Abstract
Libertarian Paternalism is a merger of a paternalistic approach with freedom of choice. The government makes paternalistic efforts to influence the behaviour of general public in order to sway their decisions regarding availing a government policy, and at the very same time, it calls for providing a liberty to opt out. The present paper argues that Libertarian Paternalism doesn't fall within the restraints of libertarianism or paternalism, but rather it seeks to achieve ‘Overlapping Consensus’, an idea formulated by John Rawls. In order to establish the same, the paper, firstly, points out that libertarian paternalism is a ‘political conception’ which is an element required to achieve overlapping consensus. Libertarian Paternalism also appears to be fair; it gives the impression of an operational political conception of justice. Further, the option to opt out provides general public with the freedom to avoid undesirable policies, making it possible to achieve a willful consensus. Thus, The Libertarian Paternalists provides for maximum consensus and minimization of conflicts by employing ‘willful consensus’ and ‘theoretic minimalism’. Also, the practical implementation of Libertarian Paternalism is made by the Nudge Departments in India, e.g., Niti Ayog policies. Further, the Federal and start government in the United States with the help of Nudge Units have also incorporated several nudge policies in their legislation. Three major objections to Libertarian Paternalism addressed by Sunstein: 1st objection has been raised by John Rawls in the form of a ‘publicity principle’; according to him the government shall not make any rules or regulations for its citizens that cannot be publicly defended by it. 2nd objection is that in certain situations, the neutrality of the government becomes the right of the people and, in such a situation, the government shall not even provide a weak paternalistic steer. The 3rd objection comes from Edmund Burke who suggests that a major difficulty and hubris is that the government is to frame its policies on the bases of theory rather than putting faith on practices.
Recommended Citation
Singh, Abhay
(2018)
"Nudging towards Overlapping Consensus - Analyzing Libertarian Paternalism,"
National Law School Journal: Vol. 14:
Iss.
1, Article 11.
Available at:
https://repository.nls.ac.in/nlsj/vol14/iss1/11