Social movements : setting the scene -- Commitment without coercion : social movements and collective engagement -- Varieties of voice and exit : social movement tactics -- Social movement encounters with society : contentious entanglements -- Social movements and liberty : case studies in the modern history of freedom -- Issues raised by contemporary social movements -- Meanings and methods of social movements : further implications -- Summary of key themes and arguments.
"'This book is a thoroughly researched and well written exploration of one of the most divisive topics in modern democratic discourse. Novak brings careful and clear thinking to a topic too often clouded in emotion and guided by moral intuition. '--Peter Boettke, Professor of Economics and Philosophy, George Mason University, USA'Inequality has bred a climate of hostile political discourse reminiscent of the cold war. In this lucid book, Novak explains how we can transcend that hostility by recognizing the deeply entangled character of politics and economics within modern societies.'--Richard E. Wagner, Hobart R. Harris Professor of Economics, George Mason University, USA'Mikayla Novak has provided a bold new intellectual foundation for social policy analysis.' --Jason Potts, Professor of Economics, RMIT University, Australia. In recent years the degree of income and wealth inequality within developed countries has been raised as a central issue in economic and social policy debates. Numerous figures across diverse ideological affinities have advocated policy measures to significantly alter income and wealth distributions, while the inequality debate has become infused with other subjects such as social justice and identity politics. This book presents an account of economic inequality from a contemporary classical liberal perspective. Inequality is seen as a by-product of entangled relationships within society, bringing to the fore key ideas from complexity, evolutionary and network sciences. Novak illustrates that inequality is problematic insofar as it generates pro-rich redistribution and constrains progress by the less well off. Economic inequality has important links with issues such as fiscal and regulatory policies, discrimination and social exclusion, and institutional design. This unique book is important reading for social science academics, policy makers and people interested in exploring the dimensions and solutions to inequality, a critical issue of our time."--
Charities and humanitarian organizations have come under closer scrutiny over recent years. Highly publicized financial scandals, together with criticisms concerning the cost, effectiveness, and underlying motivations of certain charitable and humanitarian activities, appear to have corroded public trust. Can recent innovations in blockchain assist in improving nonprofit effectiveness and, through it, trust amongst donors, beneficiaries, and broader communities? This paper deploys a "cost of trust" framework to assess blockchain potential in reinforcing trust in charitable and humanitarian operations. Blockchain has been touted by its advocates as a potential solution for charities to reduce the cost of trust, by: (i) enabling observable funding flows; (ii) enforcing conditions regarding funding disbursement and use; and (iii) facilitating direct giving. Despite a growing number of use cases, limitations of this technology in reducing the cost of trust are also recognized in respect of complex relationships between donating and trust perceptions in heterogeneous environments.
AbstractThis paper interrogates certain contractarian theoretical presumptions concerning the development and maintenance of political constitutions. Specifically, the extent to which constitutional agreement is said to be inclusive of all persons affected by the activation of proposed provisions, and the extent to which such provisions remain agreeable, is critically appraised. For example, rectifying historical exclusions of indigenous peoples from constitutional agreement procedures, and the constitutional accommodation of demands for racial equality and recognition of indigenous rights, presents as an important motivation for constitutional change in actually existing societies. The objective of this paper is to interpret constitutional developments on matters of indigenous rights as the manifestation of complex, adaptive arrangements, instituted by actions seeking to restructure political rules and reframe the boundaries of permissible political action. Taking the Australian case, this paper illustrates how acts of constitutional entrepreneurship by indigenous groups have contributed to constitutional changes such as racially non-discriminatory treatment and recognition of indigenous governance. Entrepreneurship is seen as a part of broader endogenous processes reshaping constitutions, including constitutional arbitrage by activists between legislatures and judiciaries, and mobilizing popular support for indigenous rights. The framework presented in this paper extends constitutional political economy insights regarding the evolution of basic political institutions.
ABSTRACT This article considers the relationship between modern classical liberalism and utopian theory. The main question we address is: How have key liberal theorists over the past century received utopian visions of the economy, politics, and society? The development of liberalism is commonly associated with strident anti-utopianism, a perception contraindicated by more recent developments in political economy and philosophy. Accommodative liberal engagements with utopia are evident within philosophical discussions addressing the significance of group diversity within free societies, and of maintaining social accord among peoples with divergent beliefs, practices, and other modes of living. This development aligns with a revitalized liberal political economy emphasis upon experimentation and process, which appears congruent with similar tendencies in utopian theory over recent decades. Even liberal critics of utopia, such as Friedrich Hayek, described their own grounded visions of either utopian society, or of piecemeal reforms in a utopian direction. In this article it is argued feasible intellectual opportunities do exist to reconcile liberal theory and utopian conceptions.
In: Usman W. Chohan & Sven Van Kerckhoven (2023). Activist Retail Investors and the Future of Financial Markets: Understanding YOLO Capitalism. Routledge. Forthcoming