Libertarian Paternalism Is Not an Oxymoron Richard H
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Building a Better Mousetrap: Patenting Biotechnology in The
DRUZIN-FINAL FINAL (DO NOT DELETE) 10/24/2014 3:19 PM RESTRAINING THE HAND OF LAW: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK TO SHRINK THE SIZE OF LAW Bryan Druzin∗ ABSTRACT ............................................................................................... 59 I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 60 II. THE CASE FOR MINIMALISM ................................................................... 64 A. Assumptions and Starting Points ..................................................... 64 B. The Benefits of Minimalism ............................................................. 66 C. The Minimalist Approach to Economic Regulation ......................... 70 D. The Liability of Ideology—Both Left and Right ............................... 72 III. ARTICULATING A FRAMEWORK FOR LEGISLATIVE MINIMALISM ........... 73 A. Non-Interference .............................................................................. 75 B. Formalizing ...................................................................................... 77 C. Fine-Tuning ..................................................................................... 83 D. Dismantling ...................................................................................... 84 E. Concocting ....................................................................................... 85 IV. CLARIFYING THE FRAMEWORK ............................................................... 86 A. A Tabulated Comparison of the Strategies ..................................... -
Southern Paternalism and the Rise of the Welfare State
Southern Paternalism and the Rise of the Welfare State: Economics, Politics, and Institutions in the U.S. South, 1865-1965 Lee J. Alston and Joseph P. Ferrie Cambridge University Press Cambridge London New York New Rochelle Melbourne Sydney Introduction The rural South has undergone a remarkable transformation in the last half century. The changes in the physical landscape are immediately apparent: the millions of tenants, share-croppers, and wage laborers who once raised and picked the South’s crops and lived in its tumbledown tar paper shacks are gone, replaced by machines moving methodically across its fields. But the changes in the social landscape that accompanied these physical changes are no less striking: gone, too, is the complex system of reciprocal duties and obligations that had bound agricultural employers and their workers, the elaborate but often unspoken protocol of paternalism that shaped much of day-to-day life in the rural South. In the following chapters, we will show how paternalism emerged in the postbellum years to reduce the cost of obtaining, motivating, and retaining labor in cotton production following the abolition of slavery. We will also explore the 1 economic and political transformations caused by the decline of paternalism, changes less visible but no less important than the mechanization of cotton production. The cost of obtaining labor in Southern agriculture included making sure an adequate supply of laborers could be hired and making sure that the laborers who were hired worked hard at their tasks (reducing the cost of monitoring labor) and stayed on through the harvest (reducing turnover in the farm labor force). -
Examining the Philosophical Inconsistencies of Libertarian Paternalism
Munich Personal RePEc Archive The Curious Case of Choice Architect: Examining the Philosophical Inconsistencies of Libertarian Paternalism Kuriakose, Francis and Kylasam Iyer, Deepa Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Cambridge 24 April 2017 Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/84842/ MPRA Paper No. 84842, posted 06 Nov 2019 16:37 UTC The Curious Case of Choice Architect: Examining the Philosophical Inconsistencies of Libertarian Paternalism Francis Kuriakose and Deepa Kylasam Iyer April 2017 Abstract Classical economics works on the principle that individuals are rational and make decisions to maximize their self interest. However in real situations, individuals face a conflict between rational and irrational selves leading to decision making that does not leave them better off. Libertarian paternalism proposes a solution to this rationality problem in an individual by conceiving a choice architect. Choice architect is a third party capable of arriving at what a perfectly rational choice would be and ‘nudges’ an individual towards making that choice. Libertarian paternalists claim that choice architect does not interfere with the freedom of an individual because the choices he offers are easily reversible, i.e, an individual can reject it at any given point in time. Libertarian Paternalism seems to offer the third way between absolute autonomy of individual choice (libertarianism) and third party intervention (paternalism). This paper argues that the conception of a choice architect comes out of a hasty commitment to reconciling libertarianism and paternalism by placing perfect rationality and autonomy in two separate individuals in the case of a single decision making process. The paper proposes alternatives to confront the rationality problem. -
The Conventional Wisdom of Globalisation Is, by Now, Well-Known
University of Warwick institutional repository This paper is made available online in accordance with publisher policies. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item and our policy information available from the repository home page for further information. To see the final version of this paper please visit the publisher’s website. Access to the published version may require a subscription. Author(s): Watson, Matthew Article Title: International Capital Mobility in an Era of Globalisation: Adding a Political Dimension to the 'Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle' Year of publication: 2002 Link to published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9256.00139 Publisher statement: The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com “International Capital Mobility in an Era of Globalisation: Adding a Political Dimension to the ‘Feldstein-Horioka Puzzle’” Matthew Watson1 Published in Politics, 21 (2), 2001, 82-93. Description Matthew Watson reviews the literature on international capital mobility to conclude that ideas about global capital market integration have an independent causal impact on political outcomes which extends beyond that which can be attributed to the extent of their actual integration. Abstract The debate about the scope of feasible policy-making in an era of globalisation continues to be set within the context of an assumption that national capital markets are now perfectly integrated at the international level. However, the empirical evidence on international capital -
Liberty of Contract
YALE LAW JOURNAL LIBERTY OF CONTRACT "The right of a person to sell his labor," says Mr. Justice Harlan, "upon such terms as he deems proper, is in its essence, the same as the right of the purchaser of labor to prescribe the conditions upon which he will accept such labor from the person offering to sell it. So the right of the employee to quit the service of the employer, for whatever reason, is the same as the right of the employer, for whatever reason, to dispense with the ser- vices of such employee ........ In all such particulars the employer and the employee have equality of right, and any legis- lation that disturbs that equality is an arbitrary interference with the liberty of contract, which no government can legally justify in a free land." ' With this positive declaration of a lawyer, the culmination of a line of decisions now nearly twenty- five years old, a statement which a recent writer on the science of jurisprudence has deemed so fundamental as to deserve quotation and exposition at an unusual length, as compared with his treat- ment of other points, 2 let us compare the equally positive state- ment of a sociologist: "Much of the discussion about 'equal rights' is utterly hollow. All the ado made over the system of contract is surcharged with fallacy." ' To everyone acquainted at first hand with actual industrial conditions the latter statement goes without saying. Why, then do courts persist in the fallacy? Why do so many of them force upon legislation an academic theory of equality in the face of practical conditions of inequality? Why do we find a great and learned court in 19o8 taking the long step into the past of deal- ing with the relation between employer and employee in railway transportation, as if the parties were individuals-as if they were farmers haggling over the sale of a horse ? 4 Why is the legal conception of the relation of employer and employee so at variance with the common knowledge of mankind? The late Presi- ' Adair v. -
De Re and De Dicto: Against the Conventional Wisdom1
Philosophical Perspectives, 16, Language and Mind, 2002 DE RE AND DE DICTO: AGAINST THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM1 Kenneth A. Taylor Stanford University 1. Preliminaries Conventional wisdom has it that there is a class of attitude ascriptions such that in making an ascription of that sort, the ascriber undertakes a com- mitment to specify the contents of the ascribee’s head in what might be called a notionally sensitive, ascribee-centered way. In making such an ascription, the ascriber is supposed to undertake a commitment to specify the modes of presentation, concepts or notions under which the ascribee cognizes the ob- jects (and properties) that her beliefs are about. Consequently, it is widely sup- posed that an ascription of the relevant sort will be true just in case it specifies either directly or indirectly both what the ascribee believes and how she be- lieves it. The class of “notionally sensitive” ascriptions has been variously char- acterized. Quine (1956) calls the class I have in mind the class of notional ascriptions and distinguishes it from the class of relational ascriptions. Others call the relevant class the class of de dicto ascriptions and distinguish it from the class of de re ascriptions. More recently, it has been called the class of notionally loaded ascriptions (Crimmins 1992, 1995). So understood, the class can be contrasted with the class of notionally neutral ascriptions. Just as the class of notional/de dicto/notionally loaded ascriptions is supposed to put at semantic issue the ascribee’s notions/conceptions/modes of presentation, so ascriptions in the relational/de re/notionally neutral class are supposed not to do so. -
Contracts of Adhesion-Some Thoughts About Freedom of Contract
CONTRACTS OF ADHESION-SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT FREEDOM OF CONTRACT FRIEDRICH KESSLER With the development of a free enterprise system based on an un- heard of division of labor, capitalistic society needed a highly elastic legal institution to safeguard the exchange of goods and services on the market. Common law lawyers, responding to this social need, trans- formed "contract" from the clumsy institution that it was in the six- teenth century into a tool of almost unlimited usefulness and pliability. Contract thus became the indispensable instrument of the enterpriser, enabling him to go about his affairs in a rational way. Rational be- havior within the context of our culture is only possible if agreements will be respected. It requires that reasonable expectations created by promises receive the protection of the law or else we will suffer the fate of Montesquieu's Troglodytes, who perished because they did not ful- fill their promises. This idea permeates our whole law of contracts, the doctrines dealing with their formation, performance, impossibility and damages. Under a free enterprise system rationality of the law of contracts has still another aspect.1 To keep pace with the constant widening of the market the legal system has to place at the disposal of the members of the community an ever increasing number of typical business trans- actions and regulate their consequences. But the law cannot possibly anticipate the content of an infinite number of atypical transactions into which members of the community may need to enter. Society, therefore, has to give the parties freedom of contract; to accommodate the business community the ceremony necessary to vouch for the delib- erate nature of a transaction has to be reduced to the absolute minimum. -
On Flew's Compatibilism and His Objections to Theistic Libertarianism
On Flew’s Compatibilism and His Objections to Theistic Libertarianism 2015/25 115 Kaygı Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe Dergisi Uludağ University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Philosophy Sayı 25 / Issue 25│Bahar 2015 / Fall 2015 ISSN: 1303-4251 Research Article Araştırma Makalesi Hakan GUNDOGDU* Doç.Dr. | Assoc.Prof.Dr. Gazi University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Philosophy, Ankara-Turkey [email protected] On Flew’s Compatibilism and His Objections to Theistic Libertarianism Abstract Flew strongly defends a compatibilist thesis in the free will debate before going on to totally object to theistic libertarianism. His objections basically rely on his compatibilism embracing the notion of agent causation, which is not very common in compatibilist theses. Since he is a strong proponent of ordinary language philosophy, he also holds that linguistic analyses can certainly solve the free will problem as well as many other problems of philosophy. In doing so, he first uses the paradigm cases based on our common sense experience and then assumes the verity of principle of alternative possibilities. This study attempts to show, on the one hand, that there are some serious difficulties in both his justification of compatibilism and his objections to theistic libertarianism, and on the other hand, that he cannot easily defend both at the same time. Keywords Antony Flew, Compatibilism, Free-Will, Agent, Causation, Theistic Libertarianism, Paradigm Case Argument, Principle of Alternative Possibility. * This study was funded by the Scientific and Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK): 2219 / 1059B191400716. On Flew’s Compatibilism and His Objections to Theistic Libertarianism 116 2015/25 1. -
A Brief Appraisal of Behavioral Economists' Plea for Light Paternalism
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, vol 32, nº 3 (128), pp 445-458, July-September/2012 Freedom of choice and bounded rationality: a brief appraisal of behavioral economists’ plea for light paternalism ROBERTA MURAMATSU PATRÍCIA FONSECA* Behavioral economics has addressed interesting positive and normative ques- tions underlying the standard rational choice theory. More recently, it suggests that, in a real world of boundedly rational agents, economists could help people to im- prove the quality of their choices without any harm to autonomy and freedom of choice. This paper aims to scrutinize available arguments for and against current proposals of light paternalistic interventions mainly in the domain of intertemporal choice. It argues that incorporating the notion of bounded rationality in economic analysis and empirical findings of cognitive biases and self-control problems cannot make an indisputable case for paternalism. Keywords: freedom; choice; bounded rationality; paternalism; behavioral eco- nomics. JEL Classification: B40; B41; D11; D91. So the immediate problem in Libertarian Paternalism is the fatuity of its declared motivation Very few libertarians have maintained what Thaler and Sunstein suggest they maintain, and indeed many of the leading theorists have worked with ideas in line with what Thaler and Sunstein have to say about man’s nature Thaler and Sunstein are forcing an open door Daniel Klein, Statist Quo Bias, Economic Journal Watch, 2004 * Professora doutora da Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie e do Insper, e-mail: rmuramatsu@uol. com.br; Pesquisadora independente na área de Economia Comportamental e Psicologia Econômica, e-mail [email protected]. Submetido: 23/fevereiro/2011. Aprovado: 12/março/2011. Revista de Economia Política 32 (3), 2012 445 IntrodUCTION There is a long-standing methodological tradition stating that economics is a positive science that remains silent about policy issues and the complex determi- nants of human ends, values and motives. -
Happiness and Economic Freedom: Are They Related?
SHS Web of Conferences 28, 01109 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/shsconf/20162801109 RPTSS 2015 Happiness and economic freedom: Are they related? Ilkay Yilmaz1,a, and Mehmet Nasih Tag2 1Mersin University, Department of Economics, Mersin University, 33342 Mersin, Turkey 2Mersin University, Department of Business Administration, Mersin University, 33342 Mersin, Turkey Abstract. In this article we investigate the linkage between economic freedom and happiness (subjective well-being). We attempt to understand which economic institutions (rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency, open markets) have influence on subjective well-being. For this purpose we use a panel dataset and analyze the effect of economic freedom on subjective well-being while using various control variables such as government expenditures as percentage of GDP, human development, social support, freedom of choice and generosity. Our pooled FGLS estimations indicate that all pillars of economic freedom have a strong influence on the average subjective well-being in society. Three of these pillars, namely rule of law, regulatory efficiency and open markets, positively affect subjective well-being. To our surprise we have found a negative relationship between limited government and subjective well- being. This might be due to the situation that reducing the size of government possibly leads to lower government expenditures and higher unemployment, which in turn results in lower subjective well-being. 1 Introduction if any, increase the level of subjective well-being in a country. The literature on the relationship between As the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises economic institutions and economic growth suggests that explained in his magnum opus, human action can be good governmental institutions foster economic growth defined as the striving for happiness. -
Jesus: Teacher of Alternative Wisdom”
First Congregational United Church of Christ – Eugene, Oregon WHO WAS THAT GUY? A Youth/Adult Study Based on the Book “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” by Marcus J. Borg 6 “Jesus: Teacher of Alternative Wisdom” The strongest consensus among Jesus scholars today is that Jesus was a teacher of wisdom. There is virtually no disagreement on this point. Basically, wisdom is about how to live one’s life in accord with reality. Central to it is the notion of a way or a path, indeed of two ways or paths: the wise way and the foolish way. Teachers of wisdom speak of these two ways , commending the one and warning of the consequences of following the other. There are also two types of wisdom and two types of teachers. The most common type of wisdom is conventional wisdom; its teachers are conventional sages. This is the mainstream wisdom of a culture, it’s “what everybody knows,” a culture’s understandings about what is real and how to live. The second type is a subversive and alternative wisdom. This wisdom questions and undermines conventional wisdom and speaks of another way, another path. Its teachers are subversive sages. Lao-tzu spoke of following a “way” that led away from conventional perceptions and values toward living in accord with “the Tao” itself. At the center of the Buddha’s teaching is the image of a way, “the eightfold path,” leading from the world of convention and its “grasping” to enlightenment and compassion. The wisdom of the subversive sage is the wisdom of “the road less traveled.” And so it was with Jesus: his wisdom spoke of “the narrow way” which led to life, and subverted the “broad way” followed by the many, which led to destruction. -
The Spread of True and False News Online
MIT INITIATIVE ON THE DIGITAL ECONOMY RESEARCH BRIEF THE SPREAD OF TRUE AND FALSE NEWS ONLINE By Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy, and Sinan Aral FALSE NEWS IS BIG NEWS. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS Barely a day goes by without a new development about the veracity of social media, foreign We investigated the differential diffusion of all the meddling in U.S. elections, or questionable science. verified, true and false news stories distributed on Twitter from 2006 to 2017. The data comprise Adding to the confusion is speculation about what’s approximately 126,000 cascades of news stories behind such developments—is the motivation spreading on Twitter, tweeted by about 3 million deliberate and political, or is it a case of uninformed misinformation? And who is spreading the word people over 4.5 million times. online—rogue AI bots or agitated humans? We classified news as true or false using information These were among the questions we sought to from six independent fact-checking address in the largest-ever longitudinal study of organizations that exhibited 95% -98% agreement on the spread of false news online. Until now, few the classifications. large-scale empirical investigations existed on the diffusion of misinformation or its social origins. Falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, Studies about the spread of misinformation were and more broadly than the truth in all limited to analyses of small, ad hoc samples. categories. The effects were most pronounced for But these ad hoc studies ignore two of the most false political news than for news about important scientific questions: How do truth and falsity diffuse differently, and what factors related terrorism, natural disasters, science, urban legends, or to human judgment explain these differences? financial information.