Self-regulation and human progress : how society gains when we govern less / Evan Osborne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Osborne, Evan, 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Free enterprise.

Liberty.

Economic policy.

Political science.

Progress.

Physical Description:

xiii, 251 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford Economics and Finance, an imprint of Stanford University Press, 2018.

Summary:

Most of us are familiar with free-market competition: the idea that society and the economy benefit when people are left to self-regulate, testing new ideas in pursuit of profit. Less known is the fact that this theory arose after arguments for the scientific method and freedom of speech had gone mainstream-and that all three share a common basis. Proponents of self-regulation in the realm of free speech have argued that unhindered public expression causes true ideas to gain strength through scrutiny. Similarly, scientific inquiry has been regarded as a self-correcting system, one in which competing hypotheses are verified by multiple independent researchers. It was long thought that society was better left to organize itself through free markets as opposed to political institutions. But, over the twentieth century, we became less confident in the notion of a self-regulating socioeconomy. Evan Osborne traces the rise and fall of this once-popular concept. He argues that-as society becomes more complex-self-regulation becomes more efficient and can once again serve our economy well. Book jacket.

Contents:

Problems and responses

Getting there : the long road to self-regulation

Wrongs make rights : self-regulating science

The less unsaid the better : self-regulating free speech

A better way forward : self-regulating socioeconomics

Realignment : fine tuning in light of self-regulation's deficiencies

Rebuilding : systemic changes to counter self-regulation's flaws

Assessing the decline of confidence in self-regulation

The best way(s) forward.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Osborne, Evan, 1964- Self-regulation and human progress.

ISBN:

9780804796446

0804796440

OCLC:

979557252