Public decisions in the Scottish Enlightenment tradition

Abstract

Provides a discussion of the spontaneous order approach to the making of the future European constitution. We thus investigate the normative content of collective decisions in the Scottish Enlightenment tradition. Conditions of rightness depend on very strong assumptions. They shape a system of natural law as a local public good. When Humean sympathy ensures homogeneous preferences, it prevents free‐riding and rent‐seeking as well. In this quite specific context, spontaneous order would also bridge the gap between the is and the ought. However, attempts to enlarge the size or scope of such societies would require a formal contractual order. But the latter would have to define what rightness a priori means.