The Evolutionary Limits of Liberalism : Democratic Problems, Market Solutions and the Ethics of Preference Satisfaction (Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism) （2019）

Faria, Filipe Nobre

Springer Nature Switzerland AG（2020/11発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 239 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9783030314989
• DDC分類 320.51

Full Description

This book assesses the evolutionary sustainability of liberalism. The book's central claim is that liberal institutions ultimately weaken their social groups in the evolutionary process of inter-group competition. In this sense, institutions relying on the liberal satisfaction of preferences reveal maladaptive tendencies. Based on the model of multilevel selection, this work appraises the capacity of liberal democracy and free markets to satisfy preferences. In particular, the book re-evaluates public choice theory's classic postulate that free markets are a suitable alternative to the shortcomings of western liberal democracies regarding preference satisfaction. Yet, the book concludes that free markets are not a solution to the problems of liberal democracy because both market and democratic liberal institutions rest on the liberal satisfaction of preferences, an ethic which hurts group evolutionary fitness. This volume is of interest to political theorists, evolutionary ethicists, political economists and to general readers interested in the future of liberalism.

Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. From Public Choice to Evolutionary Theory.- 3. Public Choice Theory: Liberal Democracy's Shortcomings and Their Institutional Market Enhancing Solutions.- 4. The Evolutionary Framework: Multilevel Selection, Morality and Preferences.- 5. Reassessing Liberal Democracy's Shortcomings and Their Institutional Market Enhancing Solutions.- 6. The Market: Evolutionary Limits and Possibilities.- 7. Conclusion.