Economic Reason and Political Reason Deliberation and the Construction of Public Space in the Society of Communication

The public space of democracies is constructed in a context that is marked by the digital transformation of the economy and society. This construction is carried out primarily through deliberation. Deliberation informs and guides both individual and collective action.

To shed light on the concept of deliberation, it is important to consider the rationality of choice; but what type of rationality is this? References to economic reason are at once widespread, crucial and controversial. This book therefore deals with arguments used by individuals based on the notions of preferential choice and rational behavior, and also criticizes them. These arguments are examined in the context of the major themes of public debate that help to construct the contemporary public space: "populism", social insurance, social responsibility and environmental issues.

Economic Reason and Political Reason underlines the importance of the pragmatist shift of the 2000s and revisits, through the lens of this new approach, the great utilitarian and Rawlsian normative constructs that dominated normative political economics at the end of the 20th century. Alternative approaches, based on the concept of deliberative democracy, are proposed and discussed.

Jean Mercier Ythier is Professor of Economics at the Paris-Panthéon-Assas University, France. His research focuses on political economy, public economics and contemporary economic anthropology.

Introduction xi

Jean MERCIER YTHIER

Part 1 Normative Political Economy: Between Economic Reason and Political Reason 1

Chapter 1 The “Difference Principle”: Economic Rationality and Political Applicability 3

Claude GAMEL

1.1 Introduction: equality norms and the “difference principle” in the public debate 3

1.1.1 Deliberation in public debate 3

1.1.2 The equality standard in evaluating inequalities 5

1.1.3 The singularity of the “difference principle” 7

1.2 Rationality: from philosophical objection to economic translation 10

1.2.1 The philosophical objection rather well overcome 10

1.2.2 An economic translation still under debate 13

1.3 Applicability: from political misunderstanding to societal complexity 19

1.3.1 The political misunderstanding to be cleared up 19

1.3.2 The societal complexity to be absorbed 26

1.4 Conclusion: a principle that is less philosophical than economic 30

1.5 References 31

Chapter 2 The Public Sphere Between the State and the Market: From Rational Discussion to the Information and Communication Society 35

Sylvain LAVELLE

2.1 Publicity before and after Habermas 35

2.2 The public sphere between the State and the market 38

2.2.1 The origin of the concept in the public sphere 39

2.2.2 The public sphere and the systems of the State and the market 41

2.2.3. The development of the concept of the public sphere in Between Facts and Norms 42

2.2.4 The multiple dimensions of the public sphere 45

2.3 The public sphere and rational discussion 48

2.3.1 The rational discussion model 48

2.3.2 The political ideal put to the test of reality 50

2.3.3 The critique of reason and discourse 52

2.3.4 The critique of margin and class 56

2.4 The public sphere and the information and communication society 60

2.4.1 The challenges of the information and communication society 60

2.4.2 The public sphere of the media 61

2.4.3 The public sphere in the age of the Internet and globalization 63

2.4.4 The public sphere of the information and communication society 66

2.5 The idea of the political sphere 68

2.5.1 Beyond procedural policy 68

2.5.2 A paradigm shift 70

2.5.3 From the public sphere to the political sphere 73

2.5.4 The political sphere between the State, the market and society 75

2.6 The dialectics of publicity 76

2.7 References 79

Chapter 3 Contracts Rather than Deliberation: Robert Sugden’s Normative Economics 85

Bertrand CRETTEZ

3.1 Introduction 85

3.2 Sugden’s public reasoning approach 86

3.3 The contractarian point of view: principles 88

3.4 The psychological stability of the market from a contractionary perspective 92

3.5 Discussion of the hypotheses 96

3.6 Making the market more moral 98

3.7 An assessment of the principle of mutual benefit 102

3.8 Conclusion 104

3.9 Acknowledgments 106

3.10 References 107

Chapter 4 From a Hegelian to a Smithian Reading of Rawls 109

Ragip EGE and Herrade IGERSHEIM

4.1 Introduction 109

4.2 Hegel and the reasonable/rational duo 114

4.3 The Smithian impartial spectator: a conceptual trio 123

4.4 Conclusion 127

4.5 References 128

Part 2 Reasons and Persons 131

Chapter 5 Personal Identity, Public Deliberation and Behavioral Public Policy 133

Cyril HÉDOIN

5.1 Introduction 133

5.2 Behavioral public policy and paternalism 135

5.3 Normative behavioral economics, welfare and identity 139

5.4 Personal identity and the plurality of conceptions of the good 144

5.5 Public deliberation and justification of behavioral public policies 148

5.6 Conclusion 154

5.7 Acknowledgments 155

5.8 References 155

Chapter 6 Preferential Choice, Logical Action and Communication Ethics 159

Jean MERCIER YTHIER

6.1 Preferential choice and logical action 159

6.2 Practical choice: logical form and phenomenological substance of the preferential choice 163

6.3 Preferential choice and the axioms of rational choice: logical analysis 166

6.4 Deliberate choice as rational preferential choice: logical reconstruction and evaluation 170

6.4.1 Robustness: reflexivity, binarity and acyclicity of the preference relation 172

6.4.2 Accuracy: completeness of the preference relation 183

6.4.3 Transparency: transitivity of the preference relation 194

6.5 A tentative conclusion on epistemology and ethics 196

6.6 Appendix 198

6.7 References 203

Part 3 Public Debate and Public Policy 207

Chapter 7 Issues of “Stakeholder” Recognition in Collaborative Deliberation 209

Emmanuel PICAVET

7.1 Introduction 209

7.2 Authority and recognition of contributions 210

7.2.1 Public and private 210

7.2.2 Reciprocal support of actors, recognition and collective initiative 213

7.2.3 Structure of action and structure of its environment 216

7.3 The organization’s environment and stakeholders 218

7.3.1 Descriptive choices 218

7.3.2 Contributions of the “stakeholder” approach 219

7.3.3 Endogeneity, exogeneity and power in the commitments of an organization 221

7.4 Conclusion 223

7.5 References 225

Chapter 8 Rethinking the Social Contract in the Digital Age 227

Bruno DEFFAINS

8.1 Introduction 227

8.2 Toward the questioning of the social contract 232

8.2.1 An economic model in question 234

8.2.2 Increasing inequality 235

8.2.3 The end of homo economicus? 236

8.2.4 Attention as a scarce resource 237

8.2.5 The principle of intensity and voluntary servitude 238

8.3 An explosive cocktail! 242

8.4 Re-founding the social contract 244

8.4.1 A look back at “liberating science” 245

8.4.2 Revisiting the human-machine relationship 248

8.4.3 Digital ontology and ethics 251

8.5 Individual responsibility and collective solidarity 254

8.6 Acknowledgments 256

8.7 References 256

Chapter 9. Public Management of Rivers: The Deliberative Test  259

Julie RIEGEL

9.1 Introduction 259

9.2 Voluntary consultations, between desires and fears of dialog 261

9.2.1 Gaining residents’ acceptance of the projects 261

9.2.2 The moderators of the consultations: a regime of sharing rather than opinion 263

9.3 Contrasting memories and effects of the consultation 266

9.3.1 “We were listened to We were able to talk” 266

9.3.2 A bitter memory of the consultation and unresolved management actions 269

9.4 Framing the consultation and developing scales 272

9.4.1 The status of expertise: determining or supporting the discussion 272

9.4.2 Normativity and scales of general interest in consultations 274

9.5 Conclusion 277

9.6 References 278

Chapter 10 The Economics of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services between Monetary Valuation and Deliberation 283

Franck-Dominique VIVIEN

10.1 The economy at the service of nature conservation? 284

10.1.1 Is nature irreplaceable? 284

10.1.2 What is the cost of biodiversity erosion? 286

10.1.3 Continuing the debate on sustainability around ecosystem services 290

10.2 An overview of the controversy surrounding the economic value of nature 292

10.2.1 The standard economic approach and the issue of undervaluing nature in economic terms 292

10.2.2 The London School: environmental pragmatism 293

10.2.3 The conventionalist approach 295

10.2.4 Joan Martinez-Alier’s ecological socioeconomics: valuation conflicts and incommensurability 298

10.2.5 A research approach: deliberative monetary evaluation 299

10.3 Conclusion 301

10.4 References 302

List of Authors 309

Index 311

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