Markets, Morals, and Policy-Making

A New Defense of Free-Market Economics

Business & Finance, Economics, Theory of Economics
Cover of the book Markets, Morals, and Policy-Making by Enrico Colombatto, Taylor and Francis
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Enrico Colombatto ISBN: 9781136668074
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: March 29, 2012
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Enrico Colombatto
ISBN: 9781136668074
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: March 29, 2012
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

Free-market economics has attempted to combine efficiency and freedom by emphasizing the need for neutral rules and meta-rules. These efforts have only been partly successful, for they have failed to address the deeper, normative arguments justifying – and limiting – coercion. This failure has thus left most advocates of free-market vulnerable to formulae which either emphasize expediency or which rely upon optimal social engineering to foster different notions of the common will and of the common good. This book offers the reader a new perspective on free-market economics, one in which the defense of markets is no longer based upon the utilitarian claim that free markets are more efficient; rather, the defense of markets rests upon the moral argument that top-down coercive policy-making is necessarily in tension with the rights-based notion of justice typical of the Western tradition.

In arguing for a consistent moral basis for the free-market view, we depart from both the Austrian and neoclassical traditions by acknowledging that rationality is not a satisfactory starting point. This rejection of rationality as the complete motivator for human economic behaviour throws constitutional economics and the law-and-economics tradition into new relief, revealing these approaches as governed by considerations derived by various notions of social efficiency, rather than by principles consistent with individual freedom, including freedom to choose.

This book shows that the solution is in fact a better understanding of the lessons taught by the Scottish Enlightenment: the role of the political context is to ensure that the individual can pursue his own ends, free from coercion. This also implies individual responsibility, respect for somebody else’s preferences and for his entrepreneurial instincts. Social virtue is not absent from this understanding of politics, but rather than being defined through the priorities of policy-makers, it emerges as the outcome of interaction among self-determining individuals. The strongest and most consistent case for free-market economics, therefore, rests on moral philosophy, not on some version of static-efficiency theorizing.

This book should be of interest to students and researchers focussing on economic theory, political economics and the philosophy of economic thought, but is also written in a non-technical style making it accessible to an audience of non-economists.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Free-market economics has attempted to combine efficiency and freedom by emphasizing the need for neutral rules and meta-rules. These efforts have only been partly successful, for they have failed to address the deeper, normative arguments justifying – and limiting – coercion. This failure has thus left most advocates of free-market vulnerable to formulae which either emphasize expediency or which rely upon optimal social engineering to foster different notions of the common will and of the common good. This book offers the reader a new perspective on free-market economics, one in which the defense of markets is no longer based upon the utilitarian claim that free markets are more efficient; rather, the defense of markets rests upon the moral argument that top-down coercive policy-making is necessarily in tension with the rights-based notion of justice typical of the Western tradition.

In arguing for a consistent moral basis for the free-market view, we depart from both the Austrian and neoclassical traditions by acknowledging that rationality is not a satisfactory starting point. This rejection of rationality as the complete motivator for human economic behaviour throws constitutional economics and the law-and-economics tradition into new relief, revealing these approaches as governed by considerations derived by various notions of social efficiency, rather than by principles consistent with individual freedom, including freedom to choose.

This book shows that the solution is in fact a better understanding of the lessons taught by the Scottish Enlightenment: the role of the political context is to ensure that the individual can pursue his own ends, free from coercion. This also implies individual responsibility, respect for somebody else’s preferences and for his entrepreneurial instincts. Social virtue is not absent from this understanding of politics, but rather than being defined through the priorities of policy-makers, it emerges as the outcome of interaction among self-determining individuals. The strongest and most consistent case for free-market economics, therefore, rests on moral philosophy, not on some version of static-efficiency theorizing.

This book should be of interest to students and researchers focussing on economic theory, political economics and the philosophy of economic thought, but is also written in a non-technical style making it accessible to an audience of non-economists.

More books from Taylor and Francis

Cover of the book Experiencing Byzantium by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book The Routledge Companion to Early Christian Thought by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book Developing Inquiry for Learning by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book Stratification by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book Sport, Music, Identities by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book Accessory Apartments in Single-family Housing by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book The Secret Life of Decisions by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book Psychology of Self-Regulation by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book Medieval Chinese Warfare 300-900 by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book Developmental Perspectives in Child Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book Administrative Culture in Developing and Transitional Countries by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book The Book of the Kings of Egypt (Routledge Revivals) by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book The Congress of Vienna 1814-1815 by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book Medieval Scholarship by Enrico Colombatto
Cover of the book Immersion Education in the Early Years by Enrico Colombatto
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy