The Term Paternalism

The term paternalism by its definition refers to the attitude or actions of a person, organization, etc., that protects people and gives them what they need but does not give them any responsibility or freedom of choice. In the article Libertarian Paternalism is Not an Oxymoron the two authors challenge the popular idea that under some specific conditions, paternalism does not try to breach the individual’s freedom of choice. According to them paternalism is not something that involves coercion and it can be assimilated in the liberal characteristics of our society. First of all they try to explain how individual choices made by those individuals do not necessarily have to be the right choices. When talking about rationality of choices, people tend to believe that individuals behave as other people expect them to. Authors make few examples demonstrating that this assumption is usually not true. We are frequently irrational and inconsistent and we do not always act to maximize our well-being. In situations that are often crucial for our living activities, we hire a third party or in any sense bring the presence of a third party that can be an impartial expert in the field, to help us make the optimal result. Also the two authors bring up the issue of paternalism being discussed from a moral point of view, stating that paternalism should rather be discussed from a pragmatic standpoint. The problem is not whether paternalism is moral or not, but since paternalism is unavoidable, what can people do to make it acceptable in the society. Libertarian paternalism insists on preserving choice and makes it relatively costless for people to obtain their preferred outcomes or it sets higher cost to prevent people from making choices that are not in their best interest. Analyzing the system of costs and benefits and also adopting rules to choose among various options are two possible ways how libertarian paternalists make right choices. Authors argue the idea that paternalism