Classical Liberalism - A Primer

Butler, Eamonn

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3893747

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The need to sustain liberty, as well as other provisions in a constitution, means that we are not free to tinker with the constitution in just any way we wish; doing so ignores the need for constitutional stability in the face of constitutional change. Many normative analyses of the US constitution, especially among constitutional law scholars (for example, Barnett, 2014Barnett, [2004; Butler, 2015;Kibbe, 2015), must plead guilty to this charge: they fail to consider whether the normative changes they propose will maintain the self-enforcing of the constitution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To Stigler, and other mid-to late 20th-century neoclassical economists, such as Milton Friedman (both my former colleagues at the Hoover Institution), liberty meant creating the most space or freedom for the market ordering of social problems, such as scarcity, distribution, regulation, and the optimal form of the state. Other libertarians and classical liberals repeat this normative focus (as several recent introductions to libertarian philosophy demonstrate, including Kibbe, 2014;Butler, 2015 andMcCloskey, 2019: 1-20). Especially important in this neoclassical view of economics are strong limits on "market intervention" (for example, Friedman and Friedman, 1980).…”

Section: Smithian Versus Neoclassical Approaches To Libertymentioning

confidence: 90%

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Liberty and the neoclassical fallacy

Weingast

2023

Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice

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Does liberty matter for economics? To address this question, I distinguish among three different types of liberty: Adam Smith’s, the neoclassical, and the so-called “classical liberal.” They differ in that the neoclassical and the classical liberal perspectives presume the existence, typically without noting it, of the four conditions that comprise the foundation of liberty, namely, secure property rights, enforcement of contracts, absence of government predation, and security. In contrast, Adam Smith sought to explain these foundations. In this article—an extraliterary review of one of the central themes of Acemoglu and Robinson (2019)—I draw the implications of Smith’s approach, and I explain why neoclassical economics—which takes the foundations of liberty as given—is unable to understand the work of Smith on this topic and, hence, on economic development. I also show that the neoclassical and the classical liberal approaches rest on a foundation of magic: they both presume the foundational conditions just noted but fail to explain how they arise. Put simply, the neoclassical approach has no explanation for the origin of liberty or of the mechanisms that sustain it. If markets require the four conditions of the foundation of liberty, then a complete explanation of the origin and development of markets must include an explanation of how these conditions come to hold. The Smithian economic perspective is especially important for today’s developing countries, most of which, at best, struggle to create the four foundational assumptions of liberty.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Smithian Versus Neoclassical Approaches To Libertymentioning

confidence: 90%

Liberty and the neoclassical fallacy

Weingast

2023

Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice

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“…For example, under a common, individuals often can communicate and cooperate in the establishment of institutions feasibly supporting the sustainable use of shared resources. In a market, buyers and sellers establish a spontaneous order through property, contract, and justice [35]. In the spontaneity of a market process, the "miracle" of the price system, in which an equilibrium price is eventually discovered between buyers and sellers having different valuations at the outset, reveals the scarcity of resources and directs them to their best use [35].…”

Section: Alternative Regulatory Arrangementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a market, buyers and sellers establish a spontaneous order through property, contract, and justice [35]. In the spontaneity of a market process, the "miracle" of the price system, in which an equilibrium price is eventually discovered between buyers and sellers having different valuations at the outset, reveals the scarcity of resources and directs them to their best use [35]. As a result, under a market-based policy, the parties closest to the buying or selling exercise their creativity in response to the market signals supporting the pursuit of social welfare maximisation.…”

Section: Alternative Regulatory Arrangementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bluer Than Blue: Exit from Policy Support for Clean Marine Energy

Roeben,

Macatangay

2023

Sustainability

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The amendment or removal of superfluous government support policies is typically difficult, yet in the ever more important debate on low-carbon (i.e., clean) marine energy policy under the international law of climate action, the law of the sea, and international investment protection, there are additional dimensions of legal or economic peril. Coastal states enact policies subsidising clean energy investments, such as offshore wind energy generation, in their exclusive economic zones or continental shelves. Investors are attracted to the prospect that policies granting subsidies for ostensibly new industries are sufficiently durable. Are such subsidy policies salient or stale? In principle, the purpose of regulatory policy is the promotion of social welfare, and hence, there is an optimal incidence, magnitude, and duration of the subsidy, in essence, an ideal strategy for starting, altering, or exiting such policy. We aim to introduce the concept of optimisation to the design and implementation of regulatory policy in this context. Our contribution is to offer three maxims of optimal clean marine energy law and policy: the efficiency and equity of alternative regulatory arrangements; the continuous optimisation of such arrangements; and the recognition of linguistic entanglements in the law. We test these maxims against the case of clean marine energy policy on offshore wind energy generation. One legal implication for international investment protection is that coastal states should establish a policy exit clause in their investment contracts. Our analysis of policy optimisation is generalisable across policies supporting the transition to sustainable energy forms.

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“…This last, it must be said, is different from the static Mainstream equilibrium, associated for instance with Stigler and Samuelson, which is taught in the majority of economics courses. We consider that the problem with them and with all the Classical Liberal masters (Butler, 2015) is that a 'spontaneous order' requires knowledge of human nature, and its spontaneity in a theoretical wilderness, which Smith never claimed to have. Rather, (take for a perfect instance his page 120 of the Wealth of Nations, 1776/1999) Smith is profoundly aware of the unity and equality of all men.…”

Section: The Relevant Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Smith's invisible hand: controversy is needed

Mario¹,

Micocci

2017

Journal of Philosophical Economics

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Smith's metaphor of the invisible hand, commonly attributed to The Wealth of Nations, is described in the Theory of Moral Sentiments. It is a ‘deception’ fed to the lower classes. Private initiative depends upon the presence of privileged classes in a conservative rather than liberal state. Only thus can the ‘invisible hand’ improve the nation's ‘wealth.’ Hence, the economic mainstream cannot easily claim Adam Smith as their ancestor. Nor can the Marxists associate him to the misdeeds of the mainstream. A Smithian ancestry is more plausible for Neoliberals.

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Classical Liberalism - A Primer

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Liberty and the neoclassical fallacy

Liberty and the neoclassical fallacy

Bluer Than Blue: Exit from Policy Support for Clean Marine Energy

Smith's invisible hand: controversy is needed

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