PATERNALISM:

A fundamental philosophical viewpoint that the private sector (households and businesses) needs to be closely supervised by the public sector (government). In other words, members of society need to be watched over, cared for, and kept out of trouble, like parents watch over, care for, and keep their children out of trouble.

A close philosophical alignment exists between paternalism and the liberal political philosophy. Paternalism implies that government needs to enact laws and regulations that protect the public. In practice, paternalism is usually aimed at protecting workers and consumers (of the third estate) from employers and producers (of the second estate). This paternalistic view is most evident with social regulation (to correct externalities and other market failures), industry regulation (to address the inefficiency of monopoly and market control), and stabilization policies (to correct the unemployment and inflation problems of business cycles).

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PATERNALISM, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: December 6, 2025].

     | nationalization | privatization | exploitation | laissez faire | central planning |

     | liberal | fifth rule of imperfection | command economy | free enterprise | private sector | public sector | third estate |

     | economic systems | political views | ownership and control | four estates | seven economic rules | distribution standards | government functions |

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