The Ethics and the Economics of Minimalist Government

Timothy P. Roth

in Books from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Politics and Public Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
ISBN: 9781840646764
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/1840646764.xml (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eebook:2394

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this book

More books in Books from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().