Political Philosophy Journal
@polphiljournal.bsky.social
We showcase outstanding new scholarship in political philosophy, published open-access by the Open Library of Humanities. Edited by R. Goodin, C. Barry, C. Cordelli, J. Howard, N. Southwood & L. Ypi. https://politicalphilosophyjournal.org/articles/
New article in Political Philosophy: "A Democratic Right to Political Strikes" by Philipp Stehr (Technical University of Munich), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
A Democratic Right to Political Strikes
Democratic politics in practice often lags far behind the democratic ideals that justify democracy in theory. Where democratic theory postulates the equality of citizens and the accountability of elec...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
September 30, 2025 at 10:53 AM
New article in Political Philosophy: "A Democratic Right to Political Strikes" by Philipp Stehr (Technical University of Munich), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in Political Philosophy: "What Can We Learn from the Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem?" by Jacob Barrett (Vanderbilt), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
What Can We Learn from the Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem?
The Diversity Trumps Ability theorem suggests that, under certain conditions, more diverse groups outperform groups of more individually competent members. Despite initial excitement about the theorem...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
September 11, 2025 at 4:45 PM
New article in Political Philosophy: "What Can We Learn from the Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem?" by Jacob Barrett (Vanderbilt), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
New article in Political Philosophy: "Territory without Turf" by Jake Monaghan (USC), available open-access at politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
Territory without turf
The ideas of “territory” and “turf” are important parts of both our folk theory and scholarly treatments of the city. Our territory is where we feel at home and have a measure of control outside of ou...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
September 11, 2025 at 4:44 PM
New article in Political Philosophy: "Territory without Turf" by Jake Monaghan (USC), available open-access at politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
New article in Political Philosophy: "The Right to a Justification" by Samuel Dishaw (Louvain), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
The Right to a Justification
Many institutions and organizations now delegate important decisions to algorithms. These algorithms promise greater predictive accuracy, at a lower operating cost than the human decision-makers they ...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
September 11, 2025 at 4:43 PM
New article in Political Philosophy: "The Right to a Justification" by Samuel Dishaw (Louvain), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
New article in Political Philosophy: "The Value of Climate Despair" by Hannah Altehenger (Umeå) and Leonhard Menges (Salzburg), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
The Value of Climate Despair
Given the current and future suffering associated with human-made climate change and the lack of political action in response to it, it seems only natural to feel despair. However, despair has a bad r...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
September 11, 2025 at 4:42 PM
New article in Political Philosophy: "The Value of Climate Despair" by Hannah Altehenger (Umeå) and Leonhard Menges (Salzburg), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in Political Philosophy: "Effective Deoccupation: Towards Responsible Guardianship of Nature" by Alejandra Mancilla (Oslo), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
Effective Deoccupation: Towards Responsible Guardianship of Nature
The doctrine of effective occupation was developed by colonial powers to justify their sovereignty over newly annexed territories and was measured by animus occupandi, the will to be sovereign; and co...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
September 11, 2025 at 4:41 PM
New article in Political Philosophy: "Effective Deoccupation: Towards Responsible Guardianship of Nature" by Alejandra Mancilla (Oslo), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
New article in Political Philosophy: "An Epistemic Role for Opinion Journalism" by Zeynep Soysal (Rochester), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
An Epistemic Role for Opinion Journalism
According to the informational model, journalism’s primary function is to provide the public with information and help it acquire knowledge and understanding. Opinion journalism appears to conflict wi...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
September 11, 2025 at 4:40 PM
New article in Political Philosophy: "An Epistemic Role for Opinion Journalism" by Zeynep Soysal (Rochester), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
New article in Political Philosophy: "Collective Self-Determination and International Authority in Climate Governance" by Anna Stilz (UC Berkeley), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Collective Self-Determination and International Authority in Climate Governance
This article investigates how future climate governance might be made legitimate and compatible with collective self-determination. I develop an original account of international legitimacy through a...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
July 24, 2025 at 6:47 PM
New article in Political Philosophy: "Collective Self-Determination and International Authority in Climate Governance" by Anna Stilz (UC Berkeley), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in Political Philosophy: "Policy Experiments, Informed Consent, and Democratic Authorization" by Marcos Picchio (National Institutes of Health), available open-access at politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
Policy Experiments, Informed Consent, and Democratic Authorization
In a typical clinical trial, researchers are required to obtain participants’ informed consent. But for some policy experiments, it is impracticable to obtain informed consent. As a result, these tria...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
July 24, 2025 at 6:46 PM
New article in Political Philosophy: "Policy Experiments, Informed Consent, and Democratic Authorization" by Marcos Picchio (National Institutes of Health), available open-access at politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/2...
New article in Political Philosophy: "Must Jurors Know the Stakes of Conviction? Sentencing, Encroachment, and Legal Proof" by J. Colin Bradley (NYU) and Eleanor Gordon-Smith (Princeton), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Must Jurors Know the Stakes of Conviction? Sentencing, Encroachment, and Legal Proof
A recent view in legal epistemology holds that since knowledge is the standard for proof of criminal guilt, and since there is pragmatic encroachment on knowledge, contrary to current trial practice j...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
July 24, 2025 at 6:45 PM
New article in Political Philosophy: "Must Jurors Know the Stakes of Conviction? Sentencing, Encroachment, and Legal Proof" by J. Colin Bradley (NYU) and Eleanor Gordon-Smith (Princeton), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in Political Philosophy: "Cultural Appropriation and Group Ownership Claims” by Hannah Carnegy-Arbuthnott (University of York), available open-access at politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Cultural Appropriation and Group Ownership Claims
What could ground normative restrictions concerning cultural appropriation in cases where they are not grounded by independent considerations such as harm? This paper argues that such claims are best ...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
June 4, 2025 at 7:29 AM
New article in Political Philosophy: "Cultural Appropriation and Group Ownership Claims” by Hannah Carnegy-Arbuthnott (University of York), available open-access at politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in Political Philosophy: "Sex Discrimination, Normativity, and Begging the Causal Question" by Lily Hu (Yale University), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Sex Discrimination, Normativity, and Begging the Causal Question
Most leading philosophical accounts of discrimination theorize discrimination as a causal notion: roughly, an action discriminates on the basis of X (e.g., race, sex) if X causes (in the right way) th...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
May 26, 2025 at 7:52 AM
New article in Political Philosophy: "Sex Discrimination, Normativity, and Begging the Causal Question" by Lily Hu (Yale University), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in Political Philosophy: "We Cease to be Mere Fragments: Justice, Alienation, Liberalism and Socialism" by Jan Kandiyali (Durham) and Martin O'Neill (York) @jkandiyali.bsky.social @martinoneill.bsky.social, available open access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
We Cease to be Mere Fragments: Justice, Alienation, Liberalism and Socialism
What is the relationship between liberalism and socialism? Partisans of each political tradition often focus on the shortcomings of the other, with socialists charging liberals with defending merely f...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
May 26, 2025 at 7:50 AM
New article in Political Philosophy: "We Cease to be Mere Fragments: Justice, Alienation, Liberalism and Socialism" by Jan Kandiyali (Durham) and Martin O'Neill (York) @jkandiyali.bsky.social @martinoneill.bsky.social, available open access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in Political Philosophy, "Mandate Reasons and the Ethics of Representation" by Sameer Bajaj (University of Warwick), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Mandate Reasons and the Ethics of Representation
Democratic theorists have developed a rich literature exploring why winning democratic elections gives representatives the moral right to occupy public office. However, they have largely ignored the q...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
May 26, 2025 at 7:47 AM
New article in Political Philosophy, "Mandate Reasons and the Ethics of Representation" by Sameer Bajaj (University of Warwick), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in Political Philosophy, "Why Manipulation is Wrong" by Massimo Renzo (King's College London), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Why Manipulation is Wrong
Philosophers have been paying increasingly more attention to the notion of manipulation. Perhaps surprisingly, however, most of the recent literature has focused on the conceptual question of identify...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
May 26, 2025 at 7:43 AM
New article in Political Philosophy, "Why Manipulation is Wrong" by Massimo Renzo (King's College London), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in Political Philosophy: "Liberalism’s Problem of Strongly Pro-Social Work" by Gloria Mähringer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Liberalism’s Problem of Strongly Pro-Social Work
Freedom of occupational choice represents people as choosing their occupations according to their personal values and preferences, of which pro-social preferences are one possible type among many. I a...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
March 4, 2025 at 11:46 AM
New article in Political Philosophy: "Liberalism’s Problem of Strongly Pro-Social Work" by Gloria Mähringer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in Political Philosophy: "Democratic Consent Under False Pretenses" by Ana Tanasoca (Norwegian Nobel Institute and ANU), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Democratic Consent Under False Pretences
Democratically, the permission of any candidate or party to occupy office is based on consent conferred upon them by voters in the previous election. This article examines why and how political misinf...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
March 4, 2025 at 11:45 AM
New article in Political Philosophy: "Democratic Consent Under False Pretenses" by Ana Tanasoca (Norwegian Nobel Institute and ANU), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in PolPhil: "The Different Sources of Dirty Hands: Episodes, Rules, and Careers" by GIanni Sarra (King's College London), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
The Different Sources of Dirty Hands: Episodes, Rules, and Careers
A recurring methodological mistake within the ‘dirty hands’ literature, the view that politicians must sometimes justifiably commit real moral wrongs, has been to assume that only a specific kind of c...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
January 31, 2025 at 4:41 PM
New article in PolPhil: "The Different Sources of Dirty Hands: Episodes, Rules, and Careers" by GIanni Sarra (King's College London), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in PolPhil: "Ideology as Relativized A Priori: On the Mind’s Relation to the Social World" by Sabina Vaccarino Bremner (University of Pennsylvania) and Chloé de Canson (University of Groningen), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Ideology as Relativized <em>A Priori</em>: On the Mind’s Relation to the Social World
We propose an account of the subject’s cognition and its relation to the world that allows for an articulation of the phenomenon of ideology. We argue that ideology is a form of what we call ‘a priori...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
January 31, 2025 at 4:39 PM
New article in PolPhil: "Ideology as Relativized A Priori: On the Mind’s Relation to the Social World" by Sabina Vaccarino Bremner (University of Pennsylvania) and Chloé de Canson (University of Groningen), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in PolPhil: "Solidarity as a Social Kind," by Andrea Sangiovanni (KCL), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Solidarity as a Social Kind
There has been a resurgence of interest recently in the nature of solidarity. A problem, however, bedevils any attempt to defend any one view against another. What makes disagreement about the nature ...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
January 31, 2025 at 4:39 PM
New article in PolPhil: "Solidarity as a Social Kind," by Andrea Sangiovanni (KCL), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in PolPhil: "Rewiring Ethics: Collective Action, Recognition, and Fractal Responsibility," by Barry Maguire (University of Edinburgh), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Rewiring Ethics: Collective Action, Recognition, and Fractal Responsibility
Many moral theories hold individuals responsible for their marginal impact on massive patterns (for instance overall value or equality of opportunity) or for following whichever rules would realise th...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
January 31, 2025 at 4:38 PM
New article in PolPhil: "Rewiring Ethics: Collective Action, Recognition, and Fractal Responsibility," by Barry Maguire (University of Edinburgh), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in PolPhil: "The Aptness of What We Do Together" by Kartik Upadhyaya (Univ. of Warwick / Czech Academy of Sciences), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
The Aptness of What We Do Together
This essay outlines and responds to the problem of appropriate piling-on. Suppose that a person is responsible for having acted wrongly. It seems apt for you to blame that person. Now suppose that I a...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
January 31, 2025 at 4:38 PM
New article in PolPhil: "The Aptness of What We Do Together" by Kartik Upadhyaya (Univ. of Warwick / Czech Academy of Sciences), available open-access at: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in PolPhil: "Democratic Stability and Backsliding" by Ryan Pevnick (NYU), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Democratic Stability and Backsliding
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In light of mounting concerns about democratic backsliding, Rawls’s work – which has an unusual focus on considerations of stability – is now being mined for insights about democratic fragility. This ...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
January 31, 2025 at 4:37 PM
New article in PolPhil: "Democratic Stability and Backsliding" by Ryan Pevnick (NYU), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in PolPhil: "Merit and Reaction Qualifications" by Karolina Wisniewska (University of Missouri), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Merit and Reaction Qualifications
When selecting between applicants for a job, when and how should we take into account the reactions that they elicit from others? On one hand, applicants’ “reaction qualifications” often speak to thei...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
January 31, 2025 at 4:37 PM
New article in PolPhil: "Merit and Reaction Qualifications" by Karolina Wisniewska (University of Missouri), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
New article in PolPhil: "Rules and Rulers: Demanding, Commanding and Assuming Responsibility" by David Owens (King's College London), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...
Rules and Rulers: Demanding, Commanding and Assuming Responsibility
Directive authorities such as police officers, judges and employers demand our obedience. Demands for obedience come in two forms. First authorities issue commands meant to bind us to obey. Second aut...
politicalphilosophyjournal.org
January 31, 2025 at 4:37 PM
New article in PolPhil: "Rules and Rulers: Demanding, Commanding and Assuming Responsibility" by David Owens (King's College London), available open-access here: politicalphilosophyjournal.org/article/id/1...