Download This PaperRealistic Idealism and the Project of Political Economy
14 Pages Posted: 28 Oct 2015
Date Written: October 2015
Abstract
This paper explores the constraints that should inform understandings of which political economic institutions are both economically and political feasible and ethically attractive. Focusing on cognitive constraints and motivational constraints, it suggests that the classical liberal ideal of a society based largely on voluntary exchanges within a minimalist conception of justice comes closest to matching the terms of a ‘realistic idealism’.
Keywords: classical liberalism, ethics, ideal theory, political economy
JEL Classification: I3, P00, P1, P5
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Pennington, Mark, Realistic Idealism and the Project of Political Economy (October 2015). Economic Affairs, Vol. 35, Issue 3, pp. 366-379, 2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2681400 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12139
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