Public goods, individual action and social context
Abstract
Starting from the premise of a rational human behavior, the article develops an analysis of this type of conduct referring to public assets. In the first section, we will debate different individual strategies concerning the anticipated utility in case of agreement, insisting upon the advantages, disadvantages and risks generated by different types of strategies. The second section approaches the theory of public assets and the importance generated by different sorts of reasoning connected to "the clandestine passenger". The last section of the article points out the importance of the social contract through the state's double role: that of being a "protective" and a "productive" state at the same time.References
Buchanan, J. M. (1985). Liberty, Market and the State, New York, New York University Press.
Buchanan, J. M. (1986). The Constitution of Economic Policy, Lecture to the Memory of Alfred Nobel, www.nobelprize.org/nobel prizes/economics/ laureates/ 1986, accessed on 30th September 2012
Buchanan, J. M. (1997). Limitele libertăţii. Între anarhie şi Leviathan. Iaşi, European Institute Publishing House.
Gilbert, M. (2006). Rationality in Collective Action, in “Philosophy of the Social Sciencesâ€, 36, 1, pp.3-17.
King, R. F. (2005). Strategia cercetării, Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House.
Lindbeck, A. (2007). The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel (1969-2007), www.nobelprize.org/ nobel_prizes/economics/articles/ lindbeck/index.html, accessed in 25th September 2012.
Solcan, M.R., Buchanan, J. M. (2000), in Stefan-Scarlat, L. (coord.), Dicţionar de scrieri politice fundamentale, Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, pp.53-58.
Şimandan, M. (2008). Perspective critice în filosofia ştiinţei economice (vol. II), Timişoara, Mirton Publishing House.
Åžimandan, M. (2010). Teoria cunoaÅŸterii sociale (second edition), Bucharest, Romanian Academy Publishing House.
*** wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M_Buchanan, accessed in 27th September 2012.
