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.Paternalism is based on the notion that the world is imperfect, that people make mistakes, that markets fail, and that individual decisions do not necessarily result in the best outcome for people or the economy. 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). Check Out These Related Terms... | nationalization | privatization | exploitation | laissez faire | central planning | Or For A Little Background... | liberal | fifth rule of imperfection | command economy | free enterprise | private sector | public sector | third estate | And For Further Study... | economic systems | political views | ownership and control | four estates | seven economic rules | distribution standards | government functions | Recommended Citation: PATERNALISM, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: December 16, 2025]. |
