Updated on 09 April 2016

Written by Piotr Bąkowski, Eva-Maria Poptcheva, Detelin Ivanov
Graphs by: Giulio Sabbati

© gustavofrazao / Fotolia

With hundreds of thousands of people embarking on perilous journeys to reach the EU borders, the EU now faces an unprecedented migratory crisis. The following pages set out possible responses, some based on legislation already in force and others requiring a profound reform of the existing system. It is argued that the so-called Dublin system − defining the Member State responsible in individual cases for examining applications for international protection − has led to overburdening of Member States at the EU’s southern external borders. Meanwhile diverging asylum standards across the EU have resulted in a great number of asylum-seekers travelling to Member States with higher reception standards. Therefore the solutions proposed centre, on the one hand, on harmonising national asylum standards and, on the other hand, on distributing asylum-seekers more evenly…

The Non-Non-Libertarian FAQ

aka The webpage you will always remember for changing your political views, maybe 🙂

Contents

0. Introduction

A. Economic Issues

1. Externalities
2. Coordination Problems
3. Irrational Choices
4. Lack of Information

B. Social Issues

5. Just Desserts and Social Mobility
6. Taxation

C. Political Issues

7. Competence of Government
8. Health Care
9. Prison Privatization
10. Gun Control
11. Education

D. Moral Issues

12. Moral Systems
13. Rights and Heuristics

E. Practical Issues

14. Slippery Slopes
15. Strategic Activism
16. Miscellaneous and Meta

Epilogue

Introduction

0.1: Who are you, what is this?

For me, see in the About section of this site.

This is a response to Scott Alexander’s Non-Libertarian FAQ, initially written in 2010 and revised in 2013. Note that his FAQ is not called the Anti-Libertarian FAQ. In the same spirit, this FAQ does not defend libertarianism, but criticises arguments offered against libertarianism.

Written by Enrico D’Ambrogio,

India has recently overtaken China as the world’s fastest growing economy. The country has benefited from falling oil prices and from an increase in foreign direct investment, due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies, with the most visible tools branded schemes such as ‘Make in India’. However, perceptions of real growth and other indicators point to a less optimistic framework, while Modi is struggling against opposition in the Parliament to deliver major reforms on labour laws, taxation and land acquisition.

India, the fastest growing economy

India’s economy – Figures and perceptions

India, the world’s tenth-largest economy by nominal GDP (gross domestic product), and third largest in purchasing power parity (PPP), has recently overtaken China as the fastest-growing economy. According to the International Monetary Fund’s January 2016 World Economic Outlook (WEO), New Delhi had already caught up with Beijing in 2014 (7.3% growth in both countries). By…

Written by Piotr Bąkowski and Laura Puccio,

© Nomad_Soul / Fotolia

As the hostilities in Syria and Iraq continue, and terrorist activities worldwide appear to be on the rise, EU Member States are increasingly confronted with the problem of aspiring and returning ‘foreign fighters’. Whereas the phenomenon is not new, its scale certainly is, explaining the wide perception that these individuals are a serious threat to the security of both individual Member States and the EU as a whole.

International fora, including the United Nations, have addressed the problem, with the UN adopting a binding resolution in 2014 specifically addressing the issue of foreign fighters. The EU is actively engaged in international initiatives to counter the threat.

Within the EU, security in general, and counter-terrorism in particular, have traditionally remained within the Member States’ remit. The EU has, however, coordinated Member State activities regarding the prevention of radicalisation, the detection…

Written by Aidan Christie and Giulio Sabbati,

As the number of European Union Member States has increased and the competences of the Union have widened, some Member States have on occasion been exempted from joining their partners in new fields of integration. Whilst the single market and its ‘four freedoms’ remain at the heart of the Union, it has found ways to allow the majority to move forward, notably in the fields of Economic and Monetary Union and Justice and Home Affairs, without all Member States taking part.

The graphics below illustrate the differing arrangements for Member States’ participation in EMU and JHA. This is variously known as differentiated integration, variable geometry, multi-speed or à la carte Europe. Even if some see the current situation of the United Kingdom as further entrenching the practice, the Union has always maintained the possibility for non-participating Member States to re-join their partners. Furthermore…

The front cover of Peter Hennessy’s brilliant Never Again, a study of Britain under the Attlee governments (from which much of what follows is drawn), gives a photograph of Gunner Hector Morgan returning home, having been a POW in Singapore, to his wife and son and their new prefab, in south London’s Tulse Hill, in 1945. Between 1945 and 1949, over 150,000 prefabricated housing units were built. These prefabs were a short term solution to a problem that was in part a product of war, but in truth a problem of far longer standing: a shortage of housing, the terrible state of much of the housing there was, and the expectation that it was a problem that the government had to take the lead in solving.

That the state could, even should, intervene to deal with bad housing and related issues was a long-established principle by 1945. The first legislation…

In many rich countries the “hard” facts describing the income distribution are easily available. Yet, discussions about inequality are animated by two different stories with very different public policy implications.

You can listen to a caricature of these points of view in this pair of interviews on CBC radio: http://www.cbc.ca/radiowest/2015/01/21/two-different-takes-on-the-worlds-wealthiest-one-per-cent/

I offer more detail on the way Canadians have framed these stories as a part of a presentation to the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s university.

Here is Story 1 in pictures

(click on an image to start the slideshow and press Escape to return to this page).

Here is Story 2 in pictures

(click on an image to start the slideshow and press Escape to return to this page).

My presentation argued that context—rooted in economic theory and the appropriate use of statistics—is needed to understand the truth behind these stories, and to turn them into a…

One of the key points I’ve tried to stress on this blog is that micro-scale population structure – that is, fine genetic variation across populations can have a substantial impact on societal characteristics. We aren’t just talking about continental racial variation. We aren’t even talking just about ethnic variation. Sorting within an ethnic groups can produce distinct regional differences. Founder effects are powerful, as is the converse effect, boiling off.

This means that regional differences across countries like the United States reflect genetic differences between people.  Even of those who accept that genes impact behavior, many like to blame these local variations on local “culture” (as if culture was some otherworldly force itself without cause). But our discoveries render that view untenable. These include many newer behavioral genetic studies using nationally representative U.S. samples. These studies find no shared environment influence, which would turn up if local cultural effects…

Investor-State Dispute Settle­ment mechanisms are found in more than 3 000 international investment treaties, but have been increasingly criticised in recent years. Their advocates defend them as a depoliticised neutral system to resolve disputes between foreign investors and host states.

© ljo / Fotolia

The progress made on comprehensive free trade agree­ments (FTAs) between the EU and Canada and the United States – in both cases including provisions for ISDS – has intensified discussion on the mechanism in the EU. Some critics have no hesitation in calling it a “toxic mechanism”, which empowers corporations to the detriment of sovereign states’ courts and parliament. Others focus more on an elite arbitration industry that promotes ISDS, in particular through its control of the editorial boards of international law journals covering the field.

The EU supports ISDS arbitration in general, while recognising the need for its reform. Indeed a consensus seems to be emerging…