The Impossibility of Interpersonal Utility Comparisons
Author(s)
Hausman, Daniel M.
Abstract
This essay argues that globalization is not a unique phase in human history, but that it shares two important characteristics with the phase of liberal consolidation in the Nineteenth Century. First, it is altering the relationship between citizens and rulers, much like the bourgeois revolutions of 1848-51. Second, as in the age of imperialism, globalization asserts western values and interests, often in conflict with the t-values and traditions of non-western societies. This parallel allows us to see in the past some of the possible consequences of today’s globalization.
