Research

Research Agenda

Liberal political theory has had a fruitful dialogue with its religious critics over the state and its extent. This debate spans public education, conscription, and the use of religious vs. secular reasons to establish the legitimacy of law. However, the state and its extent are not the only relevant dispute in liberal theory and religious objections to liberal power increasingly target another favored set of liberal institutions. The formal and informal institutions of the market economy are essential to liberal theory and have received significant criticism from multiple religious traditions, much of which has been overlooked. My research agenda aims to explore this territory across theological diversity and historical eras.

Two further notes are pertinent, one methodological and one normative. First, my approach is best described as following a broadly interdisciplinary methodology often referred to as philosophy, politics, and economics: PPE. While I am first and foremost a political theorist, I draw freely from the PPE toolkit as needed in order to pursue normative, analytical research. Second, my values are fundamentally civic. This means that I often think of the “person on the street” before seeing the problem from the perspective of the state or market. Ultimately, this links my teaching philosophy and research aims: to produce scholarship and teaching which lead to a richer understanding of political science and practice of self-governance.

Dissertation Abstract and Selected Chapters

Dissertation Abstract: “Market Society, Open Society?” assesses key contemporary Protestant and Catholic objections to the liberal, market society. Advocates of market-oriented liberalism maintain that the institutions of market society are preferable because they create an order which is liberal and enables a wide range of ways of life to coexist and benefit each other–liberal or not. Religious objections to market society paint a different picture: the institutions of market society undercut religious ways of life which do not emphasize commercial life and systematically privileges ways of life which emphasize capitalistic values. Market society is “open for business,” but not for all ways of life.

Wendell Berry, Keri Day, Kathryn Tanner, John Milbank & Adrian Pabst, Francis I, and John Paul II each provide criticism. Substantive chapters deal with (1) the interrelated problems of work and career as a way of life in competition with the formative spiritual process of the church, (2) the importance of the local church and the ways in which market society dissolves the strong ties of community, (3) the sacred (and fading) stewardship of the small farm in a rapidly growing global agricultural market, and (4) the loss of substantial relational ties between organizations in civil society in favor of profit-driven market relationships. 

However, I argue market society can be salvaged. Just as religious criticism reveals failings of the liberal state and points toward cooperative reforms between civil, state, and market actors, I demonstrate the failings of the liberal market society and trace ways forward within the liberal society, paving the way to a more open, flourishing shared social order for all. More than a critique, “Market Society, Open Society?” draws on the theology and practice of religious communities to show a way forward within liberal society.

Selected Chapter: The Church in the Market Society. Under review.

• Abstract: Many liberal political theorists take market society to be an open society which allows for a great deal of diversity in ways of life. Their normative impulse, one I share, is that we ought to prefer those institutions which enable people to choose from among more ways of life, provided they are minimally acceptable. This paper tempers liberal optimism about market societies on exactly this count: the formal and informal institutions of market society hinder the diversity of religious life by selecting for firm-like organizations, making society less open to that extent. This has deleterious and undertheorized normative implications for market society. Just as the liberal state may overreach and undercut the liberal freedoms it is intended to protect, the institutions of market society can advance a more open society—but it can also limit openness.

Selected Chapter: The Farm in the Market Society.

• Abstract: Market society is understood as an engine of innovation and as a working system of toleration enabling many ways of life to coexist. While market societies do provide a system of live-and-let-prosper toleration, they also select for more profitable ways of life over time, generating the Loser’s Appeal: my way of life faces a threat from market competition and will likely fade, perhaps entirely, if no additional help or protection is provided on my behalf. Because ways of life are entangled with consumption and production, some, like traditional farming, are left behind in the wake of the creative destruction of the 20th century. While not as obviously important to Christian commitments as the local church, the environment–and the farm in particular–hold an important place in theology. I look to reasons internal to market-oriented liberalism and the theory of market toleration to generate a response to the Loser’s Appeal which preserves much of the creative powers of the market without leaving all ways of life in the dust.

Journal Articles

Schmitt, S. (2023). The problem of low expectations and the principled politician. Economics & Philosophy, 39(2), 177-198. doi:10.1017/S0266267122000037

• Abstract: Nobel laureate James Buchanan downplays any theory of ethical politicians, focusing instead on rules which economize personal restraint, setting lower moral expectations. Through a constructive critique of James Buchanan’s work, I argue these lowered expectations come at a cost: degraded character in politicians, leading to constitutional decay. Buchanan lacks a theory to address choices between (a) action which furthers the politician’s self-interest and (b) action which protects some already accepted, good rule, but which does not further their self-interest. I generate a theory of the Principled Politician, an agent characterized by a prior commitment to fair play.

Schmitt, S., Mehlhaff, I., & Ommundsen, E. (2023). Integrating Classroom and Community with Undergraduate Civically Engaged Research. PS: Political Science & Politics, 1-6. doi:10.1017/S1049096523000392

• Abstract: In addition to interest in undergraduate research, political science increasingly recognizes the value of civically engaged research for various educational, professional, and civic outcomes. With limited time and steep tradeoffs, instructors must find ways to cleverly combine undergraduate research experiences with the broader normative civic-education responsibilities of political science and higher education. This article presents a course design that allows instructors to leverage their classroom for both civic education and undergraduate research without the need for previously developed community partnerships that are common to most engaged research and learning. Our approach brings together undergraduate research and community engagement through course design.

Book Chapters

Schmitt, S. (Forthcoming). The Form of the Farm. In volume edited by Peter Boettke, Erwin Dekker, and Chad Van Schoelandt. Rowman & Littlefield.

• Abstract: The crux of many critiques of market-oriented liberalism is how it treats the environment. These critics argue that liberal, market-oriented societies conceive of human beings as separate from and supreme over nature. In their view, this conception of the person leads to the destruction of environmental resources, the disruption of ecosystems, and the end of traditional, tightly-knit communities. I investigate the similarities between ideas of knowledge, order, and institutions in the writing of Hayek and agrarian theologian Wendell Berry (1934- ). Perhaps to the surprise and chagrin of both parties (tree- and market-huggers alike), I bring Berry and Hayek together to create a novel and persuasive account of liberal humility toward the environment and a preference for climate-friendly traditional farms.