Political Philosophy
Political Philosophy
- Legitimacy criteria: What makes rule legitimate (consent, justice, outcomes, tradition)?
- Theory of the person: Assumptions about human nature, rationality, self-interest, and moral agency.
- Power model: How power is obtained, maintained, constrained, and abused.
- Rights and duties structure: What rights exist, whether they are absolute or defeasible, and why.
- Justice mechanism: How fairness is defined and adjudicated (distribution, procedure, recognition).
- Institutional translation: What institutions are implied (state, courts, markets, civil society), and how they function.
- Incentive compatibility: Whether the system works with real incentives, not ideal actors.
- Coercion and enforcement: How rules are enforced, limits on force, due process safeguards.
- Pluralism handling: How disagreement, dissent, and minority rights are protected.
- Stability and adaptability: Whether the system remains stable under shocks and evolves without collapse.
- Failure modes: Authoritarian drift, capture, tyranny of majority, fragmentation.
- Boundary conditions: Contexts where a political philosophy’s prescriptions are unsafe (weak institutions, corruption, polarization).