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PIOUS LIES: THE JUSTIFICATION OF STATES AND WELFARE STATES
Author(s) -
Jasay Anthony
Publication year - 2004
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/j.1468-0270.2004.00477.x
Subject(s) - social contract , welfare state , profit (economics) , state (computer science) , welfare , social welfare , law and economics , for profit , economics , state of nature , social insurance , law , political science , microeconomics , market economy , mathematics , classical economics , algorithm , politics
Institutions, customs, laws are often, and sometimes implausibly, credited with efficiency. They serve a good purpose and if they had not arisen, we would have invented them. The claim is reassuring, though it may be no more than a pious lie. The creation of the state by social contract, and the adoption of supposedly rational customs by primitive peoples, serve as examples. Interpreting the welfare state as a mutual insurance scheme from which all can expect to profit is a classic of the kind.