Ep. 22: Suppressing Dissent: Why Freedom of Association and Decentralization Matter for Liberty, Community, Innovation, and Human Flourishing, with Luke Sheahan

Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that the tyrant doesn't care if you love him, as long as you don't love one another.

In this episode, I speak with Luke Sheahan about his book, "Why Associations Matter: The case for First Amendment Pluralism".

Free associations are essential for political liberty, human flourishing, and for genuine community; but Sheahan argues that recent judicial decisions are increasingly subsuming freedom of association and assembly into speech rights.

Free speech is essential for political liberty, but it's not sufficient -- It works in tandem with the right of association and assembly to strengthen and create venues for free speech.

But the right of association goes beyond that.

So, Luke and I discuss a number of things including the philosophy of Pluralism, Tocqueville's concern that individualism leads to centralization, Robert Nisbet's work on community, decentralization and the need to revitalize associations, and some of the arguments for free association from Aristotle, Aquinas, Magna Carta, the American founders, and more. We also discuss some of the problems with bad communities, racism, and the limits of association.

Biography

Luke C. Sheahan is assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Duquesne University and a non-resident scholar in the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (PRRUCS) at the University of Pennsylvania.

Resources

Suppressing Dissent: don’t allow individuals to have independent sources of authority outside of official power Diminish friendships

Aristotle Friendship

The Supreme Court of the US subsumed association into speech

Freedom of Association in NCAAP vs. Alabama

CLS vs. Martinez

John Inazu: Liberty’s Refuge

St. Thomas Aquinas Contra Impugnates (1226) makes an argument for the free right of association

Leo XIII discusses the right of association in Rerum Novarum and uses St. Thomas on the right of free association for his argument for the right of unions and business etc.

On Technology and Decentralization

See Balaji S. Srinivasan: Software is Reorganizing the World & Quantifying Decentralization

More resources and links coming soon.

Why Associations Matter: The Case for First Amendment Pluralism

By Sheahan, Luke C.

Buy on Amazon

The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom (Background: Essential Texts for the Conservative Mind)

By Nisbet, Robert

Twilight of Authority

By Robert Nisbet

Buy on Amazon