IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v14y2002i4p497-518.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Perfectionism, Paternalism and Liberalism in Sen and Nussbaum's Capability Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Severine Deneulin

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyse the theoretical foundations of human development policies as found in Sen's and Nussbaum's capability approach to development, and to examine to what extent undertaking policies according to the capability approach respects people's freedom to pursue their own conception of the good. The paper argues that policies undertaken according to the capability approach have to be guided by a perfectionist conception of the good; that is, they cannot avoid promoting one certain conception of the human good. Such a perfectionist conception of the human good, and the policies ensuing from it, has often been qualified as paternalist, depriving the human being of choosing her own conception of the good. The paper examines to what extent those fears of paternalism that seem to underlie policies guided by a perfectionist account of the good are legitimate, and to what extent the capability approach can escape those charges of paternalism and respect each person's freedom to pursue the human good as she conceives it.

Suggested Citation

  • Severine Deneulin, 2002. "Perfectionism, Paternalism and Liberalism in Sen and Nussbaum's Capability Approach," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 497-518.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:14:y:2002:i:4:p:497-518
    DOI: 10.1080/0953825022000009924
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0953825022000009924
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0953825022000009924?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. New, Bill, 1999. "Paternalism and Public Policy," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 63-83, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ingrid Robeyns, 2016. "Capabilitarianism," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 397-414, July.
    2. Farah Naz, 2022. "Capabilities and Human Well-Being: How to Bridge the Missing Link?," International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development, Inovatus Services Ltd., vol. 8(2), pages 61-71, June.
    3. Frank S. Arku, 2010. "Time savings from easy access to clean water," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 10(3), pages 233-246, July.
    4. Stefan Mann, 2006. "Merit goods in a utilitarian framework," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 509-520.
    5. Mann, Stefan, 2005. "Trade Restrictions on Farmland - a Utilitarian Analysis of Paternalistic Laws," Working Papers 30709, Agroscope Reckenholz Tanikon (ART).
    6. Gasper, Des, 2007. "What is the capability approach?: Its core, rationale, partners and dangers," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 335-359, June.
    7. Kenji Mori & Shintaro Tamate, 2014. "Pasinetti after Sen: Towards a Capability Approach to Structural Dynamics of Consumption," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(4), pages 690-716, November.
    8. Antoinette Baujard & Adrien Lutz, 2018. "The capacity to confuse: rescuing the Saint-Simonian notion of ability from modern capability theories of social justice," Working Papers halshs-01963252, HAL.
    9. Mozaffar Qizilbash, 2002. "Development, Common Foes and Shared Values," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 463-480.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Julian Le Grand, 2003. "Individual Choice and Social Exclusion," CASE Papers 075, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    2. Roberto Fumagalli, 2016. "Decision sciences and the new case for paternalism: three welfare-related justificatory challenges," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 47(2), pages 459-480, August.
    3. Nicholas Barr & Peter Diamond, 2006. "The Economics of Pensions," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 22(1), pages 15-39, Spring.
    4. Adrian Park & Andrew Harris & Jonathan Parke & Jane Rigbye & Alex Blaszczynski, 2014. "Facilitating Awareness And Informed Choice In Gambling," Journal of Gambling Business and Economics, University of Buckingham Press, vol. 8(3), pages 6-20.
    5. Robert Goldfarb & Thomas Leonard & Steven Suranovic, 2001. "Are rival theories of smoking underdetermined?," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 229-251.
    6. Calcott, Paul, 2004. "Government warnings and the information provided by safety regulation," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 71-88, March.
    7. Le Grand, Julian, 2003. "Individual choice and social exclusion," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 4645, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Elizabeth Prior Jonson & Margaret Lindorff & Linda McGuire, 2012. "Paternalism and the Pokies: Unjustified State Interference or Justifiable Intervention?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 259-268, October.
    9. Mann, Stefan, 2005. "Trade Restrictions on Farmland - a Utilitarian Analysis of Paternalistic Laws," Working Papers 30709, Agroscope Reckenholz Tanikon (ART).
    10. Jolad, Shivakumar & Ravi, Chaitanya, 2021. "Addressing the dilemma of India’s state dependency on Alcohol: ‘New-Soft’ Paternalism approach," SocArXiv 7pnh5, Center for Open Science.
    11. Hanson, Robin, 2003. "Warning labels as cheap-talk: why regulators ban drugs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2013-2029, September.
    12. Hae Young Lee, 2013. "A Policy Paradox from Paternalism to Populism: The Case of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in South Korea," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 233-256, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:14:y:2002:i:4:p:497-518. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRPE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.