Description
Book SynopsisTo what extent should government be permitted to intervene in personal choices? This book charts a middle course between freedom-oriented anti-interventionism and equality-oriented social welfare, presenting a way to structure choices that equalize opportunities while protecting the freedom of individuals to choose among them.
Trade Review"This is an important and ambitious book. It is important because it challenges head on, and in a serious, non-polemical but engaging and lively way, the widely held view that politics should fundamentally be concerned with the protection and promotion of individual freedom of choice. It is ambitious because its 180 pages not only present a distinctive theoretical framework for thinking about the relation between state regulation and individual choice but also illustrate that framework by applying it to a range of topics, many of which have been the subject of extensive scholarly debate."--Adam Swift, Theory and Research in Education "Sigal Ben-Porath's thought-provoking book Tough Choices, advances a thoughtful and systematic defense of structured paternalism in several domains, including the regulation of intimacy, the treatment of children, the treatment of members of minority cultural groups, and school choice... Ben-Porath's structured paternalism is devoid of much of what critics find alarming about paternalism and offers novel solutions to pressing issues facing policymakers."--Jennifer M. Morton, Educational Theory
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Chapter 1: To Choose or Not to Choose? 1 Chapter 2: Why Paternalism Is Good for You 18 Chapter 3: The Regulation of Intimacy 43 Chapter 4: Paternalism toward Children 66 Chapter 5: Exit with Caution: On Culture and Choice 89 Chapter 6: School Choice as a Bounded Ideal 123 Conclusion: Structured Paternalism and the Landscape of Choice 144 Notes 153 Index 175
