Soft Paternalism

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Soft paternalism is a political philosophy that believes the state can help you make the choices you would make for yourself-if only you had the strength of will and the sharpness of mind. But unlike 'hard' paternalists, who ban some things and mandate others, the softer kind aims only to skew your decisions, without infringing greatly on your freedom of choice. The term libertarian paternalism is intended to evoke the idea that soft paternalism is an approach to public policy that can be endorsed by libertarians because it does not abridge individual freedom, though some self-described libertarians are firmly opposed to it.