Robust Political Economy: Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy

by Mark Pennington

This important book offers a comprehensive defence of classical liberalism against contemporary challenges. It sets out an analytical framework of 'robust political economy' that explores the economic and political problems that arise from the phenomena of imperfect knowledge and imperfect incentives. Using this framework, the book defends the classical liberal focus on markets and the minimal state from the critiques presented by 'market failure' economics and communitarian and egalitarian variants of political theory. Mark Pennington expertly applies the lessons learned from responding to these challenges in the context of contemporary discussions surrounding the welfare state, international development, and environmental protection. Written in an accessible style, this authoritative book would be useful for both undergraduate and graduate students of political economy and public policy as a standard reference work for classical liberal analysis and a defence of its normative prescriptions. The book's distinctive approach will ensure that academic practitioners of economics and political science, political theory and public policy will also find its controversial conclusions insightful. 1. Classical Liberalism and Robust Political Economy; Part Challenges to Classical Liberalism; 2. Market Failures 'Old' and 'New': The Challenge of Neo-Classical Economics; 3. Exit, Voice and Communicative The Challenge of Communitarianism I; 4. Exit, Trust and Social The Challenge of Communitarianism II; 5. Equality and Social The Challenge of Egalitarianism; Part Towards the Minimal State; 6. Poverty Relief and Public Welfare State or Minimal State?; 7. Institutions and International Global Governance or the Minimal State?; 8. Environmental Green Leviathan or the Minimal State?; 9. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index

Genres: Economics, Politics, Philosophy

320 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 2010

About the author

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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Mark Pennington is a British political scientist and economist. He serves as a Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy at King's College London.
(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Otto Lehto]

(Full disclosure: I am working with Mark Pennington, so I will abstain from rating the book.) Incentives matter. Epistemic ignorance matters. This is an excellent primer on libertarian political economy. It show that classical liberalism, far from being riddled with outdated or unreasonable assumptions, can be interpreted as a "robust" framework that envelops a dynamic and evolving notion of society (rather than a static framework), a complex understanding of human motivation (rather than a simplified caricature), a socially engaged notion of human actors (rather than an individualistic notion of consumers), and even an automatic "safety net" that provides resilience in the face of life's myriad and manifold challenges (rather than a dog-eat-dog world of greed).

Pennington provides much-needed criticism of the claims and achievements of the champions of deliberative democracy, distributive justice, global justice and other worthwhile but hard-to-achieve goals. In showing that a market-oriented framework can better satisfy many of the aims of these various utopia schemers, however imperfectly it may do that, Pennington raises the stakes for the other side. It is no longer as incumbent on the defenders of liberty to have to defend their arguments against the reasonable onslaught of "yes, but what about..." questions. The pitfalls and shortcomings of the alternative modes of social, economic and political organization must be fully recognized before any attempt is made to upend the evolutionary and resilient potential of liberty.

[Nick Geiser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pennington's book combines three elements: 1) a theory of robustness 2) a defense of "classical liberalism" against several competing institutional theories and 3) an application of classical liberal institutional theory to contemporary policy areas.

A theory of robustness, according to Pennington, evaluates institutions on how they perform under unfavorable conditions. For example, a robust car like a Honda Civic performs well in bad weather or without routine maintenance, while a fragile car like a Ferrari does not perform well in bad weather and requires extensive maintenance. This is true even if the Ferrari's maximum performance under favorable conditions far exceeds the Civic's. Robustness evaluates institutions based on how well they perform under conditions where participants have limited knowledge and are predominantly self-interested.

Pennington argues that classical liberalism has been the primary exponent of robustness in political and social theory. He addresses three theoretical challenges to classical liberalism: the "new market failure" school, the communitarian challenge to classical liberalism, and the egalitarian liberal challenge.

The book concludes with applications of classical liberal robustness to contemporary public policy. The discussions of environmental policy and international assistance are particularly illuminating.

[Victor Bradford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is quite interesting because the Mr. Pennington discussed some of the real life examples about the politics that he encounter by himself! like I can say about the quality of 5 bucks essay that I got online or you can share experience of something specifically happened to you!

[Atilla]

Zaman zaman güzel örnekler verilse ve konunun felsefi altyapısı aktarılmaya çalışılsa da dili çok ağırdı. Muhtemelen çevirinin de bunda etkisi var. Bu yüzden kitabı okumak son derece zor.