Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Interventions: An intervention in politics is any action taken by one actor to influence the political process in another state. There are military interventions, diplomatic interventions, or economic interventions. See also Internventionism._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Adam Smith on Interventions - Dictionary of Arguments
Otteson I 49 Interventions/Adam Smith/Otteson: (...) Smith gives us (…) the three main roles he believes government ought to Ppay. The first two are: (1) "protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies"; and (2) "protecting, as far as possible, every member of the society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it." Institutions: (3) (…) [the] third duty of government: "erecting and maintaining certain publick works and certain publick institutions." This would seem to open a door to positive intervention in the economy. >Government/Adam Smith, >Governance/Adam Smith, >Society. Otteson: But hasn't Smith's entire argument been against such intervention? Here we see one consequence of Smith's decision not to rely on a conception of, say, natural law and natural rights, which might perhaps provide a principled argument against government intervention. Otteson I 51 To understand Smith's full position correctly, note first that he imposes strict qualifications on when such government intervention might be allowed: only when "it can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals to erect and maintain; because the profit could never repay the expence to any individual or small number of individuals, though it may frequently do much more than repay it to a great society." (WN(1): 687-8) Thus Smith argues that to justify such intervention, the advocate of government action must meet the burden of making both of two claims: (1) the public work or public institution would have to be unable to be provided by private enterprise; and (2) it would have to benefit substantially the whole of the "great society," not merely one group at the expense of another. Problem: While Smith has not ruled out such intervention, then, he has shifted the burden of proof on to the person proposing it. And the threshold for making a compelling case is surprisingly high: if you believe the government should take positive action to provide a public work or institution, you would have to demonstrate both that private enterprise could not supply it (note: not merely is not currently supplying it, but could not supply it), and that substantially every- one would benefit. What possible government programs would meet those two criteria? >Government policy/Adam Smith, >Education/Adam Smith. Otteson I 52 Government/Adam Smith: the Smithian government is quite small by contemporary standards. 1. Smith, Adam. (1776) The Wealth of Nations. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
EconSmith I Adam Smith The Theory of Moral Sentiments London 2010 EconSmithV I Vernon L. Smith Rationality in Economics: Constructivist and Ecological Forms Cambridge 2009 Otteson I James R. Otteson The Essential Adam Smith Vancouver: Fraser Institute. 2018 |
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