From liberal to illiberal capitalism: a Keynesian/institutionalist approach. Economics as a moral science

I propose to demonstrate (a) why, intrinsically, collective choices cannot reflect the preferences of all the social groups, and (b) why such choices are necessarily determined by moral and ethical values. From such perspective, I will show how the development of various forms of illiberal capitalism endangers the foundations of democracies and their institutions. In a first part, I will define the main issues of the Social Choice Theories and I will highlight the main contradiction of the individualistic approach. In a second part, I will highlight the historical nature of any social regulation. In a third part, I will design a typology of the different types of regulation. In a fourth part, I will highlight the main characteristics of illiberal capitalism and I will show, from some concrete examples, why the fundamentals of democracy are threatened.

JEL Classification: A13; B15; D71

KEYWORDS:
Collective choice; institutions; democracy; social order