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The Program in Political Philosophy, Policy and Law (PPL) at the University of Virginia Student Handbook 2012-13 If  you’re  new  to  the  PPL  Program,  welcome  aboard.    If  you’re  a  fourth  year,  welcome  back! The purpose of this document is to demystify the PPL program by clarifying procedures, preempting some common questions and giving you a sense of what to expect in the coming semesters. I hope this will turn out to be a useful resource for you as you navigate the program. The handbook is structured as follows. Section A provides some information that applies to all PPL students. Sections B and C provide information specific to the third and fourth year PPL students respectively.  I’ve  appended  the most recent version of the PPL requirements, a graduation requirement checklist and brief précis of the research projects submitted last year by the PPL class of 2012. Please review this handbook carefully and refer to it as and when questions come up. Chances are that the answer to your question is here. There are various UVA official publications and websites that contain misinformation about the PPL major (not on purpose); if you encounter a conflict between what you find in other UVA publications and what you find here, you should trust this document, not them. Should you lose this email, a copy  of  this  handbook  is  also  available  under  the  ‘Resources’  link of the PPL Student Center site on UVA Collab (see below). Note also that I am introducing some changes for this year: they are highlighted below as The NEW.changes are not drastic, but please pay particular attention to these.

Good Luck! Colin Bird

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A: General Information

1. People

Full time faculty members with appointments partly in PPL:

Colin Bird (director), colinbird@virginia.edu Loren Lomasky (Cory Professor of Political Philosophy, Policy and Law), lel3f@virginia.edu

PPL Postdoctoral Fellow, 2012-14:

Michael Kates, PhD., New York University NEW PPL Adjunct Instructor, 2012-13:

Dan Doneson, PhD., University of Chicago NEW

Affiliated UVA Faculty:

George Klosko, Department of Politics John Simmons, Department of Philosophy Tal Brewer, Department of Philosophy John Arras, Department of Philosophy and Bioethics Sahar Akhtar, Department of Philosophy and Bioethics Jennifer Rubenstein, Department of Politics Becky Stangl, Department of Philosophy

Administrative Staff: Sharon Marsh, Department of Politics Sue Sherrill, Department of Politics

2. Director’s  office hours and contact information My office is Gibson Hall (S495) Office hours for Fall 2012: Monday 10.30-12.30 and by appointment Spring hours: TBA Office phone: 434 924 3615 Cell: (it’s OK to use it) 434 989 9961 Email: colinbird@virginia.edu

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3. Approval for courses

You must obtain approval from the Director for any courses you wish to count toward your PPL major that are (a) neither required PPL courses nor (b) pre-approved PPL courses (see Appendix I for a list of pre-approved PPL courses). Approval may be sought at any time (before, during or after the completion of a course). To seek approval for a course, please submit an email to the Director, explaining why you think the class ought to count toward your major, attaching a course syllabus if available. Please note that the  Director’s approval is rarely immediately reflected on SIS. The fact that an approved course is not listed as such on SIS is not a reason for concern. (See the section on SIS below)

4. PPL Student Center on UVACollab All of you are (or should be – let me know if not) enrolled on the PPL Student Center on Collab. Several useful resources for PPL students, and all important official PPL documents (including this one), are available on this site. The ‘PPL Core Classes’ Forum on the Collab site is deserves special mention: it allows students to post information about courses that have been approved for the PPL core but that do not appear on the official list of pre-approved classes. This provides a mechanism by which you can keep track of PPL appropriate courses without our having to continuously update the list of pre-approved courses. If I approve a UVA course for PPL and you think that it’s not likely to be one of which your classmates are aware, please post information about it in this forum.

5. Minors and Double Majors

Double Majors: PPL Students are permitted to double-major, subject to satisfying College rules and those of other Major concentrations (always be aware of the rules for your other major). The college permits only 3 courses to count simultaneously toward two majors, and some departments impose further restrictions. The College rules about double majoring can be found at: http://college.artsandsciences.virginia.edu/declaremajor Minors: In general, the College prohibits courses from counting toward both a minor and a major simultaneously. They make some exceptions for students in Interdisciplinary majors like PPL, but even then there are restrictions, so you should keep this in mind as you plan your classes. The College rules about minoring are discussed at the website above, and also at: http://college.artsandsciences.virginia.edu/declareminor

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6. Transfer Credit

Starting with the class of 2014, PPL students may only count up to six credits of class work NEWfrom non-UVA institutions without permission. You may petition the director to allow an additional 3 credits toward the major. This rule does not apply to the class of 2013.

7. Study Abroad PPL students are encouraged to pursue study abroad programs. The one restriction is that you cannot study abroad during either your first or last semester in the PPL program (normally the Fall of your third year and the Spring of your fourth year) because these are semesters when the mandatory PPL 2010 (gateway) and PPL 4010 (capstone) are offered.

8. SIS – Don’t  Panic! SIS is a very problematic registration system at the best of times, but it is particularly obtuse with regard to interdisciplinary majors like PPL, which typically feature many electives and relatively few of their own courses. It is almost inevitable that SIS will fail to recognize many of your PPL classes, even when they have been approved. As a result, SIS will often think that you are much further from completing your major than you actually are, and will start huffing and puffing  at  you  for  not  being  on  track.  Don’t  be  freaked  out.    It  is  (almost  invariably)  SIS  and  not  you. If you are in doubt about whether you are on track to complete the major, just drop me a line to confirm.    You’ll  find  the  Graduation  Checklist  (Appendix  II)  particularly  helpful.    All  fourth  years  must complete a checklist before they register for their Spring classes, so (whatever SIS thinks) we’ll  carefully  audit  your  record  as  you  move  through  the  program. As you approach graduation, your trusty director will risk dangerously high blood pressure levels by doing battle with SIS and adjusting your record so that it recognizes your PPL courses correctly. The one thing that SIS is useful for is catching problems about courses double-counted toward PPL and a Minor or other Major. Be on the lookout for potential conflicts, and take careful note of the College rules about double-counting courses (see item 4. above).

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9. The PPL final year research project

All PPL students are required to submit a research project/thesis in their final semester in the program. The PPL research project is shorter than the theses required by many other programs – we expect students to produce an article-length paper (35-40) pages, on some fairly focused topic. The range of possible topics is enormous. The PPL Student Center site on Collab includes some abstracts of past topics, and Appendix III describes the theses of last year’s graduating class. The one requirement is that the topic be genuinely interdisciplinary, blending (in some proportion) philosophical and empirical analysis, seeking to both evaluate and explain the political institutions, legal practices, or policies, under discussion.

10. Email lists There are 3 email lists associated with the PPL program: ppl-2013@virginia.edu (current fourth year PPL students) ppl-2014@virginia.edu (incoming third year PPL students) ppl-faculty@virginia.edu (all PPL Faculty – including affiliated faculty above) Feel free to use these to discuss PPL-related matters. Please do NOT use them for purposes unrelated to PPL (selling goods, advertising services, sending out party invitations, etc.). If you are uncertain about whether an email is appropriate for these lists, please ask me before sending it out.

11. Extra-curricular activities Part of the value of a small, selective, major is the opportunity to get to know a group of students who share common interests and experiences. To some extent, this will happen in a classroom context, especially in PPL 2010 and PPL 4010. However, there are a variety of other opportunities for PPL students to come together. 1. The PPL colloquium. Throughout the year, the PPL program sponsors a series of colloquia

featuring visiting speakers presenting research on topics related to political theory, public policy, and law. These colloquia are aimed primarily at PPL Faculty and graduate students with interests in these areas, but PPL students are warmly invited to attend.

2. Annual Conference. Each academic year, the PPL program sponsors a two-day conference on a subject of interest to political philosophers. These conferences have addressed a variety of topics, including: global justice, markets in organs, democratic irrationality, the political thought of Amartya Sen, and the politics of meaningful work. They typically bring to

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Grounds some very eminent scholars from other institutions, and are always lively events. PPL students are again encouraged to participate. The 2012-13 PPL conference will take place in April 2013 – exact time and topic TBA.

3. PPL Socials. We typically begin and end the academic year with a mixer for all PPL students.

Details of these events will follow in due course. Once again, if students have ideas for additional PPL events, do let me know.

12. PPL Self-government PPL is your program. The more you put in, the more you will get out of it. To this point, PPL hasn’t  had  any  formal  mechanism  by  which  students  can  express  their  concerns,  suggestions  and  ideas  to  the  director.    If  you’d  like  to  establish such a mechanism, I encourage you to cooperate in crafting a proposal along these lines. I also encourage you to take the initiative in organizing special events of your own. Perhaps there  are  speakers  you’d  like  to  bring  to  Grounds;  perhaps  you’d  like  to  form  a  reading  group  on  a particular topic relevant to your PPL research project; perhaps  you’d  like  the  PPL  (or other UVA) Faculty to comment on political issues; perhaps you have an idea for a social event. If you have thoughts along these lines, please bring  them  to  my  attention;  I’ll  do  my  best  to  facilitate.   The College makes some funds available to students wishing to organize events of these sorts – last year Rob Loebl was particularly enterprising in using these funds to support a Barbeque, and a memorable, if unsuccessful, bid to win the Mellow Mushroom trivia contest. I would particularly welcome your active participation in efforts to secure  PPL’s  future, in two main areas: 1. Recruitment of new PPL students

2. Alumni Relations.

If you have ideas about either of these, or want to offer assistance, please let me know. (I am particularly interested in those with facebook-competence).

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B: For third years

1. Declaration of Major Forms If you haven’t already done so, please submit to me the yellow copy of your Declaration of Major form.

2. PPL 2010 You must enroll in PPL 2010 in the Fall semester of 2012.

3. Planning for the final year Research Project It is never too early to be thinking about possibly topics for your final year research project. Don’t delay until the last minute. Keep in mind that you will not only need a topic, but also an advisor, for your thesis. It is often easier to secure an advisor with relevant expertise if you have studied with them before – bear this in mind as you consider your classes. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you need advice/inspiration about possible research topics, and how best to approach them.

B: For fourth years

1. Preparation for your final year Research Project The foundations for a successful research project in the Spring are laid in the previous semester: we want you to have a clear topic in place when you return to UVA in January. To that end, I require that all fourth-year students submit a proposal for their research project by the time they register for their Spring classes (i.e. around late October/early November). A complete proposal must include:

a. A two-page explanation of the topic you propose to address. This should state what you will attempt to establish in the thesis, how you propose to establish it, and why you think your main thesis is interesting and important.

b. A viable bibliography of sources to be discussed in the project (at least five texts) c. The name of a faculty advisor who has agreed to supervise your work in the Spring

N.B. I will not release the hold on your registration for Spring classes until I have received a complete proposal from you. Further details about deadlines etc. to follow. Please do not try to circumvent this by having advisors for your other majors release your hold: I will simply re-impose the hold if you do this.

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2. PPL 4010 Capstone Seminar

As usual, there will be two sections of the PPL 4010 Capstone seminar offered in the Spring 2013 semester. You must register for one of these. To give you some leeway in planning out your Spring courses, the capstone seminars will be scheduled at different times. Please note, however, that it may not be possible for you to enroll in the capstone seminar of your first choice. In the interests of fairness (to both instructors and your classmates), it is important that these seminars be of roughly equal size, and so I may have to require some of you to switch the other section if one of them becomes oversubscribed. Please be aware of this, and plan your Spring classes with this proviso in mind: I thank you in advance for your flexibility. For Spring 2013, the two capstone seminars will be taught by Dan Doneson and Michael Kates. NEW Please note that you will be expected to submit a complete draft of the research project by Spring Break. This is a new requirement, intended to preempt the tendency to leave the PPL research project to the last minute. The expectation is that students should spend the second half of their final semester polishing up an already existing draft, rather than struggling to produce a complete draft before the semester ends. I hope that this will improve the overall quality of the final products by forcing students to frontload their work on the thesis.

3. Grades for the research project and levels of honors Final grades for your research project are agreed between your capstone instructor and your thesis advisor, subject to my review (to ensure consistency across the two sections). PPL is a distinguished major, and so students are eligible for honors. Please note, however, that you can receive honors only if your final UVA GPA is 3.4 or higher. (This is a College rule, not a PPL rule.) Levels of honors (honors, high honors, highest honors) are determined by the director, in consultation with your capstone instructor. There is no mechanical algorithm used to determine honors levels, but the key factors will be: the effort/energy you put into the research project; overall UVA GPA; GPA in PPL-related courses; service and commitment to the PPL program outside classes; and general good-eggedness.

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Appendix I: PPL Course Requirements The major in Political Philosophy, Policy and Law (PPL) provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to pursue intensive study of the connections between political philosophy and legal theory, legal thought and historical change, law and public policy. The major is based firmly on the view that the study of law has a rich humanistic tradition and that its pursuit encourages sustained reflection on the fundamental values of political association. Because the domain of law, policy and political philosophy is huge, a principal objective of the major is the integration of diverse disciplinary perspectives. But interdisciplinary dialogue on political and legal ideas, processes, doctrine, and policies can be fruitful only if the participants engage one another from a position of disciplinary strength. The requirements for the major in PPL are grounded on this presumption.

Students may not minor in PPL.

Political Philosophy, Policy and Law is a major with three components. Majors must take:

1. three co-requisite courses

2. two required PPL courses

3. An individually tailored package of 8 courses that comprise an interdisciplinary core.

Students in PPL are encouraged to combine the PPL major with majors or minors in other disciplines, but only two courses used to satisfy requirements of another major or minor may be counted toward PPL.

1. Co-requisite courses (3 Courses)

Co-requisite courses must be completed by the end of students' third year.

The co-requisites are (1) one course in the history of political thought, (2) one course in legal history and public policy, and (3) ECON 2010 (Microeconomics). The first two co-requisites must be selected from the following menus:

(1) History of Political Thought PHIL 2560 Classical Political Philosophy PHIL 2770 Political Philosophy PLPT 3010 Ancient and Medieval Political Theory PLPT 3020 Modern Political Theory PLPT 3030 Contemporary Political Theory (2) Legal History and Public Policy HIUS 355 Early American Law HIUS 356 Modern American Law

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PLAP 3810 Constitutional Interpretation COMM 3410 Commercial Law I

No more than one co-reqiusite course may count toward the fulfillment of the requirements for the Interdisciplinary Core. Please note that ECON 2010 may NOT count toward your core classes if you are minoring in Economics.

2. Required PPL Courses (2 courses)

(a) All PPL majors must take PPL 2010 in the Fall semester of their third year.

(b) All PPL majors must take PPL 4010 (Capstone research seminar) in their final semester.

These classes are restricted to PPL majors.

3. Interdisciplinary Core (8 courses)

At least three courses must be taken in (A) Theoretical Foundations and at least three courses from (B) Policy and Law, with courses in each group from at least two different departments. Each student's specific package of courses will be individually worked out in consultation with a PPL advisor. The courses listed below are for purposes of illustration, to indicate the kinds of courses that are appropriate for each group. These are not complete lists. Once again, only one co-requisite course may count towards this requirement.

(A) Theoretical Foundations

PLPT 1010 – Introduction to Political Theory HIEU 3812 - Marx PPL 3999 – Philosophical Perspectives on Freedom PLPT 3050 - Survey of American Political Theory PLPT 4030 - Democracy and Its Critics PLPT 4070 - Liberalism and its Critics PLPT 4050 – Concepts of Law PHIL 3680 - Crime and Punishment ANTH 3230 - Introduction to Legal Anthropology ECON 4010 - Game Theory ECON 4080 - Law and Economics HIUS 3756 - American Legal Thought since 1880 PHIL 2060 - Philosophical Problems in Law

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PHIL 2690 - Justice, Law, and Morality PHIL 3670 - Law and Society SOC 4055 - Sociology of Law

B. Policy and Law

COMM 3410 - Commercial Law I HIEU 3091 - Ancient Law and Society HIEU 3471 - English Legal History to 1776 HIEU 3721 - Witchcraft HIUS 3031 - The Era of the American Revolution HIUS 3752 - The History of Early American Law HIUS 3753 - The History of Modern American Law PLAP 3820 - Civil Liberties and Civil Rights PLAP 4830 - First Amendment PLAP 4840 - Race and Constitution RELC 3200 - Medieval Church Law RELJ 3310 - Jewish Law COMM 3420 - Commercial Law II ECON 4080 – Law and Economics ECON 4160 - Economics of Health ECON 4180 - Regulating Infrastructure ECON 4200 - Antitrust Policy ECON 4210 - International Trade: Theory and Policy ECON 4310 - Economics of the Public Sector PHIL 3650 - Justice and Health Care PLAN 3060 - Law, Land and the Environment PLAP 3190 - Judicial Process and Policy-Making PLAP 3650 - Gender Politics PLAP 3810 - Constitutional Interpretation: Separation of Powers and Federalism PLIR 3110 - International Law: Principles and Politics PLPT 4800 - Political Economy PSYC 3460 - Psychological Study of Children, Families, and the Law Credits: 4 PSYC 4499 - Psychology and Law: Cognitive and Social Issues SOC 2055 - Law and Society SWAG 3810 – Feminist Theory

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Appendix II: PPL Course Checklist

Name__________________________________

PPL2010 Yes/No

PPL 4010 Yes/No

In the table below, please list your 3 co-requisite courses, with the semester in which you completed (or plan to complete) each:

Course number Course Title Semester (to be) completed + Grade (if done)

Please list your 8 PPL Core classes, with the semester in which you completed (or plan to complete) each:

A. Theoretical Foundations (at least three):

Course Number Course Title Semester (to be) completed + Grade (if done)

Class approved by (if not on the official list)

B. Policy and Law (at least three):

Course Number Course Title Semester (to be) completed + Grade (if done)

Class approved by (if not on the official list)

Remember that only one co-requisite class can count toward your core classes, and that courses in each of these two groups (A. and B.) must be from at least two departments.

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Appendix III: PPL Research Projects 2012

Lorcan Connick

Justifying State-Administered Punishment

Lorcan’s  goal  was  to  provide  a  theory  of  punishment  that  combined  two  different  ideas  about  the  nature of punishment: first, the retributive theory that punishment should correspond to desert; and second, the utilitarian theory that punishment should advance the interests of society. Responding to the dangerous lack of limits that the utilitarian theory places upon the state, Lorcan combines these ideas by providing a theory of punishment grounded in a version of rule utilitarianism according to which the ultimate purpose of punishment is the interests of society, but desert determines the

distribution of punishment.

Chelsea DeMarco

The Liberal Arts: The Evolution of Art Patronage in a Liberal State

Chelsea’s  capstone  project  concerns  the  possibilities  and  controversies  of  state  funding  of  the  arts  within a liberal democracy. She argues that it is important that society provide a favorable artistic environment, but also that, as John Rawls said, in a liberal democracy the public, and not the government,  must  determine  what  counts  as  “good”  or  “bad”  art.  The  controversies  over  the  use  of  NEA  funds to display controversial works by artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe may be unfortunate, but illustrate the necessary limits on state promotion of the arts. She therefore concludes that the government can best promote art by funding access to art, art education, and providing incentives for private individuals to support the arts.

Kathleen Gillette-Mallard

Born in the U.S.A.: The Birthright Citizenship Debate in America

In the US, citizenship is granted in accordance with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, granting citizen status to any individual born on US soil. In recent decades this principle has come under strain because of increases in illegal immigration; many people are willing to immigrate illegally in order to secure US citizenship for their children. Kaycie argues that the benefits of amending the Constitution to replace birthright citizenship  with  citizenship  derived  from  the  citizenship  of  one’s  parents  do  not  outweigh  the  costs  of  changing  a  fundamental  right  with  its  basis  in  the  United  States’  history  as  a  nation of immigrants.

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Bethel Habte

How News can save Democracy: the case for new objectivity and educational political information

Bethel’s  capstone  project  argues  that  the  media  is  the  primary  conduit  of  information  about  the  government  to  the  people,  but  that  it  fails  in  this  role  because  it  attempts  to  provide  the  “dessert”  of  event  coverage  and  analysis  without  the  “supper”  of  fundamental  information  regarding  the  policies,  institutions, and history relevant to understanding current events and debates. Bethel ties this failure to the  media’s  excessive  devotion  to  two  traditional ideals, objectivity and timeliness. Bethel argues that these should be replaced by an revised ideal of objectivity focused more on facts than on balance, and a new focus upon providing timeless rather than timely information aimed at increasing the  public’s  fundamental knowledge of politics.

Marilyn Harvey

The Importance of Absolute Privilege: An investigation of why the Quasi-judicial institutions at the University of Virginia should be afforded this privilege

Whereas federal and state courts provide absolute immunity from slander and libel to participants, the University’s  three  quasi-judicial bodies provide only a qualified privilege. Marilyn argues that this state of affairs creates the danger that someone could dissuade or punish his accuser through the threatening to sue or actually suing on grounds of defamation, as occurred at the University of Michigan in 1987. She concludes that the University should provide absolute privilege to those speaking in its quasi-judicial bodies and provides the legal rationale and framework for accomplishing this.

Neal Modi

Towards a Modern Public Forum: Business Improvement Districts, Commercialism and Free Speech.

Business Improvement Districts, such as Times Square in New York and Church Street Marketplace in Vermont, are voluntary associations of businesses who tax themselves to supplement public funds in order to provide services supplementing or replacing public services, and they are organized in order to increase the desirability of the district for customers. Neal argues that because their policies are directed toward consumption, they do not always protect rights to free speech and free assembly, and therefore cities and local communities ought to act to increase the dependence of Business Improvement Districts upon local government to ensure that they fulfill the trust they are given in utilizing public spaces.

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Joanna Schlingbaum

Why Vacation in Guantanamo should be more pleasant: Captured Terrorists and Just War Theory

Terrorists blur the line drawn in just war theory between civilian and soldier, while also violating the principles  of  just  war  not  only  in  their  actions  but  also  in  their  goals.  Joanna’s  capstone project concedes that terrorists do not qualify for all the protections enjoyed by conventional soldiers, but that although they operate in a realm so far undefined by just war theory, they remain human beings and retain certain minimal rights, particularly procedural rights to due process and fair trial. She therefore concludes that in practicing indefinite detention the US has wrongfully exploited the ambiguity of terrorists’  status  to  deny  them  these  rights,  and  that  captured  terrorists  ought  to be tried for war crimes.

Simon Svirnovsky

Electoral  Memory  and  the  “winnability”  theory:  why  voters  forgive  certain  scandals  and  not  others

What determines whether a politician will be able to recover from a scandal? Simon builds upon work on the nature of social time and reputation building and examines a number of recent scandals. He argues that the moral  gravity  of  a  politician’s  transgression  does  not  primarily  determine whether a political career will survive a scandal. The crucial factor, rather, is his party sticks with him/her; voters usually  follow  the  party’s  lead,  and  the  decision  of  political  parties to persist with a scandal-ridden candidate is  guided  by  whether  it  believes  that  it  can  hold  onto  the  politician’s  seat  without  him/her. He concludes by calling for voters to refuse to cede responsibility to parties and to hold politicians accountable for their ethical improprieties regardless of whether this is advantageous to the party.

Sydney Taylor

“Beauty  is  Beastly”  Revisited:  The effect of Femininity on the perceived competency and electability of female political candidates in the United States

The US lags behind most other countries in terms of female political representation. Sydney argues that one reason for this has to do with common American views about the incompatibility of femininity with the  rough  and  corrupt  world  of  politics.  A  political  candidate’s  appearance  plays  a  powerful  role  in  shaping  the  public’s  perception  of  competence  and  electability,  and  for  American  women this means that a woman with more feminine features often faces greater difficulty in seeking election. She concludes by recommending a variety of measure to improve female representation and change public perception of women in politics, including grassroots efforts to bring more women into local politics, gender  quotas,  and  increased  use  by  parties  of  women  to  head  efforts  on  “welfare”  and  “compassion”  issues.

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J P Vergara

SOPA and PIPA: Protecting American Innovation or Threatening Freedom of Expression

In recent years, Congress has tried to deter international violation of American copyright by exerting greater control over the Internet. J P agrees that because there are no enforceable international copyright laws, the US recording and movie industries have real grounds for complaint. He claims nonetheless that laws like SOPA and PIPA offer flawed solutions to the problem because they hinder innovation and impose excessive costs upon companies such as Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube, whom they require to ceaselessly monitor their users. J P concludes that they therefore threaten Constitutional protections on free speech, especially prior restraint.

Erica Washington

Racial Disparities as a By-product of Prison Privatization: how privatized prisons reinforce the mass incarceration of African-Americans

In the aftermath  of  the  “War  on  Drugs,” the U.S. has been an exploding prison population, soaring far above that of other nations. States with overflowing prisons have begun to turn to private prisons, who promise to incarcerate prisoners at a reduced cost. Erica argues that private prisons possess three problems. First, they dilute the symbolic significance of imprisonment conducted directly by public agencies  ‘in  the  name  of  the  people’.    Second,  they generate perverse incentive structures that make the violation  of  prisoners’  rights more likely. Finally, they tend to reinforce, rather than relieve, racial disparities pervading the penal system.

Graham Williams

Return to Sender: An Argument for the Privatization of the United States Postal Service

Graham asks, what kind of company can survive losing 3.3 billion dollars in a single quarter and expect to continue operations? Thanks to the rise of new communication methods such as email and Skype, the Postal  Service’s  business  has  been  plummeting,  and  over  the  past  several  years  the  USPS  has  operated  at a tremendous loss and amassed enormous debt to the US government. Graham examines both why and how we might privatize the Postal Service. He argues that a mixture of divestment and vouchers for certain purposes can allow private sector to provide the same services the USPS currently provides while still upholding the Constitutional guarantee of postal service to US citizens.

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Gabriela Cerkey

Immigration: a Socio-economic Case for Restricting Immigration

Gabriela’s  thesis  brings  together  two  issues  that  have  been  discussed  quite  a  lot  recently—growing income inequality in America and illegal immigration—but which are not usually discussed together. She argues that illegal immigration has adverse economic impacts on lower income Americans and that it places a strain on the social safety net. She also considers challenges to these claims. However, the position she reaches is not indiscriminately opposed to all immigration but instead a call for reform and Gabriela’s  project  concludes  by outlining an immigration policy that she contends would not have the negative effects she has highlighted.

Alison Chin

The Praxis of Public Spirit: Developing an engaged citizenry through the education system

It’s  almost  impossible  to  read  the  papers  regularly  and  not  encounter  an  article  fretting  about  the  state  of American education. But such complaints often focus on strictly academic performance, comparing attainment in (for example) math or reading with that in other nations. They tend to ignore the importance of education for civic engagement. And there are some very worrying facts about the level of civic engagement in America; declining voter turnout and lower rates of volunteerism being the most often cited.  Alison’s  thesis  explores the role schools might play in reversing this tendency. She explores the history of American education and argues that making good citizens was one of the primary aims of the early American school system. Drawing on data showing that what students learn in school can make a difference in the levels of civic engagement, Alison addresses  the  charges  that  it  isn’t  the  place  of  the  schools  to  teach  civic  engagement  or  that  they  won’t be effective in doing so. She also considers several concrete reforms that she believes could help the U.S. salvage its founding commitment to civic education.

Brittany Flippen

Public Policy and the Delivery of Mental Health Services: Liberal and Conservative Directions and their Limits

Some (most famously Thomas Szasz) are skeptical that mental illnesses are really illnesses in the same way that say a diabetes or heart disease are illnesses. After considering and dismissing the arguments of Szasz and others, Brittany’s  capstone  project considers how political ideology has often distorted debate over the place of mental health within our larger conception of health care. Drawing on the work of George Lakoff, she attempts to show how extending mental health coverage is compatible with the worldviews of both liberals and conservatives, and so need not be the ideologically charged issue that it has become.

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Laura Lattimer

Towards an Able Electorate: the case for media literacy in the civics classroom

It is a troubling fact that modern democratic operatives use same sorts of methods to persuade voters to support candidates for public office as are use to sell us Ipads, phones, soda, pizza and the like. Laura’s  thesis argues that adding a media literacy component to basic education can help democratic societies resist this tendency by priming students to recognize and be critical of these methods. Laura claims, moreover, that this approach is superior to other influential proposals that focus on the study of rhetoric, forensics and critical thinking. Her thesis supports this claim with some empirical evidence suggesting that such programs are effective and indeed tend to command children’s  enthusiasm.

Thom Miano

Reevaluating the Strength of Negative Liberty: A meta-ethical argument

Thom’s  capstone  project  is  a  contribution  to  the  large  debate  over what should and should not be for sale. He tests claims for limits on the market by approaching the issue of the sale of organs and surrogate motherhood. Arguments that there should be some clear limits on the market often trade on gut reactions against organ vending and similar practices. Thom carefully distinguishes claims about whether organ vending is in principle wrong from criticisms of the (non-ideal) forms of organ vending currently practiced. He then attacks some of the assumptions that lead critics to argue that organ vending is inherently wrong, before turning to make similar arguments about surrogacy. Ultimately, Thom concedes that there are some moral limits to markets, but argues nonetheless that they are far less restrictive and less clearly grounded than often made out to be.

Ravi Patel

Voter Inaction: a Hindrance to Minority Representation

Every decade, states have to redraw their congressional districts, and every decade this produces wasteful legal and political controversy. Attempting to get past some of the sloganeering that infects debate over the issue, Ravi’s  capstone  project turns to theories of the legislature and representation and asks whether they carry important lessons for those concerned about minority representation. He finds that many arguments in favor of increasing the presence of minorities in legislative bodies presuppose  a  flawed  ‘representational  theory’  of  democracy.   The problem with this theory, according to Ravi, is that it fixates on the idea that debate and discussion are the primary purposes of legislatures. Having  exposed  the  weaknesses  of  this  view,  Ravi  proposes  an  alternative  ‘legislative’  theory,  which  

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stresses the law-making function of legislatures. He contends that viewing minority representation through this lens enables us to resolve and clarify many of the issues it raises.

Pietro Sanitate:

The Legitimacy of Religious Reasons in Policy Proposals

Is it appropriate for citizens of modern secular democracies to make religious arguments for and against coercive  public  policies?    Pietro’s  capstone  project  answers  this  question  with  a  qualified  ‘yes’.  He  focuses on two political thinkers who want to allow religious claims only a restricted role in political discourse, John Rawls and Robert Audi, and one --- Christopher Eberle -- who thinks that there should be no such restrictions. While Pietro is much more sympathetic to Rawls  and  Audi’s  positions,  he  challenges  them by looking at the abolitionist and civil rights movements, both of which used religious claims to make their arguments in ways that Rawls and Audi would find unacceptable. By focusing on the way religious language has been used in actual political movements Pietro’s  arguments  aim  to  avoid  the  excessive abstraction that thinkers like Rawls have often brought to a very complex topic.

Vu Tran:

Is Torture Permissible? Understanding the torture debate in the American context

Vu’s  point  of  departure  is  the  idea  that  the  concept  of  ‘torture’  is  too  vague  and  indiscriminate  to  allow  us to reach careful judgments about the appropriateness of various forms of interrogation, intimidation and pressure that might be used against those captured in the course of military engagement. Vu shows that the practices that get labelled torture vary widely. He then offers a detailed taxonomy of the various positions on torture and asseses them by looking at the philosophical assumptions they make as well as their real world consequences. He also considers legal and practical objections to torture itself. He concludes by formulating his own position, according to which particular sorts of torture are permissible, but only in very limited circumstances. Most controversially, he would allow torture to be used against those in leadership positions of terrorist groups, but forbid using it on the rank and file.

Sarah Vogel:

The Myth of Legal Universalism: Differentiating Equity and Equality in Modern America

One of our most fundamental ideals is that all should be equal before the law. Most think that we have yet to realize that ideal. Sarah thinks that we are much further from realizing it than we suppose. Her capstone project gives detailed examples to illustrate just how the system falls short and develops a theoretical framework to explain and characterize the forms these disparities take. She is particularly concerned with the distorting effects of judgments about class and social status on the impartial

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operation of the justice system. She provides evidence for some disturbing conclusions. It is not only the case that the law is more likely to get involved when a lower status person commits a crime against someone of higher status, it is also more likely to get heavily involved. Moreover, the less socially connected two people are the more likely the law is to get involved in their disputes. At the end of her thesis Sarah considers some possible solutions to these problems and subjects them to criticism. Her argument points toward a dilemma: any attempt to filter out information about the relationships or social standing of people involved in legal disputes may also filter out information that may be crucial to reaching fair judgments on the merits in specific cases.