''Free Market Fairness'' is a 2012 book of
political philosophy written by
John Tomasi
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, former Professor of Political Philosophy at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
. Tomasi presents the concept of "free market fairness" or "market democracy," a middle ground between
Friedrich Hayek and
John Rawls's ideas. The book was widely reviewed.
Content
Tomasi looks at followers of
Friedrich Hayek on the right and
John Rawls on the left, only to conclude that both views are not mutually exclusive.
[Richard N. Cooper]
Free Market Fairness
''Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
'', November/December 2012 Taken together, they can lead to "free market fairness" or "market democracy", whereby the government is not prescriptive, but makes sure opportunities are available to all.
Tomasi's
fusionist
In American politics, fusionism is the philosophical and political combination or "fusion" of traditionalist and social conservatism with political and economic right-libertarianism. The philosophy is most closely associated with Frank Meyer.
...
-inspired project combines a foundational commitment to social justice with a foundational commitment to private economic liberty. Tomasi calls this hybrid "market democracy" and he holds it up as a moral rival to familiar conceptions of social democratic justice. "Free Market Fairness" is a leading text of the movement known as "Bleeding Heart Libertarianism," which seeks to combine a commitment to economic liberty with a commitment to social justice.
Critical reception
Writing for ''
The Wall Street Journal'', Adam Wolfson suggested, "Mr. Tomasi's book is emphatically a work of political theory, not a blueprint for political action, much less a catalog of policy solutions."
[Adam Wolfson]
Occupy Common Ground
''The Wall Street Journal'', March 29, 2012
In the peer-reviewed academic journal "Political Theory," Elizabeth Anderson describes "Free Market Fairness" as launching "a major research program - Market Democracy." Anderson writes, "market democracy offers a refreshing change from stale debates within libertarian and high liberal ideal theory. Tomasi is right to stress that the economy is an important domain of liberty wrongly denigrated by high liberals, as distributive justice has been wrongly denigrated by libertarians." In a review in the European journal "Res Publica," Alan Thomas calls Free Market Fairness "a landmark publication in political philosophy." Thomas writes "It deserves many readers for its clarity, intelligence, openness to the ideas of others and yet insistence that the classically liberal tradition deserves to be represented alongside the standard options in recent political philosophy."
[ Res Publica (2013) 12:381-385] In ''
The Financial Times'',
Samuel Brittan
Sir Samuel Brittan (29 December 1933 – 12 October 2020) was an English journalist and author. He was the first economics correspondent for the ''Financial Times'', and later a long-time columnist. He was a member of the Academic Advisory Council ...
criticized this, adding, "Unfortunately the book does not live up to its splendid introduction."
[Samuel Brittan]
Free Market Fairness
''The Financial Times'', May 6, 2012 He concluded, "Tomasi describes free-market fairness as a research programme rather than a fixed dogma. There is clearly a lot more to research."
In ''Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews'', Andrew Koppelman, a Professor of Law at
Northwestern University, suggested, "Tomasi's book is a useful corrective to both Rawls and Hayek."
[Andrew Koppelman]
Book review: Free Market Fairness
''Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews'', May 5, 2012 However, he argued that Tomasi's ideas were at times unrealistic, warning, "Ideals can be dangerous if too far removed from the realities of human life."
Similarly, ''
The Boston Review'' published a nuanced review, commenting, "The book is written in a friendly, relaxed tone," but adding that his arguments were not "persuasive."
[Martin O'Neill, Thad Williamson]
Free Market Fairness
''The Boston Review'', November 5, 2012 They concluded by disagreeing with Tomasi, concluding, "The moral goods of exercising freedom through market activities would be more widely realized under a regime of Rawlsian property-owning democracy than under the sort of minimally regulated capitalism that Tomasi celebrates."
In the peer-reviewed academic journal ''
Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society'',
Mark Pennington
Mark Pennington is a British political scientist and economist. He serves as a Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy at King's College London.
Early life
Pennington received a PhD from the London School of Economics. His thesis, dated ...
, a Professor of Political Economy at
King's College, London suggests the book "offers a challenging and innovative case for classical liberalism."
[Mark Pennington, ealistic Idealism and Classical Liberalism: Evaluating Free Market Fairness ''Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society'', 08 Oct 2014] In another peer-reviewed academic journal, ''
The Journal of Politics'', Eric MacGilvray, a Professor of Political Science at
Ohio State University offered a similarly positive review, starting with "I find a lot to praise in Free Market Fairness."
[Eric MacGilvray]
''The Journal of Politics'', Volume 75, Issue 02, April 2013 He went on to critique Tomasi's use of the word "libertarian" as both pro-free market and "high liberal."
Moreover, in ''
The Mises Review'', the journal of the libertarian think tank
Ludwig von Mises Institute,
David Gordon praised the book, adding "every reader of his book will learn a great deal from it."
[David Gordon]
Free Market Fairness
, ''Mises Review'', Volume 18, Number 1, January 2012
Critical Symposia on Free Market Fairness have been hosted by "Bleeding Heart Libertarianism" (bleedingheartlibertarianism.com). The Journal of Politics, Critical Review, and Res Publica.
References
{{Reflist
2012 non-fiction books
Political books
Political philosophy
Conservative media in the United States
Princeton University Press books