PIOUS LIES: THE JUSTIFICATION OF STATES AND WELFARE STATES

Anthony de Jasay

Economic Affairs, 2004, vol. 24, issue 2, 62-64

Abstract: Institutions, customs, laws are often, and sometimes implausibly, credited with efficiency. They serve a good purpose and if they had not arisen, we would have invented them. The claim is reassuring, though it may be no more than a pious lie. The creation of the state by social contract, and the adoption of supposedly rational customs by primitive peoples, serve as examples. Interpreting the welfare state as a mutual insurance scheme from which all can expect to profit is a classic of the kind.

Date: 2004
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