Overall Freedom and Socio-Economic Regimes

• Applicant: Ronen Shnayderman, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Practical Philosophy
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 264393380

The ultimate objective of my proposed research project is to write a book whose main goal is to answer one of the most enduring questions in the realm of political philosophy (as well as normative economics): Which particular socio-economic system would maximize the overall individual freedom of the people living under it? In order to achieve this goal I need first to answer the following two sub-questions: (1) What does it mean exactly to be free (and unfree) to do a specific thing? (2) How can we measure how much overall freedom a person enjoys by virtue of the specific freedoms (and unfreedoms) she possesses? Given that currently I am completing a study that addresses the first of these two sub-questions (regarding specific freedom), the first step in my proposed research project would be to address the second sub-question (regarding overall freedom).The second step in my proposed research project would be to study, in the light of my planned research concerned with the issue of overall freedom and my current research concerned with the issue of specific freedom, the impact that various socio-economic institutions, such as transfer payments, basic income, unemployment benefits, and labour laws relating, for example, to minimum wage and working hours, have on people's freedom within a given society.The third step in my proposed research project would then be to write the aforementioned book which will draw on (1) my current research on the issue of specific freedom, (2) my planned research on the issue of overall freedom (step one of this proposal), and (3) my planned research on the effect that certain socio-economic institutions have on our overall freedom (step two of this proposal). Apart from further elucidating these issues, writing this book would also involve a much more extensive and systematic comparison of the degree of overall individual freedom that we would typically enjoy under various socio-economic systems.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants