The reaction of a French voter to the good showing of the party of extreme-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon against the “centrist” president Emmanuel Macron’s party in the legislative election illustrates how some people have an angelic view of government. The Wall Street Journal reported (“France’s Macron Lost Grip on Parliament Amid Russian Squeeze on Energy Prices,” June 20, 2022):
Marie-Claude Dautricourt, 76 years old, was worried about the impact the rising cost of living is having on young families. The retiree no longer goes out to eat at restaurants because it is too pricey. On Sunday, she cast her vote for a candidate in Mr. Melenchon’s coalition. “Melenchon cares more about the everyday lives of people than Macron,” she says.
Why would we expect the state to care about the everyday lives of people? Because politicians (or the right ones) and government bureaucrats are an especially altruistic class of people? Even if this answer were admitted, how can the state care for the everyday lives of people when there are millions of individuals with different lives, preferences, and values? The state can care about some people, but it is only, or at least typically, by harming others. It can care equally about all only in the limited and abstract sense that it protects the equal liberty of all individuals. James Buchanan would say that it is only when the state enforces rules that meet the consent of all individuals (which is not a less abstract criterion).
Once this is realized, the question becomes: How can the state and the incentives of its agents be structured in such a way (if anyhow possible) that it protects the equal liberty of all individuals, that it does not discriminate against some citizens if favor of others? This is, I think, the basic questions that different schools of classical liberalism have tried to answer.
READER COMMENTS
Thomas Lee Hutcheson
Jul 1 2022 at 9:34am
I think that, especially when starting from a position in which some people have a lot “more,” it is possible that some state interventions in the economy beyond protecting the equal liberty of all can make the lives of those with less better by enough to justify making the lives of those with more worse. I freely admit that it is a matter of opinion how much better or worse lives are being made I understand that other people will have different opinions.
This is especially the case when the intervention is to correct an externality where it is possible to improve the lives of almost everyone with compensation of those who were benefitting from the actions that produce the externality.
Of course just becasue it is possible does not mean that any particular intervention will in fact have a net positive result. Most mutations are fatal and most new ideas are bad, but not all.
Pierre Lemieux
Jul 1 2022 at 10:49am
Thomas: Thanks for your considered opinion (as usual). You realistically admit that “it is a matter of opinion.” This is the problem. Why should the opinion of one group of individuals be imposed on another group of individuals who do not share it? And what guarantees that this is not going to simply implement the rule that might makes right (that the redistribution will not favor the rich and powerful)? This is why Buchanan’s (and Tullock’s) idea that each individual must weigh his own costs and benefits is more conducive to social peace and prosperity than the approach of cost-benefit analysis.
Thomas Lee Hutcheson
Jul 1 2022 at 9:28pm
No guarantees.
Thomas Lee Hutcheson
Jul 6 2022 at 10:20am
I guess this is a good thumb-nail statement of “Why I am Not a Libertarian (Even Though I Am Not a Progressive, Either)” 🙂
Grand Rapids Mike
Jul 1 2022 at 10:21am
Just to take a contra opinion, think Hayek’s overal point in Road to Serfdom, be fearful of governments help. The road kill caused by well meaning government programs can vastly exceed it benefits. However it does make the pro Goverment Class excel in its virtue signaling.
Pierre Lemieux
Jul 1 2022 at 10:55am
Mike: Yes. This is paradigmatically true for coercive redistribution from one group of individuals to another group as determined by political and bureaucratic processes. Note however that Hayek was more concerned with planning and regulation than with (modest) redistribution as such.
Mark Brady
Jul 1 2022 at 1:21pm
You write, “The reaction of a French voter to the good showing of the party of extreme-left Jean-Luc Melenchon against the “centrist” president Emmanuel Macron’s party in the legislative election illustrates how some people have an angelic view of government.”
Pierre, why do you place “centrist” but not “extreme-left” in quotation marks? Do you think that one expression is more objective than the other? And if so, why?
Pierre Lemieux
Jul 1 2022 at 11:56pm
Mark: I used the quotation marks because Macron seems to be more on the center-left than of the center proper, taking “left” as meaning socialist and “right” as conservative. But your idea is also good: “centrist” is less clearly defined in the sense that it moves right or left when the right moves right or the left moves right.
In *Le Libéralisme* (1903), Émile Faguet has a beautiful passage on the French conservative, who could also serve to describe Macron’s “centrism” if somebody insisted as considering him center-right:
Andrea Mays
Jul 1 2022 at 2:46pm
As a practical matter, we could begin with the literal interpretation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. Imagine how many regulations that favor one group over another (say, renters over landlords, beekeepers over fishermen) were put to that test!?
Andrea Mays
Jul 1 2022 at 2:47pm
Imagine *if
Pierre Lemieux
Jul 2 2022 at 9:40pm
Indeed.
Thomas Lee Hutcheson
Jul 3 2022 at 3:07pm
That would prove too much. Exercise of any executive or legislative authority will favor some citizens more than others.
Pierre Lemieux
Jul 4 2022 at 10:51pm
Thomas: You are right: the world is imperfect. But this positive statement does not entail the normative statement that we should not aim for a non-discriminatory and non-arbitrary state.
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