Generalized social welfare functionals: Welfarism,morality and liberty

The concept of a generalized social welfare functional (GSWFL) is introduced to permit the integration of appealing moral principles into the traditional Pareto-inclusive welfarist framework of utilitarianism and welfare economics. Attention is focused on a so-called liberal utilitarian GSWFL which incorporates libertarian rights within the utilitarian calculus in a fashion reminiscent of J. S. Mill's philosophy. It is suggested that welfarist social choice theory may be a far more powerful and flexible tool of political and economic analysis than is commonly thought.Revised version of a paper presented at Summer Public Choice Institute held under the auspices of the Council for Philosophical Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, July 29–August 19, 1984. The Author would particularly like to thank Nick Baigent, Bill Harper, Prasanta Pattanaik, John Rawls, Amartya Sen, Robert Sugden, John Weymark and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. Financial support in the form of Killam and SSHRC Fellowships is gratefully acknowledged