Imposing values : an essay on liberalism and regulation / N. Scott Arnold.

"First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 2011"--Title page verso.

Originally published: 2009.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Rights, public goods, and externalities -- Two views of the proper role of government -- Fundamental rights -- Public goods -- Externalities -- Private and public property -- Ownership of productive assets -- Tax policy -- Transfer programs -- Liberal conceptions of private property -- Ownership of productive assets and personal property : some traditional incidents -- The right to manage -- The right of disposition -- Ownership of labor and human capital -- Self-ownership -- The modern liberal regulatory agenda -- Economic regulation -- Noneconomic regulation and the modern liberal regulatory agenda -- Common ground arguments -- Presuppositions of a market economy -- Fundamental rights and negative externalities -- Public goods problems and public goods arguments -- Public goods and collective values -- Regulation and collective values -- Regulatory public goods -- The private provision of regulatory public goods -- Nonmedical consumer product safety -- Occupational licensure -- Land use regulation -- Regulation of the employment relation -- Conversion arguments : employment law -- Conversion arguments -- Minimum wage and overtime pay -- Equal pay for equal work -- Family and medical leave -- Regulation of collective bargaining -- Conversion arguments : antidiscrimination law -- Discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin -- Sex discrimination -- Age discrimination -- Discrimination on the basis of disability -- Conversion arguments : health and safety regulation -- Occupational safety and health regulation -- Consumer product health and safety regulation : the Food and Drug Administration -- Nonmedical consumer product health and safety regulation -- Occupational licensure -- Conversion arguments : land use regulation -- The Endangered Species Act -- Section 404 of the Clean Water Act -- Imposing values -- Deciding on the proper scope of government -- Public justification -- The problem of faction and its relevance -- The transparency requirement -- Applications -- The antidiscrimination regulatory regime -- The occupational safety and health regulatory regime -- The medical products regulatory regime.

"A major question for liberal politics and liberal political theory concerns the proper scope of government. Liberalism has always favored limited government, but there has been wide-ranging dispute among liberals about just how extensive the scope of government should be. Included in this dispute are questions about the extent of state ownership of the means of production, redistribution of wealth and income through the tax code and transfer programs, and the extent of government regulation." "One of N. Scott Arnold's goals is to give an accurate characterization of both modern liberalism and classical liberalism, explaining along the way why libertarianism is not the only form that classical liberalism can take. The main focus of Arnold's book, however, concerns regulation - specifically, the modern liberal regulatory agenda as it has taken shape in contemporary American society. This is the set of regulatory regimes favored by all modern liberals and opposed by all classical liberals. It includes contemporary employment law in all its manifestations, health and safety regulation, and land use regulation. The heart of the book consists of a systematic evaluation of arguments for and against all the items on this agenda. There are good arguments on both sides for most of these regulatory regimes. But someone's vision of the proper scope of government must ultimately prevail. Arnold identifies and argues for a number of procedural requirements that all liberals can agree must be satisfied before one side legitimately imposes its values on the polity at large. These procedural requirements are then applied to the various elements of the modern liberal regulatory agenda. He argues that many, though not all, of these elements have been illegitimately imposed on American society."--Publisher description.