Drugs and the Limits of Liberalism : : Moral and Legal Issues / / ed. by Pablo De Greiff.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Archive Pre-2000
• MitwirkendeR: Connolly, William E.,; Elster, Jon,; Freeman, Samuel,; Greiff, Pablo De,; Moon, J. Donald,; Moore, Michael,; Pogge, Thomas,
• HerausgeberIn: De Greiff, Pablo,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©1999
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (232 p.) :; 6 drawings

Society's drug problem will persist, and debates over how to solve it will continue, getting nowhere, until we define our terms. This book is an effort to do just that—to parse the legal, moral, and philosophical underpinnings for any discussion of drug policy. Does liberal political theory, with its commitment to individual freedom, offer any guidance in the matter of drugs, particularly regarding their legal status? Do the commitments that citizens of liberal democracies make—commitments to ideals such as rationality, equality, justice, and democratic forms of decision-making—have implications for drug policy? These are the questions addressed in this volume, which explores the possibilities and limitations of philosophical reflection on this pressing, practical social issue.The authors, distinguished political and legal philosophers, search out the justification of policies that manage problems of drug consumption and social disintegration, but do so in keeping with the moral and political commitments of a liberal democratic society. Their subjects range from the rationality or irrationality of drug consumption to the scope of liberty; from the proper aims of legislation to the rhetoric of the war on drugs, particularly as deployed by former "Drug Czar" William Bennett.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Liberal Commitments and the Problem of Drugs -- PART I. RATIONALITY AND DRUGS -- CHAPTER ONE. Rationality and Addiction -- CHAPTER TWO. The Irrationality of Addiction And Does It Matter? -- PART II. LIBERAL POLITICAL MORALITY AND DRUGS -- CHAPTER THREE. Liberty and Drugs -- CHAPTER FOUR. Liberalism, Inalienability, and Rights of Drug Use -- Part III. Democracy, Politics, and Drugs -- CHAPTER FIVE. Drugs and Democracy -- CHAPTER SIX. Drugs, National Sovereignty, and Democratic Legitimacy -- CHAPTER SEVEN. Drugs, the Nation, and Freelancing: Decoding the Moral Universe of William Bennett -- Notes -- Notes on Contributors -- Index