1st Edition
Voluntarism and Self‑Interest Psychological Foundations and Panarchist Visions in Libertarian Anarchism
1. Introduction. Or: Higgledy-Piggledy Legitimacy Statements 2. Political Legitimacy as a Claim to Coerce 3. Make Legitimacy Matter Again: Practical Relevance and the Right to Rule 4. Political Legitimacy as a Selfish Pursuit 5. The Selfish Case for Express Consent Theory 6. Conclusion
Biography
Davide Saracino is a scholar in political theory who obtained his PhD from the University of Milan. His research focuses on express consent theory in political legitimacy and on panarchist theories of voluntary non-territorial statehood. His recent publications include “Life Sentence or Death Penalty? The Normative Case for Letting Criminals Pick Their Poison”, forthcoming in Res Publica (2026), and “The Birth of Panarchism: Voluntary Non-Territorial States in the Works of Gustave De Molinari and Paul Émile De Puydt”, published in European Journal of Political Theory (2025).
Saracino challenges readers with a justification for political legitimacy grounded on an understanding human beings as they are and not as we might wish them to be – and does so with an argument grounded in political philosophy, rational choice theory, and experimental psychology.
Michael Coulter, Professor of Political Science, Grove City College
