Top products from r/PoliticalPhilosophy

From the book's Amazon description:

> In the first detailed, chapter-by-chapter reading of the Prince in any language, Erica Benner shows that the book is a masterpiece of ironic writing. Machiavelli's style is deliberately ambiguous: he often seems to say one thing, but gives readers clues that point toward a very different message. Beyond its 'Machiavellian' surface, the Prince has a surprisingly moral purpose. It teaches readers how to recognize hidden dangers in political conduct that merely appears great or praiseworthy - and to mistrust promises of easy solutions to political problems.

> This highly engaging new interpretation helps readers to see beyond the Prince's deceptive first appearances. Benner sets out Machiavelli's main ironic techniques at the outset, especially his coded use of words to signal praise or blame. Once readers become familiar with these codes, they will find it easier to grasp the Prince's surreptitiously pro-republican message - and its powerful critique of charismatic one-man rule and imperial politics.

Since your request is a general one and (as I understand it) not one for books on prisons, I will give you a general answer. The best introductory bibliography for political philosophy I know of is this. It's organized by theme, it tends to have many collections of essays, which allows you to be exposed to more ideas in a shorter time than if you were reading book-length arguments, and it gives enough info on each of the items listed for you to have an idea on what it's about. Most importantly, its recommendations are consistently excellent.

Besides those, my favourite book (yes, of any book) is Will Kymlicka's simply titled Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction. By no means are his views uncontested, but he does a splendid job of looking at basically every major strand of political philosophy, laying out its arguments, and critiquing it from his own point of view, in as clear a way as I can imagine it being done. I should note that some of the technical terminology he uses in the introduction could intimidate the newcomer, but everything gets explained in the body of the book itself.

If you have access to an academic library, my recommendation is to check out Kymlicka or a book from Swift's bibliography, see how you like it, and go from there.

Edit: Just to point something out, it's excellent to search for reasons for your belief, but nothing in philosophy is uncontested. Many different points of view can be backed up by good reasons. This doesn't mean that it's not worthwhile to enlighten yourself (to the contrary, I think that thinking about one's beliefs is one of the most valuable things a human being can do), but it does mean that you will encounter reasonable people who will reasonably disagree with you, regardless of how well justified your own beliefs are.

Online introductions:

• The Wikipedia entry for libertarian socialism actually gives a pretty good overview.
  
  
• An Anarchist FAQ also has good material -- it is especially good at differentiating traditional anarchism from US-style libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism (which might be useful since you mention US politics).
  
  
• And since it is May Day tomorrow, I also recommend reading the Wikipedia article on the Haymarket Affair!
  
  
• As somebody else mentioned, /r/anarchy101 is a good place to ask questions.
  
  
• Tip: if you're ever looking for specific works online, always check The Anarchist Library. They've archived many (mostly shorter) works, and they're available in several formats (html, pdf, epub).
  
  Books:
  
  
• The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin. It is old, a classic, but it provides examples rather than formal/philosophic arguments so it is still quite readable and relevant today. It will give you a good idea of where modern anarchist communists are coming from.
  
  
• A book like Paul Eltzbacher's The Great Anarchists: Ideas and Teachings of Seven Major Thinkers which provides an overview of the various founding philosophers is a good idea. This is another old one [1908], but the advantage of Eltzbacher is that unlike most authors of anarchist texts, he was not an anarchist himself and offers a very unbiased introduction.
  
  
• I think Peter Gelderloos writes good introductory material. I've not read his latest (The Failure of Nonviolence), but you can read Anarchy Works online.
  
  
• It's a bit outside the main thrust of the anarchist tradition (which is often focused on class struggle), but one of my favorite books is Crispin Sartwell's Against the State: An Introduction to Anarchist Political Theory which provides counter arguments to several justifications for states, especially the various contract theories.
  
  Other reading guides:
  
  
• Phoenix Class War Council's Recommended Reading
  
  
• Libcom.org's reading guide
  

I've read that one, and it's ok. A slightly better, more engaging introduction to Political Philosophy would be Michael Sandel's Justice. It was written for his eponymous Harvard course, which is fantastic and available online here.

One of the best theoretical works I can think of is Hannah Arendt's On Revolution (amazon). She discusses the difference between American and French revolutions, and bases the failure (and ensuing terror) of the French on the attachment to economic principles (their aim being to get rid of poverty, instead of instituting freedom).

Incidentally, a close reading of Marx would get you to the same direction. Have a look here, which is one of my favourite early texts by Marx.

You could also pick up any work of Amartya Sen, who though an economist places economics as secondary to freedom. He developed something called capabilities-approach together with Martha Nussbaum (SEP).

That should be enough to start with, and relatively diverse too. I'd suggest starting with online articles, Arendt's book is very interesting and an easy page turner.

Note that none of these completely disregard economics, they only say it's secondary (and Arendt also says it's not part of politics, it's something foreign to politics, though perhaps a stable economy would be a prerequisite for politics). They are not libertarians.

This Parfit piece is tremendous. If you read it, though you absolutely have to read Larry Temkin's response to the article: Equality, Priority, and the Leveling Down Objection.


It's a challenging work, as is the Parfit piece. This book has a good introduction that will help you work through them, along with each of the two articles mentioned above (along with lots of other important articles on the idea of equality).

For an introduction to Political Philosophy, I found Introduction to Political Philosophy by Jonathan Wolff a nice read. It references some primary sources like Hobbes and Locke to introduce the basic problems of Political Philosophy.

If at some point you get into reading primary sources, check out Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke. Edmund Burke is the father of Conservatism and an important figure in political philosophy.

I'm currently re-reading

Marion Young's Responsibility as Justice.

https://www.amazon.com/Responsibility-Justice-Oxford-Political-Philosophy/dp/0195392388

Speaking as a conservative-libertarian, it does a fantastic job of breaking down the idea of privilege and social injustice in a way that makes sense.

The reason I think this is important, highlighting that I am a conservative-libertarian, is that people on my side hear those two phrases and automatically think they're bullshit. Granted, the vast majority of the time that those two phrases are brought up, it's usually to attack people on my side of the ideological field.

Her definitions are undeniably brilliant and foster cooperation rather than division.

If people enjoyed this, I would highly suggest checking out Governing the World: The History of an Idea, 1815 to the Present by Mark Mazower.

Seconding /u/ivanthecurious 's suggestion of Manin's Principles of Representative Government, its a really readable historical account of the rise of consent and representation in democracy.

I'm reading JS Mill's 'On Representative Government' and it seems like it might be exactly what you're looking for, not contemporary by any means, but a thorough defence of the principles of representation

http://www.amazon.com/Science-Politics-Walgreen-Foundation-Lectures/dp/0226861147/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369396476&sr=8-1&keywords=the+new+science+of+politics

BTW I think the link may be Rousseau. But I agree this is not very clear. Also Kant to some extent. Or maybe plain simply the Prussian Protestantism they lived in had these Gnostic elements without major name-brand authors, dunno.