Stát oběma nohama na zemi - Symetrické přístupy k legitimitě státu – Gregárek Matěj (2019)

The publication critically evaluates the state science and political-philosophical understanding of the concept of the modern state, its crisis, and its legitimacy, from the perspective of a broadly conceived theory of public choice (political economy) in a descriptive dimension and from the perspective of philosophical anarchism in a normative dimension. The unifying element of both paradigms is the symmetry of assumptions in the analysis of the state: the state cannot be viewed as a self-sustaining colossus towering over society, but rather as a social phenomenon that arises from more general social phenomena and whose moral dimension grows from general moral principles. Both paradigms are often perceived as 'destructive' towards key classical state science concepts: sovereignty, the will of the people, ideal representation, or the legitimacy of the state that establishes political obligation. The 're(con)structive' potential of the theory of public choice and philosophical anarchism in the context of the 'twilight of the modern state' is often undervalued. The universal political-economic toolkit (methodological individualism, behavioral symmetry, market failure, spontaneous order, the significance of incentives, the significance of institutions) appears particularly attractive where the noticeably narrower classical state science model struggles unsuccessfully with polycentric...