Plurality Vote How should society collectively make choices in a fair and democratic way? In the decision making system used most often in the United States, citizens periodically express their sentiment by voting for a candidate or measure. Whichever alternative receives the most votes (a plurality) is chosen. It is a simple decision system — easy to understand and seemingly fair. Unfortunatel...

NE OF THE most striking as0 pects of the 1960 election campaign is that it was waged between two comparatively liberal platforms and candidates. It is true that Kennedy carried the standard of a party whose majority is actually liberal, whereas Nixon represented a party which had subscribed to a relatively liberal platfonn (including a rather strong civil rights position) with some reluctance, ...

For over a hundred years, the Republican Party used the word “liberal” positively in its platforms and proudly wore the liberal mantle. That may surprise you, but it is true. The finding comes from analyzing words used in all 40 Republican Party presidential year platforms from the party’s origin in 1856 to its 2012 election campaign. In contrast, the 44 Democratic Party platforms staunchly—but...

140 A climate characterized by global financial instability, budgetary belt-tightening, and stringent public accountability has certainly contributed to calls for reevaluating the value and purpose of post-secondary education and, especially, liberal education. On the one hand, some suggest that post-secondary education should aim to provide students with specialized knowledge and credentials n...

It is conventionally thought impermissible to force treatment on a patient, even when his life is at stake. Following Kant or Mill, we may defend this convention either by appealing to the inviolability of autonomy, or to the benefits of treating liberty as inviolable, subject only to considerations of harm to others. In both cases, an exception might be made for mental illness. For Kant, auton...

This article contributes to the debate concerning the identification of politically relevant cases of corruption in a democracy by sketching the basic traits of an original liberal theory of institutional corruption. We define this form of corruption as a deviation with respect to the role entrusted to people occupying certain institutional positions, which are crucial for the implementation of...

Motivated thinking leads people to perceive similarity between the self and ingroups, but under some conditions, people may recognize that personal beliefs are misaligned with the beliefs of ingroups. In two focal experiments and two replications, we find evidence that perceived belief similarity moderates ingroup favoritism. As part of a charity donation task, participants donated money to a c...

Lafayette College, with strong programs in engineering and the liberal arts, requires sophomore students to enroll in a “VaST” (Values and Science/Technology) course. These courses incorporate approaches from the engineering viewpoint and ideas from the social sciences and humanities. As a result of taking a VaST course, students should be better able to see and understand engineering and scien...