Skip to content

LPE Blog
Announcement

No One Court Should Have All That Power

By LPE Editors

Here’s the terrifying reality: our power-hungry, ultra-conservative Supreme Court will stifle attempts by the government to address climate change, gun violence, racial inequality, and many other pressing problems. Democrats, meanwhile, are unlikely to win back control of the Court until 2065. Given this, it’s past time to take seriously the. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: January 26, 2024

By LPE Editors

Brian Callaci on the limits of anti-monopsony antitrust, and Julia Tomassetti on the political economy of employment status disputes. Plus, a call for applications for the 2024 Law and Organizing Academy, T-3 days until the launch of our open course on the Supreme Court, a new podcast on the CIO, a new global LPE syllabus in our syllabus bank, two amici. . .
Essay

The Political Economy of Employment Status Disputes

By

Regulators at both the NLRB and Department of Labor have recently rolled back Trump-era employment status rules. To an outsider, these changes can seem pedantic and inconsequential. A political economy perspective, however, reveals a deeper logic to the new rules, which address three pernicious trends in employment classification — the ability of businesses. . .
Essay

The Limits of Anti-Monopsony Antitrust

By

The Biden administration’s antitrust policy has been the most pro-labor in decades. And yet, the response from labor advocates and the labor movement has been rather muted. Why the disconnect? And what can it teach us about the limits of antitrust policy that takes the ideal of perfect competition as its normative benchmark?
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: January 19, 2024

By LPE Editors

Zohra Ahmed concludes our symposium on non-reformist reforms, and the blog’s editors highlight some of their most anticipated books for 2024. Plus, the launch of What To Do About the Courts, an interview with Corinne Blalock about the left’s ideological infrastructure, an upcoming event with Sanjukta Paul and Nathan Tankus, John Mark Newman on. . .
Symposium

The Demand for Transparency as Non-Reformist Reform

By

The heuristic of non-reformist reform can help avoid ultra-leftism and create the possibilities for coalition, such as across groups who care about transparency. It can help us salvage the transformative potential of demands that seem to have lost their teeth. But to realize these ends without falling back into reformist pieties, the framework demands rigorous,. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: January 12, 2024

By LPE Editors

Amy Kapczynski offers a political economy analysis of the campus free speech wars, and Scott Cummings and Madeline Janis explain how a little-known Reagan-era competition rule continues to block innovative policy efforts by state and local governments. Plus, an upcoming talk with Nikhil Goyal, a conference on Administering a Democratic Political Economy, a. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: December 15, 2023

By

David Adler and José Miguel Ahumada on anarcho-capitalism in Honduras, Zoe Tucker on why unions should join the housing fight, and Jamelia Morgan on the tensions of non-reformist reform. Plus, make big money writing about LPE, make less (though still good) money working for LPE, Tim Wu on the draft merger guidelines, a much anticipated book on democratic theory,. . .
Symposium

Abolition in the Interstices

By

Within prison abolitionist movements and discourse, the idea of non-reformist reform often serves as a litmus test for assessing campaign goals and strategies. Yet even here, activists need to think holistically about their obligations and strategies, as pursuing non-reformist reforms will sometimes conflict with our duties to mitigate harm in the here. . .
Essay

Why Labor Unions Should Join the Housing Fight

By

Every union has reason to address the high cost of housing, which diverts wage raises into profits for landlords, acts as a structural constraint on labor actions, and generally makes life worse for its members. And as UNITE HERE Local 11 has demonstrated, unions are well-positioned to address the problem: from spearheading local tenant ordinances to. . .

LPE Masthead

Managing Editor James Brandt Editoral Board Zohra Ahmed Corinne Blalock Veena Dubal Luke Herrine Amy Kapczynski Aziz Rana Kate Redburn Ntina Tzouvala Lisa Washington Noah Zatz Student Editors Liz Brown Edie Conekin-Tooze Eve Zelickson
Student Editor Emeriti Sam Aber Ashraf Ahmed Will Bloom Adam H. Bradlow Matthew Buck Brett Davidson Isabel Echarte Tariq El-Gabalawy Berto Elysee Molly Gordon Jeff Gordon Ruthie Lazenby Talya Lockman-Fine Chloe Miller Andrew Miller Roxana Moussavian Lydia Nicholson Ure Obioma