Jean‐Michel G. Josselin and Alain Marciano
The article examines the issue of free speech in a law and economics perspective. The property rights approach is contrasted with the common law and constitutional standpoints…
Abstract
The article examines the issue of free speech in a law and economics perspective. The property rights approach is contrasted with the common law and constitutional standpoints. Consequentialist and market efficiency may not provide adequate criteria for judging limitations to freedom of speech. Constitutional instruments may then be required.
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Jean‐Michel Josselin and Alain Marciano
Provides a discussion of the spontaneous order approach to the making of the future European constitution. We thus investigate the normative content of collective decisions in the…
Abstract
Provides a discussion of the spontaneous order approach to the making of the future European constitution. We thus investigate the normative content of collective decisions in the Scottish Enlightenment tradition. Conditions of rightness depend on very strong assumptions. They shape a system of natural law as a local public good. When Humean sympathy ensures homogeneous preferences, it prevents free‐riding and rent‐seeking as well. In this quite specific context, spontaneous order would also bridge the gap between the is and the ought. However, attempts to enlarge the size or scope of such societies would require a formal contractual order. But the latter would have to define what rightness a priori means.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine how the social question, die soziale Frage, is treated in the periodical literature of English language economics.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the social question, die soziale Frage, is treated in the periodical literature of English language economics.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines every reference to the question in the most important English language economic journals.
Findings
Considering that more than a century has passed, there are few references. By 1900, Anglophone economists virtually lost what little interest they ever had in the social question. Continental European economists have always made up the vast majority of those concerned with the social question. There has never been agreement about what the social question is or how to remedy it. It has always been defined very differently at different times and within and among countries. The political, social, economic and cultural contexts are important determinants of discussions about it and policies to address the social problems to which it refers. In order for a social question to be translated into social reform, specific parts of it must become social problems. Political, cultural and social changes in Europe require entire new ways of thinking about social reform. Reasons for this are discussed.
Originality/value
The paper offers insights into how the social question is treated in English language periodicals.