4 ms·

Is it fair to label this "extremely authoritarian" though? I tend to agree with Sustein's views as described in your comment (not the views described in OP's co

• rayiner 13y ago
  I'm not using "authoritarian" in a pejorative sense, but rather a descriptive sense. Anarchist versus authoritarian is a spectrum, depending on how much you believe government is necessary to prevent negative social activity. Most liberals and most conservatives are pretty far on the authoritarian side of the scale. E.g. a liberal might think government is necessary to prevent racial discrimination, and a conservative might think government is necessary to prevent deviant sexual behavior. In contrast traditional libertarians are somewhere in the middle. They believe the government is necessary to prevent things like classic property rights, but not say gender discrimination. Anarcho-libertarians mostly reject the use of government to protect even things like classic property rights. Sunstein endorses using the government to do things like increase the amount and diversity of political discussion in society, or decreasing how much people buy fast food and soda, which is pretty far on the authoritarian side of things. It's not an inherently pejorative label. For example, it's authoritarian to argue that the government should interfere with private real estate transactions by preventing people from discriminating against potential buyers based on race. But most people support laws of that nature.
  • jkn 13y ago
    Thanks for clarifying, that makes a lot of sense.