Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T01:27:56.270Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 8 - In quest of the social contract

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2009

Get access

Summary

To what extent should we regard the most fundamental principles of a just society as the subject of an agreement, actual or hypothetical? In this essay I look at two famous recent approaches to this question. Then I suggest a more general framework for considering the problem. I begin with brief discussions of the contrasting approaches of James Buchanan and John Rawls.

I would like to focus on a basic issue at the center of both theories: Can a hypothetical choice motivated by self-interest yield unique and significant results and, at the same time, preserve impartiality? By yielding unique and significant results, I mean establishing nonintuitionist first principles (solving the “priority problem”) for either the general question of political procedures considered by Buchanan or the even broader question of the distribution of primary goods considered by Rawls.

Both the Buchanan and Tullock constitutional convention and the Rawlsian original position appeal to hypothetical self-interest under fair or impartial conditions. In each case the following problem arises: Can we know enough about our self-interest to choose one and only one first principle and, at the same time, not know so much that the choice has been biased in our own favor? I will claim, on the one hand, that the Buchanan and Tullock contractors, operating from behind a thin veil, know too much and, on the other hand, that the Rawlsian contractors, operating from behind a thick veil, know too little.

Type
Chapter
Information
Politics and Process
New Essays in Democratic Thought
, pp. 183 - 193
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×