Stone Inequality & Social Policy Seminar: K. Sabeel Rahman

Date: 

Monday, November 21, 2022, 12:00pm to 1:15pm

Location: 

Allison Dining Room

Structuralist Regulation

K. Sabeel Rahman, Associate Professor of Law (on leave), Brooklyn Law School

Abstract: We live in an era of structural inequities—inequities that are durable, persistent, and increasingly the focus of social science scholarship and public policy debate. But the policy toolkit suited for addressing such structural inequities is a matter of growing policy debate. Consider for example the pitched debates over renewed interest in antitrust enforcement and anti-monopoly policy. Or the recent debates about public goods provision and renewed interest in industrial policy. Or questions about how to address systemic racial disparities. In each of these areas, there are structural responses that nevertheless face a higher burden of proof in policy debate. For many, structuralist interventions are viewed as overly interventionist, facing a higher burden of justification against default market or private orderings. But while structuralist proposals do have their limitations and risks, they are also often apt and well-tailored to the problems at hand.  This paper sketches a framework for thinking about ‘structuralist’ reforms— what makes them unique, what assumptions and under what conditions they should be preferred to more conventional solutions.  The paper then applies its theory of structural policy design to some example policy debates including the debate over financial regulation following the 2008 financial crisis, the more recent resurgence of interest in anti-monopoly policy, and the renewed interest in public goods provision and industrial policy.

K. Sabeel Rahman is an Associate Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School (on leave). He has previously served as the President of Demos (2018-2021) and as Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (2017), and has been a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and New America.

Rahman’s research focuses on the themes of democracy, economic inequality, exclusion, and power. His first book, Democracy Against Domination (Oxford University Press, 2017) examines how democratic ideals fueled reform movements in the Progressive Era, and what their implications might be in today’s post-financial crisis debates about economic inequality. His second book, Civic Power (Cambridge University Press, 2019, with Hollie Russon Gilman) explores new approaches to organizing, power, and institutional reform in the face of the current crisis of American democracy. His next research project focuses on the problems of structural inequality and exclusion, private power, and inequality, exploring historical, social movement, and public policy approaches to tackling these issues. In addition to his academic writings in law, political theory, and political science, he has written for a variety of venues including The Atlantic, The New Republic, Boston Review, Dissent, The Nation, and others.

Rahman has worked extensively with policymakers, funders, and advocacy groups in developing strategies and novel approaches to questions of democracy and economic inequality. In 2014-15 he served as a Special Advisor on strategies for inclusive economic development in New York City, and from 2015-16 as a Public Member of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board. From 2013-2016, Rahman was the Design Director for the Gettysburg Project, an interdisciplinary initiative working with organizers, academics, and funders to develop new strategies for civic engagement and building civic capacity. In addition, Rahman is on the Board of The New Press, a non-profit publisher focusing on publishing books in the public interest, and United to Protect Democracy, a legal advocacy group battling current threats to American democratic institutions.

Rahman earned his AB at Harvard College summa cum laude in Social Studies and returned to Harvard for his JD at Harvard Law School and his PhD in the Harvard Government Department. He also has degrees in Economics and Sociolegal Studies from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.