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LIBERALISM, ECONOMIC FREEDOM, AND THE LIMITS OF MARKETS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2006

Debra Satz
Debra Satz
Affiliation:
Ethics in Society Program at Stanford University
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Abstract

This paper points to a lost and ignored strand of argument in the writings of liberalism's earliest defenders. These “classical” liberals recognized that market liberty was not always compatible with individual liberty. In particular, they argued that labor markets required intervention and regulation if workers were not to be wholly subjugated to the power of their employers. Functioning capitalist labor markets (along with functioning credit markets) are not “natural” outgrowths of exchange, but achievements hard won in the battle against feudalism. Further, and crucially, the existence of such markets required closing off other market choices.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Philosophy and Policy , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , January 2007 , pp. 120 - 140
Copyright
© 2007 Social Philosophy and Policy Foundation

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Footnotes

I would like to thank the other contributors to this volume, and its editors, for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this essay.