Abstract
Adam Smith’s importance as a political thinker has been underestimated, due, in part, to the misplaced perception that his political project lacked coherence and even the belief that he evinced no interest in politics. A key aim of this book is to challenge those perceptions and show that Smith does have a politics but that it has been obscured by his attempts to make the art of governing less ideological, more social-scientific and, most of all, more productive of good effects. Although he showed some interest in conventional political science topics, his main concern was to reconfigure the art of governing according to a new set of methods, values and concerns. It is no use trying to read into the text what we ourselves might expect to discover but to try and allow Smith himself to come through. What he offers is a rich, subtle and original edifice well worth the trouble.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Smith’s appointment as a Commissioner of customs has perplexed many given that the customs service ‘functioned basically as an agent of English mercantilism and as a tax collection agency’ (Anderson et al. 1985: 745). There have been a number of explanations for Smith’s acceptance of this position—which he seems to have actively sought—but the ‘most plausible explanation … is simply that he was tired of scholarly work … he enjoyed his customs work and found it relaxing’ compared to the ardours of research and writing (Anderson et al. 1985: 752).
- 2.
Craig Smith (2013) has addressed the issue of where Smith sits on the left-right spectrum by considering whether he can be associated ‘with the modern egalitarian idea of social justice’. Ryan Hanley suggests that he ‘cuts a useful new path between “right” and “left” on the issue of the legitimate extent of state action’ (Hanley 2014).
- 3.
He is reported to have enjoyed the position and performed his official duties diligently (Anderson et al. 1985: 754).
- 4.
As Joseph Schumpeter wrote in relation to Frank William Taussig, citing Smith as the first of the great economists to think and act this way (Schumpeter 1952: 207).
- 5.
For Smith’s influence in America and on government debates in particular, see Liu (2018) and Fleischacker (2002). According to McLean and Peterson (2010: 95), ‘Adam Smith is not referred to in the records of the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, but he indirectly influenced the substance of the framers’ decisions on several matters, especially the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment’.
- 6.
‘Freedom of trade in grains moderated domestic prices and maximised production since producers with access to extensive markets would be confident of sales at reasonable prices’ (Tribe 1995: 25–26).
- 7.
Rashid surmises that the ‘freedom of the internal corn-trade may well be considered the first major applied field in which principles of the Wealth of Nations were tested’ (Rashid 1980: 496).
- 8.
Smith defines savage societies as those whose subsistence depends on fishing and hunting.
- 9.
Yet the division labour is not peculiar to commercial nations (WN, i.3: 27–28).
- 10.
This would probably apply to most political ideologies anyway.
References
Anderson, G. M., Shughart, W. F., II, & Tollison, R. D. (1985). Adam Smith in the Customhouse. Journal of Political Economy, 93(4), 740–759.
Boucoyannis, D. (2013). The Equalizing Hand: Why Adam Smith Thought the Market Should Produce Wealth Without Steep Inequality. Perspectives on Politics, 11(4), 1051–1070.
Brown, V. (1994). Adam Smith’s Discourse. London: Routledge.
Coats, A. W. B. (Ed.). (1971). The Classical Economists and Economic Policy. London: Methuen.
Cohen, E. S. (1989). Justice and Political Economy in Commercial Society: Adam Smith’s “Science of the Legislator”. The Journal of Politics, 51(1), 50–72.
Cropsey, J. (1975). Adam Smith and Political Philosophy. In A. S. Skinner & T. Wilson (Eds.), Essays on Adam Smith (pp. 132–153). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Endres, A. M. (1995). Adam Smith’s Advisory Style as Illustrated by His Trade Policy Prescriptions. Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 17(1), 86–105.
Firth, A. (2002). Moral Supervision and Autonomous Social Order: Wages and Consumption in Eighteenth Century Economic Thought. History of the Human Sciences, 15(1), 39–57.
Fleischacker, S. (2002). Adam Smith’s Reception Among the American Founders, 1776–1790. The William and Mary Quarterly, 59(4), 897–924.
Fleischacker, S. (2004). On Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: A Philosophical Companion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Forman-Barzilai, F. (2010). Adam Smith and the Circles of Sympathy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gee, J. M. A. (1968). Adam Smith’s Social Welfare Function. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 15(1), 283–299.
Haakonssen, L. (1988). Traditions of Liberalism. St. Leonards: Centre for Independent Studies.
Halevy, E. (1934). The Growth of Philosophical Radicalism. London: Faber and Faber.
Hanley, R. P. (2008). Enlightened Nation Building: The Science of the Legislator in Adam Smith and Rousseau. American Journal of Political Science, 52(2), 219–234.
Hanley, R. P. (2009). Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hanley, R. P. (2014). The “Wisdom of the State”: Adam Smith on China and Tartary. The American Political Science Review, 108(2), 371–382.
Herzog, L. (2016). The Normative Stakes of Economic Growth; or, Why Adam Smith Does Not Rely on “Trickle Down”. The Journal of Politics, 78(1), 50–62.
Hewins, W. A. S. (1903, June 5). The Fiscal Policy of the Empire. The Times.
Hill, L. (2012). Adam Smith on Thumos and Irrational Economic Man. European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 19(1), 1–22.
Himmelfarb, G. (1985). The Idea of Poverty: England in the Early Industrial Age. New York: Faber and Faber.
Hont, I. (2009). Adam Smith’s History of Law and Government as Political Theory. In R. Bourke & R. Geuss (Eds.), Political Judgement: Essays for John Dunn (pp. 131–171). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kennedy, G. (2005). Adam Smith’s Lost Legacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Letwin, W. (1988). Was Adam Smith a Liberal? In K. Haakonssen (Ed.), Traditions of Liberalism (pp. 83–104). St. Leonards: Centre for Independent Studies.
Liu, G. M. (2018). The Apostle of Free Trade: Adam Smith and the Nineteenth-Century American Trade Debates. History of European Ideas, 44(2), 210–223.
Mandeville, B. (1924). In F. B. Kaye (Ed.), The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McLean, I. (2006). Adam Smith, Radical and Egalitarian: An Interpretation for the Twenty-First Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
McLean, I., & Peterson, S. M. (2010). Adam Smith at the Constitutional Convention. Loyola Law Review, 56(1), 95–135.
Minowitz, P. (1994). Profits, Priests, and Princes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morrison, J. A. (2012). Before Hegemony: Adam Smith, American Independence and the Origins of the First Era of Globalization. International Organisation, 66(3), 395–428.
Mossner, E. C. (1969). Adam Smith: The Biographical Approach. David Murray Lecture, University of Glasgow.
Mossner, E. C., & Ross, I. S. (1976). Introduction. In A. Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, D. Raphael & A. L. MacFie, (Eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2000). Duties of Justice, Duties of Material Aid: Cicero’s Problematic Legacy. Journal of Political Philosophy, 8(2), 176–206.
Oz-Salzberger, F. (2003). The Political Theory of the Scottish Enlightenment. In A. Broadie (Ed.), The Scottish Enlightenment (pp. 157–175). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Phillipson, N. (2010). Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Rashid, S. (1980). The Policy of Laissez-Faire During Scarcities. The Economic Journal, 90, 493–503.
Rasmussen, D. C. (2016). Adam Smith on What Is Wrong with Economic Inequality. American Political Science Review, 110(2), 342–352.
Robertson, J. (1997). Introduction, to A. Fletcher, Political Works. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ross, I. S. (1995). Life of Adam Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rothschild, E. (1992). Adam Smith and Conservative Economics. Economic History Review, XLV(1), 74–96.
Rothschild, E. (2001). Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet and the Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Salter, J. (2012). Adam Smith on Justice and the Needs of the Poor. Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 34(4), 559–575.
Schumpeter, J. A. (1952). Ten Great Economists: From Marx to Keynes. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Sen, A. (2009). The Idea of Justice. London: Belknap.
Singer, B. (2004). Montesquieu, Adam Smith and the Discovery of the Social. Journal of Classical Sociology, 4(1), 31–57.
Smith, A. (1976 [1759]). In D. D. Raphael & A. L. MacFie (Eds.), The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Smith, A. (1979 [1776]). In R. H. Campbell & A. S. Skinner (Eds.), An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Smith, A. (1978). In R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael, & L. G. Stein (Eds.), Lectures on Jurisprudence (A and B). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, A. (1980). In I. S. Ross (Ed.), Essays on Philosophical Subjects. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Smith, A. (1987). In E. C. Mossner & I. S. Ross (Eds.), The Correspondence of Adam Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, C. (2013). Adam Smith: Left or Right? Political Studies, 61(4), 784–798.
Stewart, D. (1980 [1793]). Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith, LL.D, I.S. Ross (ed.). In W. P. D. Wightman & J. C. Bryce (Eds.), Adam Smith: Essays on Philosophical Subjects. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stigler, G. (1975). Smith’s Travels on the Ship of State. In A. S. Skinner & T. Wilson (Eds.), Essays on Adam Smith (pp. 237–246). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Teichgraeber, R. F. (1987). ‘Less Abused Than I Had Reason to Expect’: The Reception of the Wealth of Nations in Britain, 1776–90. The Historical Journal, 30(2), 337–366.
Tribe, K. (1995). Natural Liberty and Laissez-Faire: How Adam Smith Became a Free Trade Ideologue. In S. Copley & K. Sutherland (Eds.), Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: New Interdisciplinary Essays (pp. 23–44). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
West, E. G. (1976). Adam Smith’s Economics of Politics. History of Political Economy, 8(4), 515–539.
Winch, D. (1978). Adam Smith’s Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Witzum, A., & Young, J. T. (2006). The Neglected Agent: Justice, Power and Distribution in Adam Smith. History of Political Economy, 38(1), 437–471.
Wolin, S. (1960). Politics and Vision. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hill, L. (2020). Introduction: The New Science of Welfare and Happiness. In: Adam Smith’s Pragmatic Liberalism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19337-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19337-9_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19336-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19337-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)