Monday, August 18, 2014

I'm # 6,400,831!

That means someone has pre-ordered Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom.  Maybe even two someones.

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Blogging the Annual Review of Political Science

Over at BHL, I'm blogging my way through a round of reading the 2013 and 2014 Annual Reviews of Political Science this summer.

Nomos LV: Federalism and Subsidiarity


Now in print: Nomos LV: Federalism and Subsidiarity (hardcover or electronic).

Nomos LV: Federalism and Subsidiarity, edited by James E. Fleming and Jacob T. Levy

"In Federalism and Subsidiarity, a distinguished interdisciplinary group of scholars in political science, law, and philosophy address the application and interaction of the concept of federalism within law and government. What are the best justifications for and conceptions of federalism? What are the most useful criteria for deciding what powers should be allocated to national governments and what powers reserved to state or provincial governments? What are the implications of the principle of subsidiarity for such questions? What should be the constitutional standing of cities in federations? Do we need to “remap” federalism to reckon with the emergence of translocal and transnational organizations with porous boundaries that are not reflected in traditional jurisdictional conceptions? Examining these questions and more, this latest installation in the NOMOS series sheds new light on the allocation of power within federations."


CONTENTS
Preface
James E. Fleming and Jacob T. Levy

Part I. Federalism, Positive Benefits, and Negative Liberties

1. Defending Dual Federalism: A Self-Defeating Act
Sotirios A. Barber

2. Defending Dual Federalism: A Bad Idea, But Not Self-Defeating
Michael Blake

3. The Puzzling Persistence of Dual Federalism
Ernest A. Young

4. Foot Voting, Federalism, and Political Freedom
Ilya Somin

Part II. Constitutions, Federalism, and Subsidiarity

5. Federalism and Subsidiarity: Perspectives from U.S. Constitutional Law
Steven G. Calabresi and Lucy D. Bickford

6. Subsidiarity, the Judicial Role, and the Warren Court’s Contribution to the Revival of State Government
Vicki C. Jackson

7. Competing Conceptions of Subsidiarity
Andreas Føllesdal

8. Subsidiarity and Robustness: Building the Adaptive Efficiency of Federal Systems
Jenna Bednar

Part III. The Entrenchment of Local and Provincial Autonomy, Integrity, and Participation

9. Cities and Federalism
Daniel Weinstock

10. Cities, Subsidiarity, and Federalism
Loren King

11. The Constitutional Entrenchment of Federalism
Jacob T. Levy

Part IV. Remapping Federalism(s)
12. Federalism(s)’ Forms and Norms: Contesting Rights, De-Essentializing Jurisdictional Divides, and Temporizing Accommodations
Judith Resnik

Thursday, May 29, 2014

RGCS postdoc 2014-15


The Research Group on Constitutional Studies at McGill University invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship for academic year 2014-15, renewable for 2015-16.  The Fellow will receive a stipend of $C 50,000 per year as well as a research fund and benefits.  

The Fellow will be expected to be in residence at McGill throughout the academic year, and to take an active part in workshops, conferences, and the intellectual life of RGCS and appropriate related research groups and centres (for political theorists, the Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Philosophie Politique, GRIPP).  The Fellow will also be expected to teach one course per year, most likely an upper-level undergraduate course on "Philosophy, Economics, and Society," though other matches between curricular needs and the Fellow's interests are possible.

The competition has a preference for political theorists, but is also open to those whose research in comparative politics or the public law field of political science falls within the theme of constitutional studies: constitutional design, constitutional law, and the operation of constitutional-level political institutions.  

Applicants should send a cover letter, CV, research statement (including a plan of the work to be pursued in the next two years), one writing sample of no more than 10,000 words, to RGCS.McGill@gmail.com by June 20, 2014, and should arrange for 2-3 letters of recommendation to be sent to the same address.  It is helpful and welcome if the cover letter specifies one or more political science members of RGCS' faculty roster ( http://www.mcgill.ca/rgcs/faculty ) who might be most appropriate as a research advisor, but the final match with an advisor or advisors may differ. 

The competition is open with respect to nationality; knowledge of French is an advantage but not required.  Other information on postdoctoral fellowships at McGill is available at http://www.mcgill.ca/gps/postdocs/fellows , including information on obtaining a Canadian work permit if necessary.  Ph.D. must have been awarded between January 1, 2010 and the date of application, or else the dissertation must have been successfully defended and all requirements for the degree completed by the date of application (i.e. with formal awarding of the degree still pending).

All e-mailed parts of an application including letters of recommendation should include the applicant's name in the subject line.  Applications submitted as one complete interfolio file are welcome. 

Saturday, February 01, 2014

"Taking Politics Less Seriously"

My talk at an Institute for Liberal Studies seminar on rejecting the fiction that the political world reflects one's will or one's soul is now online. Politics is something that happens to us, something we have to manage and live with as best we can; it has no natural tendency to reflect our wills or our consent, and the insistence that it does only empowers the people who want to falsely impute consent to us and claim to be harming us in our own name.