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The author discusses the concept of state neutrality through the debate led by political theorists over the last 30 years. The notion of neutrality is presented as crucial for legitimacy & the scope of liberal-democratic government & also as an institutional solution of the rising cultural, religious, & moral plurality of contemporary Western societies. Starting with Rawls's theory of justice, the article continues with Nozick's libertarian criticism, MacIntyre's criticism of liberalism, & the arguments of Sandel, Taylor, & Raz (respectively) about the incompatibility of the concepts of the common good & state neutrality. The author discusses relations between neutrality & the welfare state, plurality of values, public policy, & the common good. In conclusion, the author distinguishes neutrality of principle & neutrality of public policy, advocating for the former understanding of the notion of neutrality. 22 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author looks into the methodological features of public choice theory. Drawing on James Buchanan's contribution, he demonstrates the differences between that kind of approach (often dubbed political economy) vs welfare economics & mainstream economics. Unlike welfare economics, which tries to work out the optimal state of allocation & distribution of economic resources by using certain logical rules based on Pareto principles, or mainstream economics, which tries to identify the improvements in observable economic categories (such as national income or investment consumption), political economy encompasses the process of collective decision making, ie, politics. In this, the efficacy criterion is the extent of consent (consensus) in collective decision making. The author concludes that Buchanan & G. Tullock's joint contribution in The Calculus of Consent paved the way for introducing a legitimate categorical mechanism for investigating the costs of political decision making in political science. 3 Figures, 25 References. Adapted from the source document.