The Political Economy of Laissez-Faire

摘要

Laissez-faire has several complicated roles in our culture. It is an intellectual construct in the history of economic thought; it has significance for economic theory; it is and has been a policy proposal or position in every public policy debate in the West since the eighteenth century; it is an ideological position—a logically inconsistent part of classic liberalism, a mild embarrassment to modern liberalism; it is a fetish of the lunatic right wing of the American political scene, a mantra for conservative think tanks, and a potent cultural symbol in industrial and industrializing economies—especially the United States. All of these roles contribute to the political economy of laissez-faire.