A defense of secession and political self-determination

Article Abstract:

Secession and political self-determination have beneficial effects as they limit the state's monopoly on power and help promote mutual cooperation. A group could secede and merge with another more responsive state and need not suffer oppression. The threat of secession would ensure that minority groups are treated properly. Historical and contemporary case studies provide political legitimacy to secession and political self-determination. The right of self-determination presupposes a group's ability and willingness to perform the functions of a government.

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Liberalism, samaritanism, and political legitimacy

Article Abstract:

Samaritanism is best equipped to provide a model for understanding the relation between benefits of a political state and the legitimacy of the state's coercive powers. The model provides an account that is strong and normatively simple. The only disputable aspects of the model are its emphasis on the state as a necessary condition for ensuring law and order, and its premise of positive rights.

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Sympathetic liberalism: recent work on Adam Smith

Article Abstract:

The author maintains the possibility of reconciling 18th-century economist Adam Smith's views on virtue with liberal considerations. Smith's theories of sympathy, moral sentiment, and virtue ethics as applied to a liberal view of justice are discussed.

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