Tough Choices: Structured Paternalism and the Landscape of Choice
To what extent should government be permitted to intervene in personal choices? In grappling with this question, liberal theory seeks to balance individual liberty with the advancement of collective goals such as equality. Too often, however, society's obligation to provide meaningful opportunities is overshadowed by its commitment to personal freedom. Tough Choices charts a middle course between freedom-oriented anti-interventionism and equality-oriented social welfare, presenting a way to...
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"Tough Choices is a marvelously tough-minded, humane, and elegantly written essay on the value of choice in the politics of free societies. Ben-Porath has fresh, sober, and compelling things to say about a topic that is commonly shrouded in a fog of ideological folly. This is a rare thing: a wise and useful book about one of our most fundamental public values."—Eamonn Callan, Stanford University"Tough Choices is a really excellent, pioneering work. Covering a wide range of topics, it carves out a position that challenges the orthodox antipaternalistic tendencies in contemporary liberal political theory and beyond. This book is a pleasure to read."—Harry Brighouse, University of Wisconsin-Madison"A lively book that engages pressing public policy concerns and makes original contributions to political theory. Ben-Porath argues for an interesting and distinctive position: that the insights from behavioral economics and psychology illuminate a path toward a liberal defense of paternalism which, rather than constraining liberty, actually enhances opportunity and expands horizons of choice. This is a fine book that will attract attention within and outside of liberal political theory."—Rob Reich, Stanford University
Acknowledgments ix Chapter 1: To Choose or Not to Choose? 1 Chapter 2: Why Paternalism Is Good for You 18 Chapter 3: The Regulation of Intimacy 43 Chapter 4: Paternalism toward Children 66 Chapter 5: Exit with Caution: On Culture and Choice 89 Chapter 6: School Choice as a Bounded Ideal 123 Conclusion: Structured Paternalism and the Landscape of Choice 144 Notes 153 Index 175
\ Theory and Research in EducationThis is an important and ambitious book. It is important because it challenges head on, and in a serious, non-polemical but engaging and lively way, the widely held view that politics should fundamentally be concerned with the protection and promotion of individual freedom of choice. It is ambitious because its 180 pages not only present a distinctive theoretical framework for thinking about the relation between state regulation and individual choice but also illustrate that framework by applying it to a range of topics, many of which have been the subject of extensive scholarly debate.\ — Adam Swift\ \ \ \ \ Theory and Research in Education\ - Adam Swift\ This is an important and ambitious book. It is important because it challenges head on, and in a serious, non-polemical but engaging and lively way, the widely held view that politics should fundamentally be concerned with the protection and promotion of individual freedom of choice. It is ambitious because its 180 pages not only present a distinctive theoretical framework for thinking about the relation between state regulation and individual choice but also illustrate that framework by applying it to a range of topics, many of which have been the subject of extensive scholarly debate.\ \
