Public Good and Public Goods

Transcription

1 Public Good and Public Goods Public Good (singular and community specific) bonum commune; what is deemed to be for the general good of a specified public Public Goods (Plural and community indifferent) particular products, resources or conditions valued by individuals that are more effectively realised or better enjoyed on a collective or public basis

2 Two types of Political Association Societas (nomocracy) Civil association based on acceptance of common rules as grounding an identifiable public (public GOOD) Universitas (teleocracy) Enterprise association based on co-operation to achieve some pre-specified collective purpose (public GOODS) However most actual political communities are a mixture of the two. The pursuit of each MAY encourage the other

3 The Public Good (societas) Thick or Thin thick solidaristic sense of the public good as development of and commitment to a common ethical project in line with communitarianism thin understood in welfarist terms as aggregate utility, or in broader tradition of modern liberalism as protection of individual autonomy (also pre-modern sense of public Good, retained in modern natural law (Maritain, Finnis etc..,) collective good here is reflection and realisation of common individual good, neither the aggregation and reconciliation of diverse individual interests as in liberalism/utilitarianism, nor construction of a shared ethic as in communitarianism)

4 Public Goods (Universitas) 1 Thin or Thick Thin classical material public goods (and bads) non-excludability of access and non-rivalry of consumption. (bridge, clean air, pandemic disease, climate change etc.,) often matter of degree (and technological and normative choice) both in creating public goods (e.g. free trade) and in constraining them by turning them into club goods with restricted access instrumental justification (for individual benefit) of the collective provision of the goods in question

5 Public Goods (Universitas) 2 Thin or Thick Thick intrinsically social public goods the good itself is a feature of social relations rather than a material product. Makes essential reference to the togetherness of our enjoymentconviviality, friendship, tolerance, Rule of Law, common language, security intrinsic justification of collective provision produced by the group for the good of the group Most such social Goods are mixed in their justification both individual and collective rationale

6 Public Good(s) in the EU (compared to the state) 1. at best, thin sense of the singular public Good (societas). Maximisation of individual utility in economic or interest-satisfaction terms ordoliberalism and the economic constitution 2.significant emphasis on instrumental Public Goods from Monnet method and neo-functionalism to Ipsen s special purpose association, Majone s regulatory state and Scharpf s output legitimacy (carbon and steel production, common market, Euratom, CAP, currency, defence and foreign policy, macroeconomic stabilization, climate protection, energy production etc.) 3. important secondary emphasis on social Public Goods (of the mixed sort) peace, prosperity, Rule of Law, toleration, cultural diversity etc.

7 Three Problems, three Challenges Entrapment and policy gridlock overemphasis on material public goods requiring normative innovation, precision and discipline (and so premium on Law). Problems of distributive fairness and competing national public goods joint-decision trap Policy fragmentation - Public goods increasingly diverse, not just natural spillover. Problems of coherence and joined-up legitimacy Loose coupling between European society and European polity social goods may have been more successful than often reckoned in making a European society (peace, prosperity, mutual tolerance, pride in constitutionalism)but these insufficient to create a solidaristic European public good. Gradualist analysis is flawed