Some Reflections on Liberal Democracy, Political Meritocracy, and Critical Rationalism

06/07/202206/07/2022 Federico Sosa Valle Politics critical rationalism, David Hume, government, human nature, justice, legal norms, legitimacy, liberal democracy, meritocracy, virtue

We live in times in which the liberal democracy is challenged by a sort of political meritocracy according to which a performance legitimacy — i.e., the utility that government management brings to the population – would be more important than the legitimacy of origin, based on the consent of the sovereign people. Thus, economic growth … Continue reading Some Reflections on Liberal Democracy, Political Meritocracy, and Critical Rationalism

Liberal Democracies and Authoritarian Regimes: The Case for Law Enforcement. (Part 10 of 12)

04/22/202104/21/2021 Federico Sosa Valle Law, Liberty authoritarianism, constitutionalism, F.A. Hayek, law enforcement, legal norms, rule of law

However, theorizing about law enforcement takes on vital importance when it comes to considering whether a low level of law enforcement denatures the Rule of Law in such a way that it implies, de facto, a change of regime. That is, when it happens that, under the shell of a constitutional system, an increasingly authoritarian … Continue reading Liberal Democracies and Authoritarian Regimes: The Case for Law Enforcement. (Part 10 of 12)

Liberal Democracies and Authoritarian Regimes: The Case for Law Enforcement. (Part 2 of 12)

04/14/202104/13/2021 Federico Sosa Valle Law, Liberty David Hume, F.A. Hayek, legal norms, virtue

Obviously, there is a whole question of information and transaction costs surrounding the game between empirical social norms and positive legal norms. The former are more agile and immediate, better adapted to the circumstances, but at the same time they are not enough to guarantee peace when the interests at stake gain social relevance. There … Continue reading Liberal Democracies and Authoritarian Regimes: The Case for Law Enforcement. (Part 2 of 12)

Liberal Democracies and Authoritarian Regimes: The Case for Law Enforcement.

This essay aims to highlight that the low generalized application of positive legal norms in any legal system, by allowing greater discretion on the part of the public powers, leads to a gradual increase in the levels of authoritarianism, both on the part of governments and of society itself.

Hayek, or the Recursive Model of the Rule of Law

07/11/202207/11/2022 Federico Sosa Valle History, Law abstract orders, authoritarianism, evolution, F.A. Hayek, legal norms, rule of law, spontaneous order, state sovereignty

What Friedrich A. Hayek sought with his three volumes of Law, Legislation and Liberty was to propose a legal-political system in which the Rule of Law principle would not be de facto replaced by the rule of men through laws (Rule by Law). To do this, he built a recursive model of a legal system whose initial conditions were the … Continue reading Hayek, or the Recursive Model of the Rule of Law

A Reflection on Information and Complex Social Orders

04/10/202004/10/2020 Federico Sosa Valle Current Events, Liberty civil law, common law, coronavirus, democracy, information, pandemics, public health, public policy, rule of law, social orders, technology

In the year 2020, occidental democracies face a time of lock-downs, social distancing, and a sort of central planning based on epidemiological models fueled by testing methodologies. An almost uniform consensus on the policy of “flattening the curve and raising the line” spread worldwide, both in the realms of politics and science. Since the said … Continue reading A Reflection on Information and Complex Social Orders

Institutions, Machines, and Complex Orders (Part 8): Inequality before the law, de facto

06/24/201906/16/2019 Federico Sosa Valle Culture, Law complex orders, coordination problem, F.A. Hayek, François Furet, ideology, incentives, inequality, institutions, Kenneth Minogue, public policy, rationalization, spontaneous order

François Furet, in the preliminary essay that serves as an introduction to The Past of an Illusion, entitled “The Equalitarian Passion,” highlights that in the Ancient Regime inequality was legally consecrated, while after the French Revolution, inequality persists surreptitiously, of contraband, thus cementing a feeling of vindication in the face of illegitimate inequality. Something similar … Continue reading Institutions, Machines, and Complex Orders (Part 8): Inequality before the law, de facto

Institutions, Machines, and Complex Orders

Federico Sosa Valle fgmsosavalle@googlemail.com Introduction Countries can change their course, they can turn from stagnation towards growth, as it is the case of South Korea in the last fifty years. They can also decline after a boom period. Together with other examples of successes and failures, these are indications that economic performance does not depend … Continue reading Institutions, Machines, and Complex Orders

Three Lessons on Institutions and Incentives (Part 5): “Spontaneous” institutions

03/26/201903/24/2019 Federico Sosa Valle Economics, Law autonomy, coordination problem, creative destruction, Daron Acemoglu, F.A. Hayek, incentives, institutions, James Robinson, liberties, Max Weber, rule of law, spontaneous order

When Friedrich A. Hayek referred to the coordination problems among rational agents as a consequence of the dispersion of information in the economic system -and that made him worthy of the Nobel Prize in Economics- he did not refer to an information problem that could be solved with better statistical tools. This is also a … Continue reading Three Lessons on Institutions and Incentives (Part 5): “Spontaneous” institutions

Three Lessons on Institutions and Incentives

Federico Sosa Valle fgmsosavalle@googlemail.com Introduction There are books that are aimed at a spectrum of readers that are counted within the “well-informed public.” They are not books confined to academic circles, they are not for mass consumption, but they do concern problems that involve entire countries and are written in a register that involves certain … Continue reading Three Lessons on Institutions and Incentives