The Small "r"

As of July, 2010, I am concentrating my efforts on developing social, political and economic papers, using the lens of small-r republicanism to investigate various topics that fall under these headings. You can access the papers at The Small “r” home page on Scribd.

AUGUST 2010 ADDENDUM: A public apology to those who have visited my Scribd page and discovered they have to pay a subscription fee to download my papers. The subscription fee was apparently initiated by Scribd in August, 2010 for the purposes of covering its overhead (Scribd users did not receive an e-mail from Scribd notifying us of this update, though Scribd may have posted a public notice… it’s difficult for me to find the time to stay on top on all the information emanating from Scribd, so to be fair I admit I may have missed it).

PLEASE NOTE that as a writer supplying these papers to Scribd, I do not receive a cut of this subscription fee from Scribd. If it were up to me, I would offer downloads free of charge but on the other hand, I certainly understand Scribd’s position in having to cover its costs.

As always, accessing documents to read on Scribd’s website remains free; only the conditions for free downloads have changed. You can also post your own paper and receive free download access to other Scribd users.

If I am understanding the information from Scribd correctly, I can keep the downloads free if a) I pull the document out of the archives every two months or b) post revisions to the existing documents every two months. However, b) doesn’t appear to work in this regard, as I just tested a document I revised a couple of weeks ago and a free download was not available to an outside user. If I hear more from Scribd regarding this matter, I’ll pass it along.

If you are an academic, government representative or official, or represent a public policy institute and wish to download a paper, please contact me at thesmallr@gmail.com with a legitimate return e-mail address and I will send you the paper directly, free of charge.

All users, please be aware that I retain all rights to my works, and make every attempt to lock my .pdf documents from all usage save for reading and downloading. I undertake this for two reasons: 1) These papers have taken a copious amount of reading and research on my part and while I certainly welcome proper citation, I do not appreciate my work being plagiarized; and 2) regarding plagiarism, awhile ago I was requested by some universities to lock up my documents, as they discovered instances of plagiarism from my papers by utilizing sophisticated search software to compare papers submitted for grades against text available on the Internet. I was more than happy to comply: Students, earn your own grades.

Alas, Scribd is less than forthcoming about providing information on how to undertake locking documents. Through trial and error I eventually learned. Now I know.

NOTE: My work is not connected with the small-r group on Facebook, which is a citizen reformation effort within the Republican party. The endeavors of The Small “r” largely use the works of small-r republicanism from 17th- and 18th-century authors who influenced, or of the Founders who were directly involved in, the establishment of the American Republic in the late 18th- and early 19th-century. Some 20th-century authors are relied on where more contemporary issues are involved, issues that the Founders could not have anticipated.

Regardless, the use of republicanism (the political framework, not the contemporary political party) at The Small “r” is decidedly Jeffersonian, which cuts across all contemporary political parties and platforms. My only request is that the reader gives it a fair hearing.

At its birth, the Founders framed America as a democratic republic, not just a democracy, and small-r republicanism places the individual – living within society – to the foreground. In a republic, political and economic elements are embedded within a society to serve the betterment of the individual, not the converse.

A republic is a form of government that:

a) declares all humanity as created equal, in that all possess the same God-given natural rights, natural in that no external body bestows these liberties on us, thus they cannot be arbitrarily revoked;

b) establishes these natural rights as individual liberties, liberties that need citizens to voluntarily uphold social and civic responsibilities, otherwise liberties without responsibilities degenerate into license, which tears asunder the fabric of society;

c) defines sovereign power as resting in the people, since it is the people who possess natural rights and liberties, with the people providing limited bestowal of sovereign powers to local, state, and national government so that government can ensure the good of society;

d) realizes that government does not always provide for the good of society, thus establishes not merely a vote, but citizen engagement within the political process to ensure political and economic powers do not tyrannize individual liberties nor corrupt governance;

e) positions most governance near the people, which enables civic engagement and does not isolate government in an opaque, centralized institution with increasing arbitrary powers;

f) upholds private property which, when held without debt encumbrances, ensures a citizen’s independence;

g) requires the presence of decentralized free markets with numerous independent producers, so that large monopolies or oligarchies operating in corporate- and government-controlled centralized markets do not threaten liberties;

h) regulates society by the rule of law, wherein fixed rules provide guidance to citizens, thus assuring no assertion of arbitrary powers; and

i) values a society where citizens can secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness with contentment, preferable to a hyper-competitive, distraught, over-stretched empire that is globally despised.

For more information on small-r republicanism, see The Small “r” essays on Scribd, and The American Republic essay in particular.