Rational Just Social Choice

Serge-Christophe Kolm
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Serge-Christophe Kolm: Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences

Chapter 14 in Social Choice Re-Examined, 1996, pp 167-196 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In this paper, I set out what I believe should be done in the domain of good social choice, or social ethics, and explain why. My proposal is in a sense the least original possible since its maxim is the central ethic of modernity and has been the basic principle of liberal-democratic societies for two centuries: ‘men are free and equal in rights’. Yet, first, this ethic and its specification and applications are derived by necessity from pure reason alone, and these derivations require a number of elaborate analyses. Second, this approach is on the contrary very original in the eyes of groups of scholars who see a very different conception as obvious and natural — such as utilitarianism or the aggregation of preference orderings. Third, even well-known theories that could be parts of the general view present serious shortcomings, such as justifications by an ‘original position’, ‘full process liberalism’ by-passing market failures, or omission of exchange capacities from ideally equalized productive capacities. Therefore, I can make my position understood only by beginning by explaining why I have to depart from all these well-worked-out views. And both this justification and the full understanding of the reason and of the contribution of these theories require placing them in the history of modern thought.

Keywords: Social Choice; Preference Ordering; Social Welfare Function; Social Optimum; Primary Good (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-25214-5_13

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