Consequentialist arguments favor liberalism because in practice, it works and other things don’t. Most of my arguments for institutions are consequentialist. Economic justifications are consequentialists.
I think consequentialists get stuck thinking liberalism fails because, sitting in an armchair, they can imagine giving unilateral power to someone to break by liberal rules and then imagine this results in more good. But in practice, that power rarely works as intended, and it gets captured by people who use it for bad ends or use it incompetently. So, I think consequentialism + robust political economy → liberalism.
Consequentialist arguments favor liberalism because in practice, it works and other things don’t. Most of my arguments for institutions are consequentialist. Economic justifications are consequentialists.
I think consequentialists get stuck thinking liberalism fails because, sitting in an armchair, they can imagine giving unilateral power to someone to break by liberal rules and then imagine this results in more good. But in practice, that power rarely works as intended, and it gets captured by people who use it for bad ends or use it incompetently. So, I think consequentialism + robust political economy → liberalism.