Welfare-Consequentialism: A Vaccine for Populism?

Resource type
Author/contributor
Title
Welfare-Consequentialism: A Vaccine for Populism?
Abstract
Forthcoming, The Political Quarterly.This article is about two ideologies. Welfare-consequentialism holds that government should adopt the policies that can rationally be expected to maximize aggregate welfare. Populism states that society is divided into a pure people and a corrupt elite, and holds that public policy should express the general will of the people. The responses of world governments to the coronavirus pandemic have clearly illustrated the contrast between these ideologies, and the danger that populist government poses to human well-being.I argue that welfare-consequentialism offers a vaccine for populism. First, it rebuts populism’s claims about who government is for and what it should do. Second, the pessimism and distrust that make people crave populism can be satiated by successful welfare-consequentialist government. Finally, welfare-consequentialism’s sunny narrative of progress can be just as compelling to people as populism’s dark story has proven to be.
Genre
SSRN Scholarly Paper
Archive ID
3464250
Place
Rochester, NY
Date
2019-10-04
Accessed
9/10/23, 10:33 PM
Short Title
Welfare-Consequentialism
Language
en
Library Catalog
Social Science Research Network
Citation
Semple, N. (2019). Welfare-Consequentialism: A Vaccine for Populism? (SSRN Scholarly Paper 3464250). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3464250
Author / Editor