Here’s one of my very recently published open access articles. It is about well-being oriented policymaking in urgent situations such as pandemics, floods, and wildfires. In the article, I provide a method for handling such situations in a way that, I argue, balances philosophical accuracy and political legitimacy.

I’d be very happy to answer any questions anyone might have or consider comments and criticisms for future work. Feel free to send me an e-mail if so (sebastian.ostlund [at] umu.se).

Title: Combining Philosophical and Democratic Capability Lists
In the journal: Moral Philosophy and Politics
HTML version: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/mopp-2021-0001/html
PDF version: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/mopp-2021-0001/pdf?licenseType=open-access
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/mopp-2021-0001

Abstract:
Political practices often aim to reach valuable outcomes through democratic processes. However, philosophical considerations and democratic deliberations sometimes support different conclusions about what a valuable outcome would be. This paper contributes to a research agenda that aims to reconcile recommendations that follow from these different bases. The setting for this research agenda is capabilitarian. It affirms the idea that what we should distribute are substantive freedoms to be and do things that people have reason to value. Disagreements about these valuable outcomes become particularly problematic in urgent situations such as pandemics, floods, and wildfires. These situations are urgent since they are time-sensitive and involve an impending loss of well-being. A method of compromise would help mitigate losses of well-being while respecting the aim of reaching valuable outcomes through democratic processes. I thus offer an equitable and decisive method of compromise that helps integrate philosophical considerations with democratic deliberations.

Keywords: capability approach; democratic position; philosophical position; policy-making; well-being