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69Self-interest and public interest: The motivations of political actorsCritical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 23 (3): 339-357. 2011.ABSTRACT Self-Interest and Public Interest in Western Politics showed that the public, politicians, and bureaucrats are often public spirited. But this does not invalidate public-choice theory. Public-choice theory is an ideal type, not a claim that self-interest explains all political behavior. Instead, public-choice theory is useful in creating rules and institutions that guard against the worst case, which would be universal self-interestedness in politics. In contrast, the public-interest hy…Read more
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46Euvoluntary or not, exchange is just*: Michael C. mungerSocial Philosophy and Policy 28 (2): 192-211. 2011.The arguments for redistribution of wealth, and for prohibiting certain transactions such as price-gouging, both are based in mistaken conceptions of exchange. This paper proposes a neologism, “euvoluntary” exchange, meaning both that the exchange is truly voluntary and that it benefits both parties to the transaction. The argument has two parts: First, all euvoluntary exchanges should be permitted, and there is no justification for redistribution of wealth if disparities result only from euvolu…Read more
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5Starting from Where We Are: The Importance of the Status Quo in James BuchananIn Richard E. Wagner (ed.), James M. Buchanan: A Theorist of Political Economy and Social Philosophy, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 39-64. 2018.One of the key tenets of James Buchanan’s political thought was the centrality of the status quo, embodied in Buchanan’s frequently heard axiom that “we start from where we are.” There is practical political value in “starting from where we are,” because we are in fact there, and not someplace else. Buchanan’s normative concern is that starting from where “we are” means that changes are more likely to be voluntary, and therefore Pareto-improving. The history of this notion of the status quo in c…Read more
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Can profit-seekers be virtuous?In Eugene Heath, Byron Kaldis & Alexei M. Marcoux (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Business Ethics, Routledge. 2018.
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22Is social justice just? (edited book)Independent Institute. 2019.What is social justice? At this point, there is considerable disagreement. For many, the term social justice is baffling and useless, with no real meaning. Most who use it argue that social justice is the moral fairness of the system of rules and norms that govern society. Do these rules work so that all persons get what is due to them as human beings and as members of the community? Shifting from the will of individuals in rendering justice to the outcome of the system of rules in achieving jus…Read more
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CorruptionIn Chris Melenovsky (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Routledge. 2022.
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636A Theory of Just Market ExchangeJournal of Value Inquiry 54 (1): 91-118. 2020.Any plausibly just market exchange must balance two conflicting moral considerations: non-worseness (Wertheimer, 1999) and euvoluntariness (true voluntariness; Munger, 2011). We propose an analytical theory of just market exchange that partly resolves this conflict.
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31Reconstructing racism: Transforming racial hierarchy from “necessary evil” into “positive good”Social Philosophy and Policy 34 (1): 144-163. 2017.:Our theoretical claim is that racism was consciously devised, and later evolved, to serve two conflicting purposes. First, racism served a legal-economic purpose, legitimating ownership and savage treatment of slaves by southern whites, preserving the value of property rights in labor. Second, racism allowed slave owners to justify, to themselves and to outsiders, how a morally "good" person could own slaves. Racism portrayed African slaves as being less than human, or else as being other than …Read more
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21Objections to Euvoluntary Exchange Do Not Have “Standing”: Extending Markets Without LimitsJournal of Value Inquiry 51 (4): 619-627. 2017.
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2702Self-Interest and Public Interest: The Motivations of Political ActorsCritical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 23 (3): 339-357. 2011.Self-Interest and Public Interest in Western Politics showed that the public, politicians, and bureaucrats are often public spirited. But this does not invalidate public-choice theory. Public-choice theory is an ideal type, not a claim that self-interest explains all political behavior. Instead, public-choice theory is useful in creating rules and institutions that guard against the worst case, which would be universal self-interestedness in politics. In contrast, the public-interest hypothesis …Read more
Durham, North Carolina, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
History of Western Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
History of Western Philosophy |
Other Academic Areas |