele Loi
10h00 Lecture 7: Martin O’Neill, Predistribution, Public Policy and the future of social democracy
Presentations:
Thomas Ferretti, Current accounts of « predistribution » and their limits
Haye Hazenberg, Is the state a property owner? Rousseau and Hume on international property ownership
13h30 End of school
-------------
This event is organized by the Political Theory Group of CEHUM, University of Minho (Braga).
Contacts: Roberto Merrill ([email protected]) or Michele Loi ([email protected])