A Note on the Principle of“Normative Individualism"

According to the principle of Normative Individualism, the evaluation of economicstates and processes should be guided exclusively by the wishes of the individuals whoare seen as the only bearer of values. Despite its intuitive appeal and its almost universalacceptance in normative economics (i.e., Welfare Economics as well as ConstitutionalEconomics), the principle itself has received only scarce, mostly skeptical attention inthe literature. It has even less been discussed from an explicitly evolutionary perspectiveon human preference formation processes. It is argued that it may be made compatiblewith such a perspective if it is transformed into a concept of “developmentalindividualism” that encompasses three sets of criteria, viz. preference-based,opportunity-based and distributive justice criteria...