7 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
John Rawls's 1971 masterwork — arguing that just institutions are those principles we would choose behind a 'veil of ignorance' (not knowing our position in society) — that rational choosers would select two principles: equal basic liberties for all, and inequalities only if they benefit the least advantaged (the difference principle).
Danish politician — Prime Minister of Denmark (2001–2009) — Secretary General of NATO (2009–2014) — founder of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation — who as NATO SG managed the Afghan surge and the Libyan intervention.
Austrian-British economist and political philosopher — Nobel Prize in Economics (1974) — author of The Road to Serfdom, The Constitution of Liberty, and Prices and Production — whose argument that prices aggregate dispersed knowledge better than central planners could inspired the Reagan-Thatcher revolution.
Carlo (1899–1937) and Nello Rosselli — Italian Jewish brothers who were among the most important anti-fascist intellectuals of the 1930s — Carlo founding the Justice and Liberty movement in exile, both assassinated by French fascists in 1937 on Mussolini's orders.
John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1689) — arguing that political authority is derived from the consent of the governed, that individuals have natural rights to life, liberty, and property, and that rebellion against tyrannical government is justified.
F.A. Hayek's 1944 argument that central economic planning inevitably leads to totalitarianism — that the administrative apparatus needed to implement a planned economy requires concentrating power that will eventually be abused regardless of the planners' intentions.
Locke's Two Treatises (1689) are the founding documents of liberal political theory, refuting divine-right monarchy and grounding government in natural rights and consent.