In this series of extended interviews with Chris Pierson, Giddens lays out the principal themes in the development of his social theory and the distinctive political agenda which he recommends.

Rousseau’s life and his work are notoriously paradoxical. This certainly applies to his work on property which includes one of the most powerful of all denunciations of private property (the Second Discourse) and an affirmation of private property as ‘the most sacred of all citizens’ rights, and in some respects more important than freedom itself’ (in the essay on political economy in the Encyclopedie). In this paper, I explore the reasons for this seeming paradox, focusing upon Rousseau’s twin concerns with (...) inequality (rather than equality) and sincerity. In the end, Rousseau’s treatment is not entirely consistent, but it does make sense. (shrink)

First published in 1991, _Beyond the Welfare State?_ has been thoroughly revised and updated for this new edition, which draws on the latest theoretical developments and empirical evidence. It remains the most comprehensive and sophisticated guide to the condition of the welfare state in a time of rapid and sometimes bewildering change. The opening chapters offer a scholarly but accessible review of competing interpretations of the historical and contemporary roles of the welfare state. This evaluation, based on the most recent (...) empirical research, gives full weight to feminist, ecological, and "anti-racist" critiques and also develops a clear account of globalization and its contested impact upon existing welfare regimes. The book constructs a distinctive history of the international growth of welfare states and offers a comprehensive account of recent developments from "crisis" to "structural adjustment." The final chapters bring the story right up to date with an assessment of the important changes effected in the 1990s and the prospects for welfare states in the new millennium. (shrink)

In my reading of Free Market Fairness, I challenge Tomasi’s key assumption that that we can and should pursue the account of social justice laid down in its essentials by John Rawls, but with this one crucial change, that the ‘economic liberties’ which Rawls excludes from his framework of basic liberties should be included on that list and be appropriately prioritized and protected. I argue that Rawls had very good grounds for excluding the right to own productive capital from his (...) list of basic rights; in short, that such a move would not enhance justice as fairness. Tomasi’s embrace of American capitalism as an approximation of what entrenched economic liberties can be expected to deliver simply makes an incredible claim less plausible. (shrink)

Traces the complex lineages of thinking about private property from ancient to modern times. It challenges a number of deep-seated assumptions we make about the incontestability of private property by building a careful and extended account of where these assumptions came from.

Property remains the bedrock of the societies we all inhabit. It underpins our core institutions - including families, states and economies - and it is the medium through which the intensifying politics of inequality is played out. There is plenty of evidence that its importance is increasing in a world of growing wealth inequality and depletion of natural resources. This is the second volume in a major survey of ideas of property in the western world from the ancients to the (...) present, which deals with the crucial period of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the rise of socialism and anarchism. These were the years, and the ideas, through which the politics of modernity was made. (shrink)

Alongside environmental degradation, the globally unequal distribution of wealth is one of the key political problems of our age. Volume 3 of Just Property provides an account of how we might re-think how property works for us and what we might do to fix the problems that we all face.

Christopher Pierson assesses the evidence of terminal decline, but finds rather a whole series of deep-seated challenges to traditional forms of socialist and social democratic thinking. Above all, these problems are to be found in the political economy of social democracy and its commitment to incremental change in the context of an increasingly globalized market economy. The latter chapters of the book are devoted to an assessment of market socialism, one of the most vigorous and innovative attempts to seek to (...) recast socialist aspirations under these quite changed circumstances. In essence, market socialism represents an attempt to reconcile new forms of social ownership with the seeming ubiquity of the market. Having outlined this position, Pierson carefully and systematically critiques it and, in the process, develops a set of distinctive arguments about the nature of social ownership, the potential of the labor-managed economy, and the appropriate forms for an extension of economic democracy. (shrink)

In its brief, yet dramatic, moment in time (in Britain in the 1790s), William Godwin's Enquiry Concerning Political Justice enjoyed considerable fame and, indeed, notoriety. While probably best remembered now for its utopian and anarchistic moments, as well as its anticipations of utilitarianism, for a "radical" text Political Justice draws some at first sight puzzlingly conservative political conclusions. In this paper, I explore this apparent conservatism through Godwin's paradoxical views on property, arguing that in the end, and perhaps under the (...) duress of an increasingly polarized political climate, he was unable to reconcile his politics with his philosophy. (shrink)

Review Articles : The Redemption of Modernity Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity ; John F. Rundell, origins of Modernity: The Origins of Modern Social Theory from Kant to Hegel to Marx.