Liberal political economy and justice: Character and decorum in the economic arguments of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman

• Main Author: Turpin, Paul Bruce
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2005
• Subjects: 18th century; 19th century; Aesthetics; Attitudes; Audiences; Communication; Competition; Conformity; Copyright; Distributive justice; Dogmatism; Economic history; Economic theory; Economists; Liberalism; Morality; Narratives; Political economy; Power; Rhetoric; Rhetoric and Composition; Science; Social justice; Social order; Society; Sociology; Studies; Values
• ISBN: 0542427796; 9780542427794

This study undertook a rhetorical analysis of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, and Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom. A key finding of the study was that Smith and Friedman use argumentative and narrative depictions of character to reinforce a sense of societal decorum as a stabilizing foundation for their theories of liberal political economy. For both Smith and Friedman, competition makes the economy moral because it makes the economy fair, yet fair competition is threatened by self-interest. Appeals to decorum tip the balance in favor of competition, such that proper character and its embedment in a decorum of proper behavior functions as counterbalance to self-interest in their economic theories. The second major finding of the study is the role of decorum in Smith's and Friedman's construal of justice. As part of the historical development of secular natural law, Smith separated distributive justice (what one is due as a member of a community) from commutative justice (justice in one's possession's and property). Distributive justice became naturalized through two systems: societal decorum for stability, and the productiveness of a competitive economy for material subsistence. Commutative justice became the central warrant for law and government. Friedman furthered this separation by subordinating distributive justice entirely to commutative justice. The conclusion of this study is twofold: first, insofar as Smith's and Friedman's theories presuppose or impose a decorum as the stabilizing force in societal and economic interactions, their theories are moral constructs. As such, the theories perpetuate the splitting of distributive from commutative justice by conflating social decorum with economic fairness, such that the acceptance of decorum as appropriate equates to acceptance of economic outcomes as just. This split threatens to undermine classical liberalism's claim to freedom, fairness, and equality. This study sets the stage for future investigations into how the split between distributive and commutative justice affects social and political policies and practices, giving rise to perceived problems of social justice, thereby clarifying liberalism's problem in dealing with social justice.