MacDonald, L: The Political Philosophy of Property Rights

This mongraph reasserts the primacy of property inpolitical theorising. Arguing that the determinationof property rights is part of the justification ofthe state, MacDonald notes the failure of muchcurrent philosophising to take account of this rolewhen setting out the normative arguments forlegitimate political authority. MacDonald criticisescurrent philosophical definitions of property as abundle-of-rights, arguing that for normativepurposes, property is a right of exclusion in rem. Thereby MacDonald escapes the interminable moral andlegal arguments over property - such as questions ofLockean labour theory, self-ownership, and indigenoushistorical injustice - that have dominated recentpolitical philosophy. Instead, the book focuses onthe failure of libertarian and liberal egalitariantheories of justice to produce a plausible account ofboth legitimate political authority's right toregulate property, and the principles upon which thatregulation ought to occur. The book will be ofinterest to scholars of political philosophy andtheory, especially those engaged in the contemporaryideas of justice, legitimacy and the justification ofthe state.