The illusion of discretion

Recent writers have invoked the idea that epistemic rationality gives us options in an attempt to show that we can exercise direct doxastic control without irrationality. Specifically, they suggest that when the evidence for p is sufficient but not conclusive, it would be rational either to believe p or to be agnostic on p, and they hold that we can in these cases effectively decide to form either attitude without irrationality. This paper argues against the version of epistemic permissivism (``Discretion'') invoked by these writers and shows that other defensible permissivisms do not support their cause. It proceeds as follows. §1 introduces the issue. §2 undermines two arguments for Discretion and uses some lessons from their failure to mount an argument against Discretion. §3 presents a further argument against Discretion. §4 offers an error theory to explain our misguided attraction to Discretion. §5 explains why other defensible permissivisms do not help to support the view that we can exercise direct doxastic control without irrationalit

Discretion and Its Limits—An Analytical Framework for Understanding and Applying the Duty of Care to Corporate Directors (and Others)

This Article begins with an examination of the peculiar state of corporate directors and their duty of care. It next examines discretionary authority and its limits, including the question of whether discretionary authority might be merely an illusion, or perhaps a by-product of other interests sought to be served. I conclude that it is neither. This Article next analyzes the claim of corporate directors to discretionary authority. It proposes and tests against typical cases standards of conduct that measure two crucial factors, limits of discretion and economic utility. Finally, it explores the adaptability of the proposed tests to the current legal framework

H.L.A. Hart’s "The concept of law" and the moderate indeterminacy thesis reconsidered

In this article the author, in the context of the fiftieth anniversary of H.L.A. Hart’s “The Concept of Law”, reconsiders the moderate indeterminacy of law thesis, which derives from the open texture of language. For that purpose, he intends: first, to analyze Hart’s moderate indeterminacy thesis, i.e. determinacy in “easy cases” and indeterminacy in “hard cases”, which resembles Aristotle’s "doctrine of the mean"; second, to criticize his moderate indeterminacy thesis as failing to embody the virtues of a center in between the vices of the extremes, by insisting that the exercise of discretion required constitutes an “interstitial” legislation; and, third, to reorganize an argument for a truly “mean” position, which requires a form of weak interpretative discretion, instead of a strong legislative discretion

Is morality an illusion?

For well over two millennia, philosophers and theologians assumed that morality presupposed compliance to a set of ideals used for the regulation of human conduct, in consideration for other individuals with whom a moral agent shared his or her social space. Accordingly, ethical inquiry was pursued with the primary aim of discovering these ideals. Beginning from the second half of the 19th century, however, Charles Darwin (1871) redefined morality as an innate trait evolved by biological organisms in their struggle for existence in otherwise hostile primordial environments. Subsequent moral theory, fed by the naturalistic temper of post-modernism, and its new conception of freedom, developed an individualist ethics, whereby morality is to be left at the discretion of the individual. The assumption is that each individual can only automatically elicit the appropriate behaviour as the need arises, owing to their biological moral constitution endowed by natural selection. This has, to a very large extent, made Western ethical theorists to focus, rather narrowly, on the biological explanation of the evolutionary mechanisms of moral behaviour, viewing human morality as a biological illusion prompted by genes. This paper addresses this issue through the re-examination of the meaning of morality, as well as that of ethics. It explored and delineated some basic indices that it considered essential for proper characterisation of human morality. It argued that, under any judicious reckoning, morality, being a phenomenon that fundamentally arises and goes on in the concrete daily concerns of humans, is a factor that gives human existence and interaction its meaning. As such, morality, adequately conceptualized and understood within its social context and framework, is not an illusion. This connection is to be taken into cognizance for ethical inquiry to remain a worthwhile exertion.KEYWORDS: Ethics; evolutionary biology; human; illusion; moral reasoning

A Note on International Fiscal Policy Practices

The paper proposes an overview of the literature in fiscal policies as well as a comparative assessment in an international context. A large section addresses the specific question of the European fiscal rule, namely the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP).

Tax Decentralisation and local Government size

The aim of this paper is to re-examine the relationship between fiscal federalism and the size of local governments. Traditionally, the empirical studies have focused on the different accountability power of grants and local taxes, concluding that the former encourages the growth and the latter contributes to contain local public spending. Yet, the existing literature is more silent about the possibility that different types of tax autonomy may still have differential impacts on the expansion of the local public sector. The paper addresses this issue by introducing a new testable hypothesis - the “Tax Separation Hypothesis” (TSH) - according to which tax decentralisation organised on tax bases used only by local governments would favour most the containment of local public expenditures, while that organised on tax base sharing (i.e. piggybacking mechanisms) is not expected to have a significant impact on the local government size. Using an unbalanced panel data set of OECD countries, we adopt the novel approach of disentangling the impact of local taxes - on income, property, and goods and services - on the size of the local public sector. In particular, property taxes only - mostly based on a “tax separation” scheme - seem to have a negative impact on the size of local government. Instead, both income taxes and general taxes on goods and services – often shared with central governments – have uncertain impacts on the size of local governments (and more frequently positive). We conclude that tax decentralisation is a necessary condition to contain local public expenditures, yet it is not sufficient, as a tax separation scheme would in fact be required.Fiscal decentralisation; Tax sharing; Tax separation; Property taxes; Local government size.