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Abstract
'Minimal liberalism', in Sen's strict definition, is impossible, because any 'social state', once chosen, freezes all of its components, thereby removing any prospect of further assignment of choice-making authority

Western visitors to those parts of the world that before 1991 were politically organized as the Soviet Union have been impressed by the attitudes of persons toward behavior in ordinary exchanges, attitudes that seem to be so different from those in Western economies. The essential elements of an "exchange culture" seem to be missing, and this absence, in itself, may be central to the effective functioning of market economies. Individual participants in ordinary exchange relationships in Western economies act as if they understand the simplest of all economic principles, namely, that there are mutual gains from trade, that the benefits are reciprocal, that exchange is a positive-sum game. This "as if" understanding, which remains perhaps below our level of consciousness in the West, is largely missing from the public attitudes of citizens of the former Soviet Union, who behave as if the gains from trade do not exist, or at least are one-sided rather than mutual.

Der Verfasser problematisiert einleitend Normen für die Beurteilung von Markt- oder Politikversagen. Er behandelt im folgenden am Beispiel negativer externer Effekte Erfolgsaussichten unterschiedlicher politischer Korrektive, wobei als Maßstab die Effizienznorm verwendet wird. Es wird gezeigt, daß zur Realisierung potentieller Effizienzgewinne eine Modifikation der institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen von Wirtschaft und Politik erforderlich sein kann. Abschließend wird auf die Möglichkeit hingewiesen, anstelle der Effizienznorm ein Verteilungskriterium als Grundlage der Bewertung von Marktordnungen und politischen Ordnungen heranzuziehen. (ICE)