Rational Just Social Choice

  • Serge-Christophe Kolm
Chapter
Part of the International Economic Association Series book series (IEA)

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 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© International Economic Association 1996

Authors and Affiliations

  • Serge-Christophe Kolm
    • 1
  1. 1.Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social SciencesParisFrance

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