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THE PRINCIPLE OF VOLUNTARY AGREEMENT
Author(s) -
GOODIN ROBERT E.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9299.1986.tb00634.x
Subject(s) - legitimacy , aside , nothing , pragmatism , legislature , law and economics , government (linguistics) , political science , sort , law , economics , epistemology , politics , philosophy , computer science , linguistics , information retrieval
There may be many perfectly good reasons, of a purely pragmatic sort, for policy‐making by voluntary agreement between regulators and those whose conduct is to be regulated. Pragmatism aside, however, policy‐makers characteristically claim that that strategy is also morally superior to legislative compulsion. That claim is incorrect. Voluntary agreement, as it is presently procured, does nothing to enhance the moral legitimacy of the policies thereby promulgated. Anything a government is morally entitled to do with voluntary agreement of that sort, it would be morally equally entitled to do without it.