Conference:
Abstract: "Liberal political theorists and practitioners of modern democracy have occasionally observed that a liberal individualist conception of rights unduly limits the set of governing relations to a two-level system, with individuals at one level and the state at another. The extent of the problem caused by this limited vision is apparent with liberal democracies are faced with the challenges of common pool resource issues. The observations of Alexis de Tocqueville in the last century and Vincent Ostrom's at the close of the present age, show that liberalism in itself does little to remove the conceptual fetters of a theory of sovereignty that assumes that a single absolute center of political authority must rule individuals. Tocqueville also reveals liberal theory's dangerous division of life into public and private -- a division that limits our conception of political activity to the realm of government alone and fails to recognize the importance of an authentic private sphere to the development of a vital public life. In terms of contemporary policy making and analysis, this limitation prevents us from identifying an alternative to dichotomous choices between private property and state ownership, ignoring the multiplicity of voluntary, self-organizing, and self-governing activities that address common pool resource systems..."
"In this essay, I will draw on the observations of Alexis de Tocqueville, the historical work of Donald Lutz, and Vincent Ostrom's interpretation of American federalism to discuss the covenantal basis of federal systems and their potential for dealing with common pool resource problems. In addition to the American experiment in self-government, scholars who understand federalism as a reflection of a covenantal theory, may also draw on the prior example of Swiss federalism. Analysts might also learn from traditional and contemporary means for recognizing groups with distinct ways of life in nation states -- such examples range from Native peoples with sovereignty embedded in the constitutional systems of Canada and the United States, the 'Travellers' in Ireland to the Sami of Norway."