Pubpol 201: Terms
Consequentialism: An action is right (morally permissible) if and only if its consequences are better than any alternative.
• Utilitarianism: an action is right if and only if it results in at least as much total “happiness” as any other action.
• Contractualism (Rawls): principles are just if and only if people behind the “veil of ignorance” would agree to them.
• Veil of ignorance (Rawls): People behind the veil of ignorance do not know anything about their own—or anyone else’s—characteristics, income, or abilities.
• Fair Equality of opportunity principle (Rawls): Among social arrangements that satisfy the equal liberty principle, there is no discrimination in opportunities across groups.
• Difference principle (Rawls): Among social arrangements that satisfy the equal liberty principle, the remaining inequalities are fair if they work to the greatest benefit of the worst-off group.
• Equal liberty principle: people have individual liberties/rights to the extent that they do not interfere with other people’s liberties.
• Market failure/imperfection: an adverse outcome in a free market system in which the forces of supply and demand fail to ensure the efficient distribution of goods and services.
• Externality: a type of market imperfection. A side effect or consequence of an economic activity that affects other parties without being reflected in market prices.
• Information asymmetries: a type of market imperfection. A side effect or consequence of an economic activity when one party has more information than the other.
• Boilerplate (in writing): prefabricated, unoriginal, and predictable prose.
• Structure: formal rules and delegation. LEGAL
• Craft: Skilled leadership.
• Culture: Informal beliefs and norms (including artifacts, espoused values, and underlying assumptions).
• State capacity: The “ability” of a government to achieve its goals.
• Implementation: The actual mechanisms needed to achieve goals.
• Proceduralism: A type of barrier to implementation. Adding rules/procedures instead of directly solving issues.
• Politicization: A type of barrier to implementation. Prioritization of political loyalty over merit- or knowledge-based selection.
• Negativity bias: Consequences for bad actions/policies are more salient than rewards for good ones.
• Positivity bias: Individuals give themselves more credit for positive outcomes than they deserve.
• Creeping determinism: Retrospectively supposing that patterns were clear and events were predictable.
• Administrative burdens: individual agents have costly (learning, compliance, or psychological costs) interactions and experiences with the government.
• Economic history: The analysis of economic events that happened historically.
• Bourgeoisie: capitalists; those who own businesses.
• Proletariat: workers; seen as merely an input to production.
Barriers to implementation: Proceduralism (Adding rules/procedures instead of directly solving issues), politicization (prioritization of political loyalty over merit- or knowledge-based selection)
Market Imperfections: Externality (A side effect or consequence of an economic activity that affects other parties without being reflected in market prices), Information asymmetries (A side effect or consequence of an economic activity when one party has more information than the other).