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Realistic Idealism and The Project of Political Economy
Author(s) -
Pennington Mark
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
economic affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-0270
pISSN - 0265-0665
DOI - 10.1111/ecaf.12139
Subject(s) - idealism , politics , ideal (ethics) , matching (statistics) , appeal , economic justice , political economy , political science , sociology , economics , epistemology , neoclassical economics , law , philosophy , mathematics , statistics
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’.