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Liberty and the Post-Utilitarian Society

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  • Saint-Paul, Gilles

    () (University of Toulouse I)

Abstract

Utilitarian foundations for limited government are shaky insofar as they assume rational and consistent individuals. Recently economists' assumption of rational actors has come under sustained attack. Behavioural economics has suggested that people are plagued by irrational biases and inconsistencies. The author elucidates how these developments have led to a post-utilitarianism which is held to justify paternalistic interventions by the state via 'sin taxes', direct bans or new obligations. Individual responsibility is seriously undermined, as is faith in markets. He concludes that supporters of individual freedom need to move away from utilitarian reasoning, reassert core values of autonomy and responsibility, and define strict limits on the scope of government intervention.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 6911.

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Length: 12 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6911

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Related research

Keywords: behavioural economics; utilitarianism; government; paternalism;

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  1. Laibson, David, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(2), pages 443-77, May.
  2. Thaler, Richard, 1980. "Toward a positive theory of consumer choice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 39-60, March.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Sin taxes and liberty
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2012-12-21 15:02:00

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