ABSTRACT
The public domain, the commonweal, public interest, public goods, national interest – busybodies through the ages have tried to tell us as individuals what is good for us. Often ‘we’ resisted, sometimes calling into question the whole notion of a wider collective interest beyond the aggregation of individual preferences. In extreme situations, zealous authorities have compelled individuals to fit, for better or for worse, into predetermined notions of the public good whatever the preferences of individuals. These attempts usually ended in failure after much unpleasantness, the latest example being the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and end of the Cold War. The social engineering capabilities of markets are proving rather more effective instruments of change, as some of the transformations known as ‘globalization’ would indicate. Yet because of the emphasis of free market advocates on individual choice, the element of compulsion and the differential power of private actors in a market setting often remains obscured.
