Beyond Liberal Egalitarianism

Progressive theorists and activists insist that contemporary capitalism is deeply flawed from a normative point of view. However, most accept the liberal egalitarian thesis that the serious shortcomings of market societies (financial excess, inequality, and so on) could be overcome with proper political regulation. Building on Marx's legacy, Tony Smith argues in Beyond Liberal Egalitarianism that advocates of this thesis (Rawls, Habermas, Stiglitz, et al.) lack an adequate concept of capital and the state. These theorists also fail to comprehend new developments in world history ensuring that the 'destructive' aspects of capitalism increasingly outweigh whatever 'creative' elements it might continue to possess. Smith concludes that a normative social theory adequate to the twenty-first century must explicitly and unequivocally embrace socialism.

Tony Smith, Ph.D. State University of New York at Stony Brook (1980), is Professor of Philosophy at Iowa State University. Professor Smith’s books include The Logic of Marx’s Capital (SUNY, 1990), Technology and Capital (SUNY, 2000) and Globalisation (Brill, 2005).

"The appearance of this book, especially in the current era of the dominance of normative social and political theory in departments of analytic philosophy, is most welcome." - Arash Abazari, Sharif University of Technology, in: Journal of Moral Philosophy 18/2 (2021)