Hayek on the Use of Superior Expert Knowledge as a Justification for
Paternalism
<http://volokh.com/2009/10/14/hayek-on-the-use-of-superior-expert-knowledge-as-a-justification-of-paternalism/>
Ilya Somin <http://volokh.com/author/ilya/> . October 14, 2009 7:28 pm
In my most recent post on paternalism
<http://volokh.com/2009/10/14/pitfalls-of-paternalism/>, I criticized
claims that paternalistic policies can be justified on the grounds that
government-appointed experts have greater knowledge than consumers and
are less likely to be influenced to cognitive error. Among other points,
I emphasized that government experts have no way of determining how much
benefit consumers get from potentially risky products and therefore no
good way of deciding which products should be banned or restricted on
the grounds that their costs outweigh their benefits. In a recent
e-mail, NYU economist Mario Rizzo (himself a leading academic critic of
paternalism) points out that F.A. Hayek made a similar point in his
classic 1945 article, "The Use of Knowledge in Society"
<http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw1.html>:
It may be admitted that, as far as scientific knowledge is
concerned, a body of suitably chosen experts may be in the best
position to command all the best knowledge available---though this
is of course merely shifting the difficulty to the problem of
selecting the experts. What I wish to point out is that, even
assuming that this problem can be readily solved, it is only a small
part of the wider problem.
Today it is almost heresy to suggest that scientific knowledge is
not the sum of all knowledge. But a little reflection will show that
there is beyond question a body of very important but unorganized
knowledge which cannot possibly be called scientific in the sense of
knowledge of general rules: the knowledge of the particular
circumstances of time and place. It is with respect to this that
practically every individual has some advantage over all others
because he possesses unique information of which beneficial use
might be made, but of which use can be made only if the decisions
depending on it are left to him or are made with his active cooperation.
Hayek's point was directed at arguments for socialist central planning
(common in Hayek's time). But it applies with almost equal force to
modern expertise-based arguments for paternalism. Last year, I discussed
the broader relevance of Hayek's thought to our own times in this post
<http://www.volokh.com/posts/1217058723.shtml>. In a follow-up post
<http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_07_27-2008_08_02.shtml#1217222147>,
I argued for the modern relevance of Hayek's critique of conservatism
<http://www.fahayek.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46>.
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