CFP: MANCEPT Workshop on Republican Political Economy

Since the publication of Quentin Skinner (1997) and Philip Pettit’s (1999) groundbreaking analyses of the republican tradition and the notion of freedom as non-domination associated with it, political theorists and philosophers have applied the “neo-republican” lens to a wide variety of political issues. One domain where the implications of neo-republicanism are particularly contested is political economy. While some neo-republicans posit that republicans should simply want a familiar type of competitive market economy supplemented by a universal basic income (Pettit 2006, Lovett 2009), many others have argued that the implications of republican values may well be more radical. To truly realize freedom as non-domination, they have argued, we may need a property-owning democracy (Thomas 2017), an economy of worker cooperatives (Gourevitch 2014), or even some form of socialism (O’Shea 2020, Muldoon 2022). In addition to these big-picture questions about economic systems, however, neo-republican theory has much to offer for the normative analysis of more particular economic phenomena, such as work, debt, housing, financialization, trade, and many others.

This panel will serve as a venue for theorists to further interrogate the implications of republican values for normative political economy. We invite proposals that address, but are not limited to, the following questions:

• Should republicans support free international trade? Can asymmetrical trade relations contribute to relations of domination between countries? Should republics aim for national self-sufficiency?
• What attitude should republicans take to markets? Could a centrally planned economy be consistent with republican values?
• Should republicans be, socialists, capitalists, property-owning democrats, or something else?
• Can republicans effectively critique economic phenomena with diffuse sources, such as rising inflation or unemployment?
• What sorts of economic institutions best promote civic virtue?
• Should republicans support workplace democracy?
• When, if ever, should republicans be willing to trade off freedom as non-domination for economic efficiency?
• What attitude should republicans take to debt? What sorts of protections should we grant to debtors and creditors?
• What would a republican anti-trust policy look like? When should republicans worry about economic consolidation?
• What sort of monetary policy should republicans favor? Is central bank independence in conflict with freedom as non-domination?

If you are interested in participating, please send a 500-word abstract to [email protected] by May 10th. 

The MANCEPT Workshops is an annual conference in political theory, organised under the auspices of the Manchester Centre for Political Theory. The conference offers academics an opportunity to come together in a series of workshops to develop specialised work and engage in lively philosophical discussion. Attracting scholars throughout the world, the conference is now established as a leading international forum dedicated to the development of research in all subfields of political theory. You can find more information here: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/activities/mancept-workshops-2026/