57 | What is Liberalism? Part II. Policing and Political Economy

In the second installment of our “What is Liberalism?” series we discuss the relationship between liberalism and the institution of the police. If a core principle of liberalism is the equal application of the law, then some enforcement mechanism is necessary to ensure the stability of the social order. The problem is that in liberal democracies the police are asked to equally apply the law while maintaining an unequal social order. These two tasks create legitimacy crises for the state. We discuss how the liberal political economy of the United States explains the exceptional brutality of the police, why it is so difficult to think of a world beyond the police, and how redistribution would ameliorate crime and social disorder.

⬇️ 𝙂𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚:

𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙤𝙣:   / leftofphilosophy  
𝙏𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧:   / leftofphil  
𝙒𝙚𝙗𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙚: https://www.leftofphilosophy.com/

📚𝙍𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨:

Matias Dewey, Cornelia Woll, and Lucas Ronconi, “The Political Economy of Law Enforcement,” Maxpo Discussion Discussion no. 20/1 (2021): 1-28.

Christopher Lewis and Adaner Usmani, “The Injustice of Under-Policing in America,” American Journal of Law and Equality 2 (2022): 85-106.

David Garland, “Penal Controls and Social Controls: Toward a Theory of American Penal Exceptionalism,” Punishment & Society 22(3) (2021): 321-352.

Geoffrey H. Hodgson, “What are Institutions?” Journal of Economic Issues 40(1) (2006): 1-25.

🎶𝙈𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙘: "Vintage Memories" by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

🎧𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙩:

𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙡𝙚: https://apple.co/3SOfGZ2
𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙮: https://spoti.fi/3HJEiLQ

🎙𝘼𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙤𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙩:

What’s Left of Philosophy is a podcast where four leftist friends get together to talk about concepts, thinkers, and texts from the history of philosophy and political theory.

Sometimes we talk about how good and useful certain ideas are for left theory and practice. Sometimes we mercilessly dunk on bourgeois idealism dressed up as radical thought. Sometimes we’re joined by extremely cool guests. We love concepts and long for an emancipated existence!

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