News and Events

In July the Professorship of Political Theory and Philosophy held its first public event at the Munich School of Politics and Public Policy.
Dr. Vincent Harting (LSE) introduced his research in a workshop on “Egalitarian Corporatism and the Problem of Oligarchy.” Based on a draft paper by Harting, the participants discussed how democracies can counter tendencies towards economic inequality and power asymmetries. Harting provided a limited defence of a corporatist approach to this problem, arguing that an institutional system based on the organised representation of labour and capital interests can go a long way in combating power asymmetries. In the discussion with the audience, different aspects of this system were discussed further, for example whether we should think of “egalitarian corporatism” as an ideal or a transitional strategy, and how corporatist designs can provide mechanisms to ensure that the stabilization of representation and bargaining processes does not come at the expense of democratic accountability. 

The following talk dived deeper into the idea of creating institutions with the specific goal of strengthening the voices of citizens from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in the political process. Vincent Harting here elaborated on both the rights-based and the instrumental reasons for class-specific institutions. In particular, he defended the idea that these institutions must be based on a specific socio-economic definition of class. The subsequent discussion with the audience then took up this issue, among other things, and further investigated how this concept of class could be defined.

Both parts of the event offered insight into the possibilities of institutions, and in particular novel institutional designs, to further economic justice and political equality.
Thanks to the engaged participants, some of them travelling to Munich from places as far as Vienna or Utrecht, and everyone who supported the organization at HfP and TUM, this first event was a great success.
The professorship is planning to regularly invite speakers from the broad range of perspectives in political theory and philosophy.