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What is the point of behavioural public policy? A contractarian approach
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Chater, Nick (2022) What is the point of behavioural public policy? A contractarian approach. Behavioural Public Policy . doi:10.1017/bpp.2022.2 ISSN 2398-063X. (In Press)
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2022.2
Abstract
Many proponents of behavioural public policy work within a broadly consequentialist framework. From this perspective, the ultimate aim of public policy is to maximise utility, happiness, welfare, the satisfaction of preferences, or similar; and the behavioural aspect of public policy aims to harness a knowledge of human psychology to make this maximisation more effective. In particular, behavioural insights may be crucial to help policy-makers ‘save us from ourselves’ by helping citizens avoid falling into non-rational choices, for example, through framing effects, failures of will-power, and so on. But an alternative reading of the psychological literature is that human thoughts and actions are not biased from a rational standard, but are simply systematically inconsistent. If so, then utility and similar notions are not well defined either for individuals or as an objective of public policy. I argue that a different, contractarian viewpoint is required: that the determination of public policy is continuous with the formation of agreements we make with each other at all scales, from momentary social interactions, to linguistic and social conventions, to collective decisions by groups and organisations. Behavioural factors do not over-ride, but can (among many other factors) inform, our collective decision-making process. The point of behavioural insights in public policy is primarily to inform and enrich public debate when deciding the rules by which we should like to live.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Behavioural Science Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Behaviorism (Political science), Public policy, Policy sciences -- Psychological aspects, Economics -- Psychological aspects, Economic policy -- Psychological aspects, Social policy -- Psychological aspects | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Behavioural Public Policy | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 2398-063X | ||||||||
| Official Date: | 2022 | ||||||||
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| DOI: | 10.1017/bpp.2022.2 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | In Press | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 19 January 2022 | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 19 January 2022 | ||||||||
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