Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Legislation: Legislation is the process of making laws by a legislative body. It typically involves introducing a bill, debating, and voting. Legislation is a part of the democratic process. See also Law, Laws, Jurisdiction, Society, State, Democracy._____________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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Donald J. Boudreaux on Legislation - Dictionary of Arguments
Boudreaux II 49 Legislation/Boudreaux: (…) in addition to obeying the many laws that are not consciously designed we obey also many rules that are consciously designed. Rules consciously designed by government are "legislation." Cf. >Law merchant, >Laws, >Society/Hayek, >Rules. We obey legislation, though, only because government will fine (…) us if we do not obey. And while we might respect the authority of government, we respect and obey legislation only because it is created and enforced by government. Unlike law, the actions declared wrong by legislation are wrong only because government prohibits them. These wrongs are malum prohibitum - wrong only because government says they are wrong. >Punishment, >Crime, >Criminal laws, >Economics of crime. Boudreaux II 50 Society: The importance of recognizing the distinction between law and legislation goes well beyond semantics. Its importance is twofold. 1) First, awareness of this distinction enables us to better see that socially beneficial rules of behaviour often emerge and are enforced independently of the state. It is a myth to believe that law is necessarily a product of conscious design by holders of sovereign authority. >Society/Hayek. Boudreaux II 51 2) Second, regardless of the merits or demerits of government's expansive use of legislation, the respect that we naturally feel for law should not unquestionably be extended to legislation. A corrupt or unwise government will legislate in many ways that are socially destructive. We should not confuse such government commands with law - or accord respect to legislation simply because it is commonly called "law."_____________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. |
Boudreaux I Donald J. Boudreaux Randall G. Holcombe The Essential James Buchanan Vancouver: The Fraser Institute 2021 Boudreaux II Donald J. Boudreaux The Essential Hayek Vancouver: Fraser Institute 2014 |
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