Footnote:
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description:
Machine generated contents note: 1. A prior ethical commitment 1 -- 2. Ends vs. means: consequentialism vs. contractarianism 14 -- 3. The consequentialist approach to government 28 -- 4. Enter the economists 33 -- 5. The efficiency standard, corruption and the growth of -- government 40 -- 6. The indeterminacy of social welfare theory 59 -- 7. The contractarian approach to government 73 -- 8. The rules of the political game 80 -- 9. Playing by the generality rule 86 -- 10. Generality and minimalist government 110.
Because it is technically flawed and morally bankrupt, the author argues, the economist's consequence-based, procedurally detached theory of the state has contributed to the growth of government. As part of the Kantian-Rawlsian contractarian project, this book seeks to return economics to its foundations in moral philosophy. Given the moral equivalence of persons, the greatest possible equal participation must be promoted, persons must be impartially treated and, because it is grounded in consequentialist social welfare theory (SWT), the economist's theory of the state must be rejected. Ad hoc deployment of SWT has facilitated discriminatory rent seeking and contributed to larger government. In contrast, this book argues that equal political participation and a constitutional impartiality constraint minimize rent seeking, respect individual perceptions of the "public good" and underwrite the legitimacy of government. Economists, moral philosophers and political scientists will find this book a unique contribution to the literature