Research

  • post-2020
  • Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom
  • Multiculturalism, indigenous rights, and ethnic politics
  • Federalism
  • Justice in Babylon
  • Colonialism and Its Legacies
  • Other projects

This page hasn’t really been updated since 2020. My research in that time has been on the separation of powers; Montesquieu; Adam Smith; academic freedom; and the various projects that should come together as my next book, Justice in Babylon.

Pending a proper update, here’s more recent published and forthcoming material:

The Liberal Party Idea and American Ideology,” forthcoming in Joseph Prud’homme, ed., The New Conservativism and Its Critics, Rowman and Littlefield.

Academic Freedom as Complex Freedom of Association,” forthcoming in Frédéric Mégret and Nandini Ramanujam, eds., Academic Freedom in a Plural World: Global Critical perspectives, Central European University Press.

The Separation of Powers,” forthcoming in Richard Bellamy and Jeff King, eds., The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory, Cambridge University Press.

“’Constitutional history,” in Keegan Callanan and Sharon Krause, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Montesquieu, Cambridge University Press, 2023

World Without End.” 54(4) Polity 802-809, 2022

The Separation of Powers and the Challenge to Constitutional Democracy.” 25 Review of Constitutional Studies 1-18, 2021.

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    Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom now available from Oxford Univerity Press.

    Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom is available from Oxford University Press.  For a 30% discount, order directly from the Press with discount code ASFLYQ6.

    Reviews

    Caleb Henry in The Journal of Markets and Morality

    Benjamin Hertzberg in Contemporary Political Theory

    Mark Koyama in Public Choice

    Chandran Kukathas in Perspectives on Politics

    Jason Kuznicki in Political Theory

    Roderick Long in Reason

    Gareth Morley in Inroads

    Andrew Norton in Policy

    Sheldon Richman in The American Conservative

    Melissa Schwartzberg in The New Rambler Review

    Andrew Shorten in Political Studies Review

    Nicholas Tampio in Theory & Event

    Carla Yumatle in Review of Politics

    Symposium at Bleeding Heart Libertarians:

    Symposium at Liberty Matters/ Online Library of Liberty

    Lead Essay: Jacob T. Levy, “Rationalism, Pluralism, and the History of Liberal Ideas” [

    1. Gary Chartier, “One and a Half Cheers for Pluralism”
    2. David M. Hart, “Pluralism May or May Not Advance Liberty”
    3. Chandran Kukathas, “Liberal Theory’s Essential Tension: On Jacob Levy on Rationalism, Pluralism and Freedom”
    4. Jeremy Jennings, “A Response to Levy”

    The Conversation

    1. Jacob T. Levy, “Pluralism against a Backdrop of the Weberian State: A Rejoinder
    2. Jacob T. Levy, “Response to Kukathas and Jennings”
    3. David M. Hart, “Men of System, Busybodies, and Predators”
    4. Gary Chartier, “Levy on the Varieties of Association”
    5. Jacob T. Levy, “Competition and Cartelization”
    6. David M. Hart, “Ends vs. Means, or Muddling Through”
    7. Gary Chartier “Vertical and Horizontal Competition”
    8. David M. Hart, “Applying the Levy Method to Other Traditions of Thought”
    9. Gary Chartier, “Wrestling with Levy’s Questions”
    10. Jeremy Jennings, “Liberal Pluralism and Ideological Instability”

    Public talks and interviews

    “Rationalism, Pluralism, and Hayek’s History of Liberal Thought,” Centre for Independent Studies, Sydney.

    “Freedom and Pluralism: Conflicts and Convergences,” Institute for Economic Affairs, London.

    “Free Thoughts” interview with Aaron Ross Powell and Trevor Burrell.

    Panel on Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom at George Mason University.

    In conversation with Douglas Baird at the Seminar Coop, University of Chicago

    Related articles

    “Must Associations Become Interest Groups?” Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, summer 2014.

    “From Liberal Constitutionalism to Pluralism,” in Mark Bevir, ed., Modern Pluralism: Anglo-American Debates Since 1880, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

    “Montesquieu’s Constitutional Legacies,” in Rebecca Kingston, ed., Montesquieu and His Legacy, SUNY Press, 2009

    “Not so Novus an Ordo: Constitutions Without Social Contracts,” 37(2) Political Theory 191-217, 2009

    “Federalism, Liberalism, and the Separation of Loyalties,” 101(3) American Political Science Review 459-77, 2007. Reprinted in John Kincaid, ed., Federalism, Sage, 2010.

    “Beyond Publius: Montesquieu, Liberal Republicanism, and the Small-Republic Thesis.” 27(1) History of Political Thought, 50-90, 2006

    “Liberal Jacobinism,” 114(2) Ethics 318-336, 2004

    “Liberalism’s Divide After Socialism⎯ and Before,” 20(1) Social Philosophy and Policy 278-297 2003, reprinted in Paul, Miller, and Paul, eds., After Socialism, Cambridge University Press, 2003

    Multiculturalism of fear

    The Multiculturalism of Fear, available from Oxford University Press.

    Related publications

    “Three Perversities of Indian Law,” 12(2) Texas Review of Law and Politics 329-68, 2008. Abridged reprint in Lisa Ford, Tim Rowse, and Anna Yeatman, eds., Between Settler and Indigenous Governance, Routledge, 2012.

    “Multicultural Manners,” in Michel Seymour, ed., The Plural States of Recognition, Palgrave MacMillan 2010.

    “Contextualism, Constitutionalism, and Modus Vivendi Approaches,” in Anthony Laden and David Owen, eds., Multiculturalism and Political Theory, Cambridge University Press, 2007

    “Sexual Orientation, Exit, and Refuge,” in Jeff Spinner-Halev and Avigail Eisenberg eds., Minorities within Minorities, Cambridge University Press, 2005

    “National Minorities Without Nationalism,” in Alain Dieckhoff, ed., The Politics of Belonging: Nationalism, Liberalism, and Pluralism, Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. In French as “Des Minorités Nationales Sans Nationalisme,” in Alain Dieckhoff, ed., La Constellation des appartenances: Nationalisme. Libéralisme, et Pluralisme, Presses de Sciences Po, 2004.

    “Liberal Jacobinism,” 114(2) Ethics 318-336, 2004 “Indigenous self-government,” in Nomos XLV: Secession and Self-Determination, Stephen Macedo and Allen Buchanan, eds., New York: New York University Press, 2003

    “Language Rights, Literacy, and the Modern State,” in Will Kymlicka and Alan Patten, eds., Language Rights and Political Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003

    “Three Modes of Incorporating Indigenous Law,” in Will Kymlicka and Wayne Norman, eds., Citizenship in Diverse Societies: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, 2000

    “Classifying Cultural Rights.” Nomos XXXIX: Ethnicity and Group Rights, Will Kymlicka and Ian Shapiro, eds., New York: New York University Press, 1997

    “The Multiculturalism of Fear.” 10 Critical Review 271-283, 1996

    Nomos LV: Federalism and Subsidiarity, available from NYU Press.

    Nomos LV: Federalism and Subsidiarity, available from NYU Press.

    Related publications

    “The Constitutional Entrenchment of Federalism.” In James Fleming and Jacob T. Levy, eds., Nomos LV: Federalism and Subsidiarity, New York University Press, 2014.

    “Federalism, Liberalism, and the Separation of Loyalties,” 101(3) American Political Science Review 459-77, 2007. Reprinted in John Kincaid, ed., Federalism, Sage, 2010.

    “States of the Same Nature’: Bounded Variation in Subfederal Constitutionalism,” in James A. Gardner and Jim Rossi, eds., Dual Enforcement of Constitutional Norms: New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law, Oxford University Press, 2010.

    “Not so Novus an Ordo: Constitutions Without Social Contracts,” 37(2) Political Theory 191-217, 2009

    “Self-determination, non-domination, and federalism,” 23(3) Hypatia, 60-78, 2008

    “Federalism and the Old and New Liberalisms,” 24(1) Social Philosophy and Policy 306-26, 2007, reprinted in Paul, Miller, and Paul, eds., Liberalism: Old and New, Cambridge University Press, 2007

    “National Minorities Without Nationalism,” in Alain Dieckhoff, ed., The Politics of Belonging: Nationalism, Liberalism, and Pluralism, Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. In French as “Des Minorités Nationales Sans Nationalisme,” in Alain Dieckhoff, ed., La Constellation des appartenances: Nationalisme. Libéralisme, et Pluralisme, Presses de Sciences Po, 2004.

    Papers

    “Contra Politanism”, 19(2) European Journal of Political Theory 162-183, 2020

    Political Libertarianism,” in M. Todd Henderson, ed., The Cambridge Handbook of Classical Liberal Thought, Cambridge University Press, 2018

    “Against Fraternity: Democracy Without Solidarity”, in Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka, eds., Solidarity In Diverse Societies, Oxford University Press, 2017

    “There Is No Such Thing as Ideal Theory”, 33(1-2) Social Philosophy & Policy 312-333, 2016

    “Toward a Non-Lockean Libertarianism”,  in Jason Brennan, Bas van der Vossen, and David Schmidtz, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism, 2017

    “Not so Novus an Ordo: Constitutions Without Social Contracts,” 37(2) Political Theory 191-217, 2009

    “National and statist responsibility,” 11(4) Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 485-99, 2008. Reprinted in Helder de Schutter and Ronald Tinnevelt, eds., Nationalism and Global Justice. David Miller and His Critics, Routledge, 2010.

    “What It Means To Be A Pluralist,” in Yitzakh Benjabi and Naomi Sussman, eds., Reading Walzer, Routledge, 2013.

    Talks

    “Justice in Babylon,” plenary address at the Oxford Political Thought conference, January 2017

    “Taking Politics Less Seriously,” Institute for Liberal Studies, Montreal.

    Commentary

    Comment on a symposium on James Scott, Seeing Like A State

    Colonialism

    Jacob T. Levy with Iris Marion Young, eds., Colonialism and Its Legacies. Rowman and Littlefield/ Lexington Press, 2011.

    Contents

    Preface and dedication

    Introduction

    Part I: Enlightenment Debates about Empire

    Chapter 1. Diderot’s Theory of Global (and Imperial) Commerce: An Enlightenment Account of “Globalization” Sankar Muthu

    Chapter 2. Empire, Progress, and “the Savage Mind” Jennifer Pitts

    Part II: Indigenous Encounters, Then and Now

    Chapter 3. Under Negotiation: Empowering Treaty Constitutionalism Vicki Hsueh

    Chapter 4. Wasáse: Indigenous Resurgences Taiaike Alfred

    Part III: The world colonialism made

    Chapter 5. The “World-System”: Europe as “Center” and Its “Periphery” Beyond Eurocentrism Enrique Dussel

    Chapter 6. The Singularity of Peripheral Social Inequality Jessé Souza

    Chapter 7. After Colonialism: The Impossibility of Self-Determination Pratap Bhanu Mehta

    Chapter 8. Indian Conceptualisation of Colonial Rule Bhikhu Parekh

    Part IV. Colonial and post-colonial reconstructions of political thought

    Chapter 9. Resistance to Colonialism: The Latin American Legacy of Jose Martí Ofelia Schutte

    Chapter 10. Subaltern History as Political Thought Dipesh Chakabarty

    Chapter 11. Double Consciousness and the Democratic Ideal Emmanuel C. Eze

    Chapter 12. Colonialism and the State of Exception Margaret Kohn

    Reviews: Mircea Platon in European History Quarterly

    Ayten Gundogdu in Perspectives on Politics

    Jacob T. Levy, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Classics in Contemporary Political Theory. Chapters appearing at this site online first; volume expected late 2016.

    “The Right to be Dignified, or the Dignity of Liberty,” 43 Arizona State Law Journal 1247-1256, 2011

    “Cotton, Coercion, and Capitalism,” a review of Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton, in Reason

    “Coherence, Consistency, Equality: On Pettit’s Republican Democracy,” forthcoming in Political Theory