Steve Davies (IEA): Why the Future Could Be a World of City States?

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If you believe in maximum freedom and minimum government, do not miss the highlight of the 2016/17 academic year. Dr Steve Davies, Head of Education at the Institute of Economic Affairs, is coming to Oxford to talk about the promising future of city states.

Maps of the world typically show it divided into solid blocks of colour, marking sovereign territorial states. Most of our history is about how those states appeared and evolved while our economic and political analysis takes this picture of the world as its starting point.

However it is an ever less accurate picture of the actual social and economic world that we inhabit. Rather we are increasingly living in a world of city regions, which are the real basic units of the world society and economy. Our political institutions however do not reflect this.

Might we be moving to a world of city states, in which Hong Kong and Singapore are the models of the future? In addition we think that there was an inevitable historical trend to territorial states, whether nation states or empires. In fact the city state and league of city states have been important rival ways of organising political life in many times and places. This may soon be true again.

The talk will be followed by a Q&A session and a wine reception.

TIME: Tuesday May 16th, 6pm
LOCATION: Lincoln College, the Oakeshott Room

About our speaker:
Dr Steve Davies is Head of Education at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London. Previously he was program officer at the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) at George Mason University in Virginia. He joined IHS from the UK where he was Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Economic History at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has also been a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. A historian, he graduated from St Andrews University in Scotland in 1976 and gained his PhD from the same institution in 1984. He has authored several books, including Empiricism and History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and was co-editor with Nigel Ashford of The Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought (Routledge, 1991).

The event is co-organised by European Students for Liberty.

Meeting with Geoffrey Neale, U.S. Libertarian Party ex-Chairman

Many thanks to Geoffrey Neale, ex-Chairman of the U.S. Libertarian Party, for coming to meet us on January, 25th.

The third largest political party in the U.S., it was founded in 1971 as a response to the Vietnam War, conscription, and the end of the gold standard. After resigning as an LP Chairman, Geoff inspired the foundation of the International Alliance of Libertarian Parties. In 2016, he took part in Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign which became the most successful LP electoral campaign to date.

At King’s Arms, Geoff enjoyed discussing British and American politics over a pint — we did too!

 

 


Upcoming: Ilya Somin, Senator Mike Lee and Hayek Discussion Group meetings

We invite everyone to our upcoming events in Michaelmas:

6 November 2013 – Dr Ralf Bader (Merton) on ‘Nozick’s justification of the state’

13 November 2013 – Hayek Discussion Group – Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes (Regent’s Park) on ‘Saving Private Rhino: the political economy of African wildlife conservation’

20 November 2013 – Hayek Discussion Group – Laura Lo Coco (King’s College London) on ‘The normativity of conventions’

25 November 2013 – Professor Ilya Somin (GMU Law) on ‘Democracy and Political Ignorance’

29 November 2013 – Senator Mike Lee (U.S. Senate) on ‘How the US Constitution preserves freedom’

Libertarianism 101 with Dr Stephen Davies (Institute of Economic Affairs)

If you would like to know what libertarianism is all about, have questions about it you always wanted to know answers to or simply disagree with libertarians and want to ask uncomfortable questions, come to Dr Stephen Davies’ talk in Oxford on 12 February 2012 at 7.00pm. This event is particularly suitable for PPE students. (Facebook event)

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