Exit left: markets and mobility in republican thought

How can citizens best protect themselves from the arbitrary power of abusive spouses, tyrannical bosses, and corrupt politicians? 'Exit Left' makes the case that in each of these three spheres the answer is the same: exit. By promoting open and competitive markets and providing the information and financial resources necessary to enable exit, the book argues that this can empower people's voices and offer them an escape from abuse and exploitation. This will advance a conception of freedom, viz. freedom as non-domination (FND), which is central to contemporary republican thought. Neo-republicans have typically promoted FND through constitutional means (separation of powers, judicial review, the rule of law, and federalism) and participatory ones (democratic elections and oversight), but this book focuses on economic means, ones that have been neglected by contemporary republicans but were commonly invoked in the older, commercial-republican tradition of Alexander Hamilton, Immanuel Kant, and Adam Smith. Just as Philip Pettit and other neo-republicans have revived and revised classical republicanism, so this book will do the same for commercial commercial republicanism. This revival will enlarge republican practice by encouraging greater use of market mechanisms, even as it hews closely to existing republican theory.

Cover; Exit Left: Markets and Mobility in Republican Thought; Copyright; Preface; Acknowledgments; Contents; Introduction; 1: Exit, Voice, and Credibility; Hirschmanś Dual Theses; Defining and Differentiating Exit and Voice; Direct versus Indirect Empowerment of Voice; The Rhetoric of Reaction?; 2: Family; Freedom as Antipower; Marital Power versus Marital Freedom; Marital Freedom as Antipower; The Limits and Potential of Marital Freedom; 3: Market; Market Power versus Market Freedom; Market Freedom as Antipower; The Limits and Potential of Market Freedom; 4: State.

Political Power versus Political FreedomPolitical Freedom as Antipower; The Limits and Potential of Political Freedom; 5: Republican Policy Pluralism; A Right-Wing Critique of Exit-Oriented State Interventionism; The Burdens of Judgment and Reasonable Policy Pluralism; Michael Sandel versus Friedrich Hayek; Conclusion; References; Index.