Cass Sunstein on “paranoid libertarianism” - Ilya Somin, Volokh Conspiracy, Washington Post:
February 6, 2014 - "Famed Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein’s recent op ed attacking 'paranoid libertarianism' makes some reasonable points against crude libertarian arguments. But it is also in part confusing and in part overstated.
"The piece is confusing because it is easily misinterpreted as an attack on libertarianism more generally, even though Sunstein himself draws a distinction between the two. In addition, Sunstein seems to be focusing on paranoid fear of any type of government power.... Sunstein might have done better to choose some other label for the phenomenon he seeks to criticize.
"Semantic confusion aside, each of the five 'defining characteristics' Sunstein attributes to 'paranoid libertarianism' is readily found in crude versions of most other ideologies, including left-liberalism. In addition, each of the five is actually quite defensible if put in less extreme terms.
"The first item on Sunstein’s list is 'a wildly exaggerated sense of risks — a belief that if government is engaging in certain action (such as surveillance or gun control), it will inevitably use its authority so as to jeopardize civil liberties and perhaps democracy itself.' The key word here is 'inevitably.' It is indeed absurd to think that anything government does inevitably endangers liberty or democracy. On the other hand, there are good reasons to believe that many government activities create serious risks to freedom, in part because widespread political ignorance compromises the ability of voters to effectively monitor government’s misdeeds. Libertarians are far from the only ones who worry that the combination of extensive regulation and voter ignorance can lead to a variety of harmful restrictions on liberty. Cass Sunstein himself has published an insightful book highlighting this danger (though his proposed solutions for it are very different from those offered by libertarians)."
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/02/06/cass-sunstein-on-paranoid-libertarianism/
February 6, 2014 - "Famed Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein’s recent op ed attacking 'paranoid libertarianism' makes some reasonable points against crude libertarian arguments. But it is also in part confusing and in part overstated.
"The piece is confusing because it is easily misinterpreted as an attack on libertarianism more generally, even though Sunstein himself draws a distinction between the two. In addition, Sunstein seems to be focusing on paranoid fear of any type of government power.... Sunstein might have done better to choose some other label for the phenomenon he seeks to criticize.
"Semantic confusion aside, each of the five 'defining characteristics' Sunstein attributes to 'paranoid libertarianism' is readily found in crude versions of most other ideologies, including left-liberalism. In addition, each of the five is actually quite defensible if put in less extreme terms.
"The first item on Sunstein’s list is 'a wildly exaggerated sense of risks — a belief that if government is engaging in certain action (such as surveillance or gun control), it will inevitably use its authority so as to jeopardize civil liberties and perhaps democracy itself.' The key word here is 'inevitably.' It is indeed absurd to think that anything government does inevitably endangers liberty or democracy. On the other hand, there are good reasons to believe that many government activities create serious risks to freedom, in part because widespread political ignorance compromises the ability of voters to effectively monitor government’s misdeeds. Libertarians are far from the only ones who worry that the combination of extensive regulation and voter ignorance can lead to a variety of harmful restrictions on liberty. Cass Sunstein himself has published an insightful book highlighting this danger (though his proposed solutions for it are very different from those offered by libertarians)."
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/02/06/cass-sunstein-on-paranoid-libertarianism/
No comments:
Post a Comment