This paper draws on the work of Michel Foucault and Friedrich Hayek to understand the threats to ... more This paper draws on the work of Michel Foucault and Friedrich Hayek to understand the threats to personal and enterprise freedom, arising from public health governance. Where public choice theory examines the incentives these institutions provide to agents, the analysis here understands these incentives as framed by discursive social constructions that affect the identity, power, and positionality of different actors. It shows how overlapping discourses of scientific rationalism in epidemiology and neo-classical economics may generate a 'road to serfdom' dynamic narrowing freedom of action and expression across an expanding terrain. As such, the paper contributes to the growing literature emphasising the importance of narratives, stories and metaphors as shaping political economic action in ways feeding through to outcomes and institutions.
This paper draws on F.A. Hayek's distinction between simple and complex phenomena to understand t... more This paper draws on F.A. Hayek's distinction between simple and complex phenomena to understand the nature of the challenge facing policymakers in responding to the new coronavirus pandemic. It shows that while government action is justifiable there may be few systemic mechanisms that enable policymakers to distinguish better from worse policy responses, or to make such distinctions in sufficient time. It then argues that this may be a more general characteristic of large-scale public policy making procedures and illustrates the importance of returning to a market-based political economy at the earliest convenience.
The relationship between freedom, regulation and public policy is a complex and contested one. Di... more The relationship between freedom, regulation and public policy is a complex and contested one. Different political traditions emphasise alternative conceptions of freedom and whether regulation enhances freedom is a matter of considerable dispute. These disagreements often reflect different assumptions about the character of social order and the attributes of those working within regulatory institutions. The analysis present two conceptions of freedom and sketches a framework for evaluating the likely relationship between different regulatory regimes and their propensity to promote these freedoms. The subsequent sections analyse in greater depth the terms of debate between those envisaging a greater or lesser role for regulation and public regulation in particular, to secure negative freedom and positive freedom respectively.
This paper defends the case for a classical liberal political order as set out in my 2011 book Ro... more This paper defends the case for a classical liberal political order as set out in my 2011 book Robust Political Economy against critical commentaries from Andrew Gamble, Victoria Bateman, Daniel Layman, and Michael Bennett. While each of these authors offers some valuable insights that require some refinement/clarification of my orginal argument, I conclude that the core proposition that classical liberal institutions are more robust in 'non-ideal' conditions than alternative to them, still stands.
This paper defends the institutional priority of markets and freedom of contract over democratic ... more This paper defends the institutional priority of markets and freedom of contract over democratic procedures. It suggests that the most powerful arguments for relying on markets do not depend on idealised conditions and that ‘ideal theory’ as currently practiced, should have little role in the evaluation of political economic regimes. The paper sets out instead a ‘robust political economy’ standard that examines how alternative regime types cope with ‘non-ideal’ circumstances. Judged against this standard the paper critiques the work of Stiglitz, Knight and Johnson, and Rawls to demonstrate that on both social welfare and distributive justice grounds there are strong reasons to prioritise competitive market structures.
ABSTRACT Traditional economic models of how to manage environmental problems relating to renewabl... more ABSTRACT Traditional economic models of how to manage environmental problems relating to renewable natural resources, such as fisheries, have tended to recommend either government regulation or privatisation and the explicit definition of property rights.These traditional models ignore the practical reality of natural resource management. Many communities are able to spontaneously develop their own approaches to managing such common-pool resources. In the words of Mark Pennington: ‘[Professor Ostrom’s] book Governing the Commons is a superb testament to the understanding that can be gained when economists observe in close-up detail how people craft arrangements to solve problems in ways often beyond the imagination of textbook theorists.’In particular, communities are often able to find stable and effective ways to define the boundaries of a common-pool resource, define the rules for its use and effectively enforce those rules.The effective management of a natural resource often requires ‘polycentric’ systems of governance where various entities have some role in the process. Government may play a role in some circumstances, perhaps by providing information to resource users or by assisting enforcement processes through court systems.Elinor Ostrom’s work in this field, for which she won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2009, was grounded in the detailed empirical study of how communities managed common-pool resources in practice.It is essential that we avoid the ‘panacea problem.’ There is no correct way to manage common-pool resources that will always be effective. Different ways of managing resources will be appropriate in different contexts – for example within different cultures or where there are different physical characteristics of a natural resource.Nevertheless, there are principles that we can draw from the detailed study of the salient features of different cases to help us understand how different common-pool resources might be best managed; which rules systems and systems of organisation have the best chance of success or failure; and so on.Elinor Ostrom’s approach has been praised by the left, who often see it as being opposed to free-market privatisation initiatives. In fact, her approach sits firmly within the classical liberal tradition of political economy. She observes communities freely choosing their own mechanisms to manage natural resource problems without government coercion or planning.In developing a viable approach to the management of the commons, it is important, among other things, that a resource can be clearly defined and that the rules governing the use of the resource are adapted to local conditions. This suggests that rules imposed from outside, such as by government agencies, are unlikely to be successful.There are important areas of natural resource management where Elinor Ostrom’s ideas should be adopted to avoid environmental catastrophe. Perhaps the most obvious example relevant to the UK is in European Union fisheries policy. Here, there is one centralised model for the management of the resource that is applied right across the European Union, ignoring all the evidence about the failure of that approach.
This paper analyses the relationship between various conceptions of sustainable development and t... more This paper analyses the relationship between various conceptions of sustainable development and the role of land use planning from a Hayekian perspective. The focus of the paper is on a modified version of the Pareto principle and the manner in which this ...
Contemporary communitarian critiques of classical liberalism argue that open markets do not produ... more Contemporary communitarian critiques of classical liberalism argue that open markets do not produce the social capital necessary for their own functioning and that the excessive penetration of commercial values into public life may undermine the norms necessary to sustain a functioning market order. This article responds to these charges by setting out the role of the market in the spontaneous generation of the ‘bonding and bridging social capital’ that help to sustain a complex, advanced society.
At the forefront of the argument for government-directed land use planning is the notion that-cit... more At the forefront of the argument for government-directed land use planning is the notion that-citizen participation-in urban land use decisions can avoid the problems associated with bureaucratic governance and tackle widespread instances of-market failure-. Using ...
In recent years support for Habermasian deliberative models of democracy has become widespread wi... more In recent years support for Habermasian deliberative models of democracy has become widespread within environmental political economy. Many Green theorists are critical of arrangements that foster a narrowly instrumental or technocratic conception of reason. ...
Following the 1992 Earth Summit, considerable attention has focused on the potential of land use ... more Following the 1992 Earth Summit, considerable attention has focused on the potential of land use planning to deliver the improvements in environmental quality, that are now demanded by electorates throughout the industrialised world. In the wake of a period ...
Go to AGRIS search. Conservation and the countryside: by quango or market? Pennington, M. Publish... more Go to AGRIS search. Conservation and the countryside: by quango or market? Pennington, M. Publisher, Institute of Economic Affairs, London (United Kingdom). Date of publication, 1996. AGRIS Categories, Nature conservation and land resources. ...
This paper draws on the work of Michel Foucault and Friedrich Hayek to understand the threats to ... more This paper draws on the work of Michel Foucault and Friedrich Hayek to understand the threats to personal and enterprise freedom, arising from public health governance. Where public choice theory examines the incentives these institutions provide to agents, the analysis here understands these incentives as framed by discursive social constructions that affect the identity, power, and positionality of different actors. It shows how overlapping discourses of scientific rationalism in epidemiology and neo-classical economics may generate a 'road to serfdom' dynamic narrowing freedom of action and expression across an expanding terrain. As such, the paper contributes to the growing literature emphasising the importance of narratives, stories and metaphors as shaping political economic action in ways feeding through to outcomes and institutions.
This paper draws on F.A. Hayek's distinction between simple and complex phenomena to understand t... more This paper draws on F.A. Hayek's distinction between simple and complex phenomena to understand the nature of the challenge facing policymakers in responding to the new coronavirus pandemic. It shows that while government action is justifiable there may be few systemic mechanisms that enable policymakers to distinguish better from worse policy responses, or to make such distinctions in sufficient time. It then argues that this may be a more general characteristic of large-scale public policy making procedures and illustrates the importance of returning to a market-based political economy at the earliest convenience.
The relationship between freedom, regulation and public policy is a complex and contested one. Di... more The relationship between freedom, regulation and public policy is a complex and contested one. Different political traditions emphasise alternative conceptions of freedom and whether regulation enhances freedom is a matter of considerable dispute. These disagreements often reflect different assumptions about the character of social order and the attributes of those working within regulatory institutions. The analysis present two conceptions of freedom and sketches a framework for evaluating the likely relationship between different regulatory regimes and their propensity to promote these freedoms. The subsequent sections analyse in greater depth the terms of debate between those envisaging a greater or lesser role for regulation and public regulation in particular, to secure negative freedom and positive freedom respectively.
This paper defends the case for a classical liberal political order as set out in my 2011 book Ro... more This paper defends the case for a classical liberal political order as set out in my 2011 book Robust Political Economy against critical commentaries from Andrew Gamble, Victoria Bateman, Daniel Layman, and Michael Bennett. While each of these authors offers some valuable insights that require some refinement/clarification of my orginal argument, I conclude that the core proposition that classical liberal institutions are more robust in 'non-ideal' conditions than alternative to them, still stands.
This paper defends the institutional priority of markets and freedom of contract over democratic ... more This paper defends the institutional priority of markets and freedom of contract over democratic procedures. It suggests that the most powerful arguments for relying on markets do not depend on idealised conditions and that ‘ideal theory’ as currently practiced, should have little role in the evaluation of political economic regimes. The paper sets out instead a ‘robust political economy’ standard that examines how alternative regime types cope with ‘non-ideal’ circumstances. Judged against this standard the paper critiques the work of Stiglitz, Knight and Johnson, and Rawls to demonstrate that on both social welfare and distributive justice grounds there are strong reasons to prioritise competitive market structures.
ABSTRACT Traditional economic models of how to manage environmental problems relating to renewabl... more ABSTRACT Traditional economic models of how to manage environmental problems relating to renewable natural resources, such as fisheries, have tended to recommend either government regulation or privatisation and the explicit definition of property rights.These traditional models ignore the practical reality of natural resource management. Many communities are able to spontaneously develop their own approaches to managing such common-pool resources. In the words of Mark Pennington: ‘[Professor Ostrom’s] book Governing the Commons is a superb testament to the understanding that can be gained when economists observe in close-up detail how people craft arrangements to solve problems in ways often beyond the imagination of textbook theorists.’In particular, communities are often able to find stable and effective ways to define the boundaries of a common-pool resource, define the rules for its use and effectively enforce those rules.The effective management of a natural resource often requires ‘polycentric’ systems of governance where various entities have some role in the process. Government may play a role in some circumstances, perhaps by providing information to resource users or by assisting enforcement processes through court systems.Elinor Ostrom’s work in this field, for which she won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2009, was grounded in the detailed empirical study of how communities managed common-pool resources in practice.It is essential that we avoid the ‘panacea problem.’ There is no correct way to manage common-pool resources that will always be effective. Different ways of managing resources will be appropriate in different contexts – for example within different cultures or where there are different physical characteristics of a natural resource.Nevertheless, there are principles that we can draw from the detailed study of the salient features of different cases to help us understand how different common-pool resources might be best managed; which rules systems and systems of organisation have the best chance of success or failure; and so on.Elinor Ostrom’s approach has been praised by the left, who often see it as being opposed to free-market privatisation initiatives. In fact, her approach sits firmly within the classical liberal tradition of political economy. She observes communities freely choosing their own mechanisms to manage natural resource problems without government coercion or planning.In developing a viable approach to the management of the commons, it is important, among other things, that a resource can be clearly defined and that the rules governing the use of the resource are adapted to local conditions. This suggests that rules imposed from outside, such as by government agencies, are unlikely to be successful.There are important areas of natural resource management where Elinor Ostrom’s ideas should be adopted to avoid environmental catastrophe. Perhaps the most obvious example relevant to the UK is in European Union fisheries policy. Here, there is one centralised model for the management of the resource that is applied right across the European Union, ignoring all the evidence about the failure of that approach.
This paper analyses the relationship between various conceptions of sustainable development and t... more This paper analyses the relationship between various conceptions of sustainable development and the role of land use planning from a Hayekian perspective. The focus of the paper is on a modified version of the Pareto principle and the manner in which this ...
Contemporary communitarian critiques of classical liberalism argue that open markets do not produ... more Contemporary communitarian critiques of classical liberalism argue that open markets do not produce the social capital necessary for their own functioning and that the excessive penetration of commercial values into public life may undermine the norms necessary to sustain a functioning market order. This article responds to these charges by setting out the role of the market in the spontaneous generation of the ‘bonding and bridging social capital’ that help to sustain a complex, advanced society.
At the forefront of the argument for government-directed land use planning is the notion that-cit... more At the forefront of the argument for government-directed land use planning is the notion that-citizen participation-in urban land use decisions can avoid the problems associated with bureaucratic governance and tackle widespread instances of-market failure-. Using ...
In recent years support for Habermasian deliberative models of democracy has become widespread wi... more In recent years support for Habermasian deliberative models of democracy has become widespread within environmental political economy. Many Green theorists are critical of arrangements that foster a narrowly instrumental or technocratic conception of reason. ...
Following the 1992 Earth Summit, considerable attention has focused on the potential of land use ... more Following the 1992 Earth Summit, considerable attention has focused on the potential of land use planning to deliver the improvements in environmental quality, that are now demanded by electorates throughout the industrialised world. In the wake of a period ...
Go to AGRIS search. Conservation and the countryside: by quango or market? Pennington, M. Publish... more Go to AGRIS search. Conservation and the countryside: by quango or market? Pennington, M. Publisher, Institute of Economic Affairs, London (United Kingdom). Date of publication, 1996. AGRIS Categories, Nature conservation and land resources. ...
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