Showing papers in "Critical Review in 1994"
TL;DR: The tendency to denigrate consumerism derives from the widespread acceptance of sociological theories that represent consumers as prompted by such reprehensible motives as greed, pride, or envy as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The tendency to denigrate consumerism derives from the widespread acceptance of sociological theories that represent consumers as prompted by such reprehensible motives as greed, pride, or envy These theories are largely unsubstantiated and fail to address the distinctive features of modern consumption, such as the apparent insatiability of wants and the preference for the novel over the familiar A more plausible view of consumerism regards it as an aspect of hedonism, and links consumption to the widespread practice of daydreaming Seen in this light, one can discern an idealistic dimension to modern consumption
70 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that above a minimal level, income is irrelevant to one's sense of well-being, but companionship and social support increase wellbeing, since shopping and consumption are increasingly solitary activities, and watching television is not genuinely sociable.
Abstract: Since the mid‐1960s in advanced and rapidly advancing economies, there has been a rising tide of clinical depression and dysphoria, a decline in mutual trust, and a loosening of social bonds. Most studies show that above a minimal level, income is irrelevant to one's sense of well‐being, but companionship and social support increase well‐being. Since shopping and consumption are increasingly solitary activities, and watching television is not genuinely sociable, the increased time devoted to these activities may be responsible for rising levels of depression. Advanced societies are likely to increase “utility” if they maximize friendship rather than the getting and spending of wealth.
64 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the cultural resources with which communitarians have been concerned, inasmuch as they are prerequisites for the individual choice of the good, are appropriate objects of liberal protection.
Abstract: In Liberalism, Community and Culture, Will Kymlicka suggests that the cultural resources with which communitarians have been concerned, inasmuch as they are prerequisites for the individual choice of the good, are appropriate objects of liberal protection. But Kymlicka's liberalism fails to fully meet the concerns of those who see their communities as intrinsically valuable—not merely as necessary means for the clarification of their options. Ultimately Kymlicka's approach shares in the tendency of liberalism to reduce manifold values to the single standard of equal concern for individuals—which results in a paternalistic disregard for those individuals’ actual motivations.
33 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the experience of central banking in Germany, France, and Italy illustrates the importance of the degree of central bank independence from the political authorities, and that inflation was lower in Germany in large part because of the Bundesbank's greater independence.
Abstract: In Monetary Sovereignty: The Political Economy of Central Banking in Western Europe, John Goodman argues that the experience of central banking in Germany, France, and Italy illustrates the importance of the degree of central bank independence from the political authorities, and that inflation was lower in Germany in large part because of the Bundesbank's greater independence. These conclusions are very similar to those reached in the economics literature. But the Bundesbank's record is not as impressive as Goodman suggests, and the failure of central banks to eliminate inflation has been extremely costly to western economies.
30 citations
TL;DR: The conventional view of banking crises sees them as an inherent problem of fractional-reserve banking systems as discussed by the authors. But this view does not mesh with historical experience, which points to government regulation itself as the most likely cause of banking crisis.
Abstract: The conventional view of banking crises sees them as an inherent problem of fractional‐reserve banking systems. According to this view, government regulation in the form of an alert central bank (acting as a “lender of last resort"), or deposit insurance, or both is needed to keep isolated bank failures from generating systemwide panic. But this view does not mesh with historical experience, which points to government regulation itself as the most likely cause of banking crises.
19 citations
TL;DR: The reason for this vacillation can be found in the aspiration of each theorist to base liberal values (equality and liberty) on particularism as discussed by the authors, which is why communitarianism becomes a dead letter.
Abstract: Taylor, Sandel, Walzer, and MacIntyre waver between granting the community authority over the individual and limiting this authority so severely that communitarianism becomes a dead letter. The reason for this vacillation can be found in the aspiration of each theorist to base liberal values‐equality and liberty—on particularism. Communitarians compound liberal formalism by adding to the liberal goal, individual autonomy, the equally abstract aim of grounding autonomy in a communally shared identity. Far from returning political theory to substantive considerations of the good, communitarianism legitimizes really existing liberal politics—the politics of the nation‐state.
17 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors distinguish between states and communities, and argue that the state should be liberal or minimal, but the community should not, arguing from the naturalness of the family and the need for moral education.
Abstract: Arguments for and against liberalism are vitiated by failing to distinguish between states (which have millions of citizens) and communities (which have only a few thousand citizens). The state should be liberal or minimal, but the community should not. The state is an alliance of communities for mutual defense and is concerned with matters of defense alone. Two reasons are given for this conclusion, one from Aristotle and one from Hobbes (though Hobbes's argument has to be corrected in two important respects). The community, by contrast, is a moral community and should not be liberal. Two arguments are also given for this conclusion, one from the naturalness of the family and one from the need for moral education. Once state and community have been thus distinguished and described, standard arguments both for and against the liberal state are seen to be correct but misdirected.
13 citations
TL;DR: Unger's theory of super-liberalism as discussed by the authors is based on the idea of negative capability, or the power of individuals to revise and transcend their social contexts, which is also related to our work.
Abstract: Although Roberto Unger is sometimes described as a communitarian critic of liberalism, his recent three‐volume work on Politics disavows the major tenets of contemporary communitarianism—for example, the “embedded self,” the critique of rights, the rejection of universalizing theory. Instead, Unger's aim is to criticize liberalism from the perspective of a “superliberalism"—a perspective which takes the original liberal desire to emancipate individuals from the chains of social custom and hierarchy and rids it of the stultifying economic and political institutions within which liberals have sought to contain it. Three main components of Unger's theory are analyzed: the idea of “negative capability,” or the power of individuals to revise and transcend their social contexts; the idea of an “empowered democracy,” which seeks to open up all aspects of society to the collective exercise of negative capability; and the idea of “immunity rights,” which seek to protect individuals from the potential risks of radi...
10 citations
TL;DR: A review of the historical record regarding one program in particular, the Federal Housing Administration's insurance of real-estate mortgages, suggests a more complex picture as discussed by the authors, where the conventional wisdom regarding the creation of federal housing programs during the Great Depression cites market failure as the key factor leading to government action.
Abstract: The conventional wisdom regarding the creation of federal housing programs during the Great Depression cites market failure as the key factor leading to government action. A review of the historical record regarding one program in particular, the Federal Housing Administration's insurance of real‐estate mortgages, suggests a more complex picture. Amortized loans were not created anew by the FHA but had been developed previously by various financial institutions; their use by national banks was restricted by law. What market failure occurred seems to have been induced, at least in part, by the federal government.
8 citations
TL;DR: The question of whether the failure of free banking was due to "theory", "seignorage" or "crises" is the crux of the theoretical and historical debate as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The numerous historical episodes of free banking have invariably ended in the establishment of central banking. Was the failure of free banking due to “theory,” “seignorage”—the attempt by governments to use central banks for revenue purposes—or to “crises”? Would a free banking system be stable, free of crises? This is the crux of the theoretical and historical debate.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Gray attempts to refute the universalist tendencies of modern liberalism and to propose an alternative in the form of post-modern liberal conservatism, which seems a dubious attempt to synthesize postmodern liberal anthropology with a conservative conception of the social order.
Abstract: In his most recent works, John Gray attempts to achieve two things: to refute the universalist tendencies of modern liberalism and to propose an alternative in the form of postmodern liberal conservatism. While largely supportive of the first, this paper is critical of the second undertaking, which seems a dubious attempt to synthesize postmodern liberal anthropology with a conservative conception of the social order.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the economic system was doomed to fail, and that the extent to which elements of the Communist nomenklatura themselves came to realize that their interests could be served by ditching the command economy was overestimated.
Abstract: Peter Boettke's Why Perestroika Failed offers an overly mechanistic explanation for the collapse of the Soviet economy, derived from Mises's theory of the economic impossibility of socialism. Arguing that the economic system was doomed to fail does not explain why it fell precisely when it did. Thus, Boettke underestimates the extent to which elements of the Communist nomenklatura themselves came to realize that their interests could be served by ditching the command economy. Such an emphasis on the role of human agents is surely compatible with a Hayekian approach.
TL;DR: The contradictory attitudes toward artistic and social deviance are explicable in light of the conservative nature of institutions and the nature of comprehensibility and psychiatry as mentioned in this paper, and all great artists have broken with the traditions that preceded them and rebelled against their contemporaries.
Abstract: Deviance is esteemed in the art world, and all great artists have broken with the traditions that preceded them and rebelled against their contemporaries. Yet in society deviance is more often than not condemned. Our apparently contradictory attitudes toward artistic and social deviance are explicable in light of the conservative nature of institutions and the nature of comprehensibility and psychiatry.
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TL;DR: The liberal political morality developed in Will Kymlicka's Liberalism, Community and Culture as mentioned in this paper is in various respects stronger and more coherent than many theories of liberal predecessors and contemporaries, but it still suffers from important weaknesses that characterize other liberalisms.
Abstract: The liberal political morality developed in Will Kymlicka's Liberalism, Community and Culture is in various respects stronger and more coherent than many theories of Kymlicka's liberal predecessors and contemporaries, but it still suffers from important weaknesses that characterize other liberalisms. By ridding liberal theory of unnecessary defects, Kymlicka helps to clarify why even a liberalism capable of repelling the communitarian challenge will continue to be subject to theoretical criticism.
TL;DR: Like Jeffrey Friedman's proposed post-libertarianism, mainstream libertarianism has always emphasized the consequences of alternative institutions for human well-being as mentioned in this paper. But mainstream libertarians do share some similarities with the radical libertarianism criticized by Friedman, as can be seen by considering possible answers to the questions Alec Nove recently posed for postlibertarians.
Abstract: Like Jeffrey Friedman's proposed postlibertarianism, mainstream libertarianism has always emphasized the consequences of alternative institutions for human well‐being. Mainstream libertarianism does, however, share some similarities with the radical libertarianism criticized by Friedman, as can be seen by considering possible answers to the questions Alec Nove recently posed for postlibertarians.
TL;DR: In fact, from the economic point of view, there have been many successes, in the form of regulations whose benefits exceed their costs as discussed by the authors, and economic criteria are inadequate for evaluating regulatory performance, since even well-aggregated private willingness to pay provides a poor basis for assessing government regulation.
Abstract: Robert Crandall writes as if the regulatory state is a simple failure. In fact, however, from the economic point of view there have been many successes, in the form of regulations whose benefits exceed their costs. Moreover, economic criteria are inadequate for evaluating regulatory performance, since even well‐aggregated private willingness to pay provides a poor basis for assessing government regulation. It is now necessary to move beyond sterile debates about whether regulation is desirable; nonregulation is not an option, since laissez faire is itself a regulatory system. Democratic, economic, and constitutional criteria hold out the promise of much better regulatory tools, in the form of flexible incentives rather than rigid commands.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors restate the central criticism of economic views of human satisfaction, namely that they define welfare as utility and, in practice if not in theory, use money as the measure of utility, while in reality utility (or welfare) ought to be defined as happiness.
Abstract: In The Market Experience, Robert Lane restates the central criticism of economic views of human satisfaction—namely, that they define welfare as utility and, in practice if not in theory, use money as the measure of utility, while in reality utility (or welfare) ought to be defined as happiness. In exploring the implications of this noneconomic definition for our assessment of markets, Lane summarizes the evidence about how people assess their own happiness more successfully than he clarifies the meaning of that word. Since increases in income above a certain minimum do not increase happiness, work must be made more meaningful.
TL;DR: In this article, the classical liberal might meet Sandel's challenge by considering the various senses in which individual rights can be said to draw lines between persons, and it is shown how the classical conservative might meet this challenge, in the sense that it is the liberal minimal state rather than the more expansive state implied both by communitarianism and by Rawlsian welfare liberalism that should be preferred.
Abstract: If communitarian political philosophers such as Michael Sandel are right about the importance of genuine community commitment, then it is the liberal minimal state, rather than the more expansive state implied both by communitarianism and by Rawlsian welfare liberalism, that should be preferred. It is contended that Sandel's antiliberal arguments, while inadequate as a criticism of Rawls's particular formulation of liberalism, nonetheless contain an important challenge to rights‐based political theories generally. However, by considering the various senses in which individual rights can be said to draw lines between persons, it is shown how the classical liberal might meet Sandel's challenge.
TL;DR: The authors define post-libertarianism as a consequentialist positive libertarianism and show that the autonomy of positive libertarians renders consequentialism superfluous, and the ends of the two systems conflict, for positive libertarians judge people, while the consequentialism of post-Libertarians judges actions.
Abstract: Jeffrey Friedman presents positive libertarianism as consisting of an objective morality, autonomy, and moral totalism. He then defines postlibertarianism as a consequentialist positive libertarianism. However, Friedman's claim that the choice of moral axioms is unjustifiable, and an equivocation in his use of the term “moral,” makes his presentation of positive libertarianism incoherent. Nor is Friedman successful in grafting consequentialism onto positive libertarianism. The autonomy of positive libertarianism renders consequentialism superfluous, and the ends of the two systems conflict, for positive libertarianism judges people, while the consequentialism of postlibertarianism judges actions.
TL;DR: The belief that markets are driven only by fundamentals and not by occasional faddism and overshooting rests on the assumption that market participants form their opinions independently, when in fact they are from time to time driven by emulation.
Abstract: Analysts such as Steven Horwitz, with strong prior beliefs, are seldom impressed by mere fact and tend to explain away empirical deviations from their theories. The belief that markets are moved only by fundamentals and not by occasional faddism and overshooting rests on the assumption that market participants form their opinions independently, when in fact they are from time to time driven by emulation. The belief that markets are rational and well‐informed but government officials and central bankers incompetent is implausible on its face. The period since 1970 has seen bubble after bubble, some of which seemed likely to lead to financial crisis had it not been for the Federal Reserve.
TL;DR: Friedman's claim that arbitrariness is the inevitable result of the rejection of objectivist notions of truth misses its mark because it is based on a sense of agreement that is radically at odds with the concept of agreement at work in hermeneutical practice.
Abstract: Jeffrey Friedman's claim that arbitrariness is the inevitable result of the rejection of objectivist notions of truth misses its mark because it is based on a sense of “agreement” that is radically at odds with the concept of agreement at work in hermeneutical practice. The rationalist notion of truth Friedman upholds cannot escape the need for agreement any more than the hermeneutical notion; the central distinction between the two senses of “agreement” is the distinction between coercion and consent. Hermeneutical practice integrally links the rational procedure and universalizing consent, which together constitute a rigorous existential standard that challenges any rationalist discipline.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In What's the Matter with Liberalism as discussed by the authors, Beiner diagnoses the ills of liberalism along the three broad fronts where it is now widely challenged: its pretensions to moral neutrality; its lack of cultural standards; and its inability to deal with crime, unemployment, family breakdown, homelessness, rampant consumerism, and global environmental and economic problems.
Abstract: In What's the Matter with Liberalism? Ronald Beiner diagnoses the ills of liberalism along the three broad fronts where it is now widely challenged: its pretensions to moral neutrality; its lack of cultural standards; and its inability to deal with crime, unemployment, family breakdown, homeless‐ness, rampant consumerism, and global environmental and economic problems. But even in its minimalist classical formulation, liberalism entails a substantive moral position, and is committed to resisting the violations of rights that lead to the crises with which Beiner is concerned.
TL;DR: This article argued that Nozickian liberalism is neutral toward such ways of life, but it unfairly fails to make them accessible to those who lack the means to pursue them at their leisure.
Abstract: Liberalism is either nonneutral toward, or unfair about, ways of life that fail to produce goods that are instrumental to social purposes. Nonredistributive, Nozickian liberalism is neutral toward such ways of life, but it unfairly fails to make them accessible to those who lack the means to pursue them at their leisure. Social‐democratic liberalism attempts to universalize access to all ways of life, but in practice it violates neutrality by drawing everyone into the production of redistributable primary goods. This is why the notoriously noninstrumentalist humanities have been marginalized; challenging the belief in liberal neutrality may therefore be essential to their survival.
TL;DR: Oakeshott as mentioned in this paper argued that the moral life intimates a form of self-sufficiency in action, and self-sufficient action is timeless in the sense of being indifferent to either the past or the future.
Abstract: The tendency of classical politics to embed the individual in universal and transcendental patterns of action followed in part from the recognition of the futility of unpredictable action oriented to the individual's transient personal future. By contrast, F. A. Hayek argues for liberalism and the rule of law because it is instrumental to the achievement of human ends. Michael Oakeshott, however, claims that freedom is a value in itself, and that liberalism should emphasize moral autonomy because the moral life is public and not oriented to external ends. The moral life intimates a form of self‐sufficiency in action, and self‐sufficient action is timeless in the sense of being indifferent to either the past or the future. Oakeshott returns liberalism to the problems of classical politics without recourse to the dictatorial imposition of a single substantive good.
TL;DR: In Property Rights and Poverty, the authors argued that although Locke was a theorist of welfare rights, it is a mistake to describe him as a radical, as Richard Ashcraft does, which identifies Locke's purposes too closely with the legitimately radical theorists of the early nineteenth century who were deeply influenced by his work.
Abstract: In Property Rights and Poverty, / argued that seventeenth‐ to mid‐nineteenth‐century liberal theories of the natural right to property included both the ability to exclude others from resources lawfully acquired and the ability to claim as property the resources necessary for life and livelihood. Virtually every defense of the right to exclude written during this period carried limits which allowed and even required the government to enforce the rights of those without resources to the property of others. But although Locke, among others, was a theorist of welfare rights, it is a mistake to describe him as a radical, as Richard Ashcraft does, which identifies Locke's purposes too closely with the legitimately radical theorists of the early nineteenth century who were deeply influenced by his work.
TL;DR: In this paper, Horwitz has provided an excellent review of the profound problems in the neoclassical theory of money and an important statement of the alternative Austrian-school approach, which rests on a false dichotomy between intervention and spontaneous order.
Abstract: In Monetary Evolution, Free Banking, and Economic Order, Stephen Horwitz has provided an excellent review of the profound problems in the neoclassical theory of money and an important statement of the alternative Austrian‐school approach. However, Horwitz's “free banking” perspective rests on a false dichotomy between intervention and spontaneous order. In using the extreme case of an entirely undesigned evolutionary process to counter the equally extreme proposition that social order can be wholly designed, Horwitz loses sight of the messy world of intermediate realities and possibilities. Even if money has strong spontaneous qualities, the state may play a vital role in the evolution of the financial system.
TL;DR: This paper argued that objective morality is a necessary feature of the situation faced by beings with freedom of choice, just as objective truth is necessary for beings with the freedom to differ in their perceptions of the world around them.
Abstract: My critics assume that the objectivity of moral truth is contingent on the discovery of some transcendent, nonhuman sanction for human values, but I contend that objective morality is a necessary feature of the situation faced by beings with freedom of choice, just as objective truth is a necessary feature of the situation faced by beings with the freedom to differ in their perceptions of the world around them. Both liberals and postmodernists ignore these necessary aspects of the human condition: liberals, by conferring intrinsic value on the freedom to choose the bad; postmodernists, by conferring intrinsic value on the opinions generated by discourse without regard for their veracity.
TL;DR: The ill-named debate between postmodernists and postlibertarians should be transcended; this requires the abandonment of both foundationalism and its converse, without abandoning common sense as well as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The ill‐named debate between postmodernists and postlibertarians should be transcended; this requires the abandonment of both foundationalism and its converse, without abandoning common sense as well (which is no mean trick). Similarly, the debate over “minimal statism” versus the planned economy is outdated. Instead of claiming to be in possession of foundations of our scientific‐cum‐political knowledge in broad terms, and instead of severely limiting our knowledge to given proofs, we offer the putative heuristics of critique in general and the critical evaluations of contexts in particular.