At the Blog
On Monday, César F. Rosado Marzán considered whether, in the United States, tripartite institutions like wage boards can effectively regulate the terms and conditions of work in certain sectors and, even more ambitiously, help to collectively organize workers. In general, he argues, the structure of our economy, as well as existing US law, constrains the effectiveness of such institutions. However, recent experiments in Seattle and California look slightly more promising than earlier attempts. In each case, the board provides workers with a meaningful opportunity to participate, the board has more than advisory jurisdiction, and the board is located in an ecosystem with sufficiently strong unions and organizations representing economically-subordinated people.
And on Wednesday, we offered you a sneak peak at the some of the most exciting forthcoming LPE and LPE-adjacent articles. Covering tech, care, labor, criminal justice, religious freedom, money and banking, property, the administrative state, and so much more, this scouting report is not to be missed.
In LPE Land
On the hit legal theory podcast Digging a Hole, Sam Moyn interviewed Duncan Kennedy about his experience with so-called generational revolt, the origins of the Critical Legal Studies movement, and his thoughts on the Law and Political Economy movement. A must-listen. And if you’re still wondering what LPE might take away from CLS, check out Akbar Rasulov’s recent blog post, “What CLS Meant by the Indeterminacy Thesis.”
From legal royalty to internet royalty: Jorts the Cat talks about intersectional power, using Twitter for organizing, and how his co-workers keep him from falling into the trash.
Henry Farrell, Hugo Mercier, and Melissa Schwartzberg explain why libertarian critics of democracy are right in one sense (we need to take heed of human psychology in designing democratic institutions), and so hopelessly wrong in another (suprise, epistocracy is not the answer). For more on the libertarian dream of a world without democracy, Quinn Slobodian’s new book dropped this week.
Rakeen Mabud and David Dayen introduce a special issue of The American Prospect that exposes the blind spots and hidden ideologies behind the most popular economic models shaping public policy.
