The Political Economy of Decentralised Federalism: A Historical and Analytical Account of Classical Anarchist Constitutional Design

本项目的出发点是这样一种主张：分权联邦制的无政府主义政治经济学与我们当今的政治问题比以往任何时候都更加相关。古典无政府主义者设想并描述了一种政治制度，这种政治制度既可以将人们从政治和经济压迫的结构中解放出来，又可以消除民族国家的强制性、集中化、惩罚性和剥削性机构。迄今为止，对无政府主义的研究要么集中在无政府主义思想史上，要么集中在新社会运动中的无政府主义思潮上。然而，这个项目将发展开创性的研究，探索无政府主义作为一种宪政政治。它将通过详细说明和分析评估，我们在古典无政府主义文学中发现的国家的另一种制度设计，来增加这种历史和理论的恢复。它对主流政治哲学的贡献也很明显：分权联邦制的政治经济学丰富了我们的政治想象。特别是，这个项目谈到了权力下放、不对称联邦制、保护少数民族权利、辅辅性、平等以及在英国脱欧后的背景下“收回控制权”的不同含义等问题。这个项目提议调和自由主义社会主义对自由和平等的解释与非中央集权的宪法设计原则。这包括拆解反资本主义的分权联邦制的无政府主义政治经济。因此，本研究阐述了自由意志主义对自由的要求和共和主义对宪法权力限制的捍卫，同时揭示了政治思想史上不受重视的反国家主义传统。本论文的主要研究问题是“分权联邦制的无政府主义政治经济学如何以及以何种方式平衡自由和平等的要求？”为了回答这个问题，我将试图证明，去中心化联邦制的政治经济学在左翼自由主义的条件下调和了自由和平等，并在没有随之而来的国家主义的情况下满足了共和党对自由的捍卫。通过展示这一模型在现实世界中的适用性，并从一些当代背景中提取例子，本文将把我们推向一个更接地线的、现实主义的、由制度设计驱动的“政治政治理论”，这一理论的动机是重建更公正、平等和自由的制度，超越狭隘定义的私有财产和国家的现有概念。这篇博士论文将提供一个哲学上严谨的原则说明，这些原则是分散联邦制的宪政政治经济学的基础。通过探索古典无政府主义者，并将他们的思想与当代共和主义和自由意志主义进行交流，博士研究将挑战政治和宪法理论家更认真地对待无政府主义。然而，在我的整个论文中，我将表明无政府主义宪法理论有可能通过为公共政策和现实政治提供有用的资源而走得更远。对分散的联邦制的历史描述可以通过展示其他制度和宪法安排来改革和改善我们的现代政治讨论，这些安排可以激励政治理论家和政策制定者重建更公正、平等和自由的制度，超越狭隘定义的私有财产和国家的现有概念。通过历史文本分析和理性重建等分析方法，我将批判性地评估无政府主义产权理论和分散联邦制对当代政治和政治理论辩论的贡献，并通过解释性方法和概念清晰度提高对无政府主义政治思想中关键概念和论点的理解。

This project starts with the claim that the anarchist political economy of decentralised federalism is relevant to our contemporary political problems today, more than ever. Classical anarchists envisioned and described the type of political systems that can both emancipate people from the structures of political and economic oppression, and remove the coercive, centralised, punitive, and exploitative agency of the nation state. To date, research on anarchism has either focused on the history of anarchist thought, or anarchist currents in new social movements. This project will, however, develop ground breaking research that explores anarchism as a constitutional politics. It will add to this historical andtheoretical recovery, by specifying and evaluating, analytically, the alternative institutional design to the state that we find in that classical anarchist literature. The contribution to mainstream political philosophy is also clear: the political economy of decentralised federalism enriches our political imaginations. In particular, this project speaks to questions of devolution, asymmetric federalism, protection of minority rights, subsidiarity, equality and different meanings of 'takingback control' in the context of post-Brexit Britain.This project proposes to reconcile a libertarian socialist account of freedom and equality with non-statist constitutional design principles. This involves unpacking an anarchist political economy of decentralised federalism, which is anti-capitalist. This research thus speaks to the libertarian requirements for freedom and the republican defence of constitutional restraints on power while bringing to light an under-appreciated tradition of anti-statism in the history of political thought.The primary research question for this thesis is 'How and in what way does an anarchist political economy of decentralised federalism balance the demands of liberty and equality?' To answer this question, I will aim to demonstrate that the political economy of decentralised federalism reconciles liberty and equality on left-libertarian terms and meets republican defences of freedom without its attendant statism. By showing the real world applicability of this model, with examples drawn from a number of contemporary settings, this thesis will move us towards a more grounded, realist, and institutional design driven 'political political theory', which is motivated to rebuild more just, equal, and free institutionsbeyond the narrowly defined existing notions of private property and state.This PhD thesis will provide a philosophically rigorous account of the principles that underpin the constitutional political economy of decentralised federalism. By exploring classical anarchists, and putting their ideas into communication with contemporary republicanism and libertarianism, the PhD research will challenge political and constitutional theorists to take anarchism more seriously. However, throughout my dissertation, I will show that anarchist constitutional theory has the potential of going further than that by providing a useful resource for public policy and real politics. The historical account of decentralised federalism can reinform and improve our modern political discussions by showing alternative institutional and constitutional arrangements that can motivate political theorists and policy-makers towards rebuilding more just, equal, and free institutions beyond the narrowly defined existing notions of private property and state.With historical textual analysis and analytical methods such as rational reconstruction, I will critically assess the contribution of anarchist theory of property rights and decentralised federalism to contemporary debates in politics and political theory, and improve the understanding of the key concepts and arguments in anarchist political thought with an explanatory approach and conceptual clarity.